‘‘ Bless the Sound that Saved a Witch like me’’

I want to share a scream with you
I want to share a sound without fences
I want to share this loudness and the silence that comes with
I want to offer you a journey, with no directions, no set conclusions… a journey into the unknown I want to share a breathe
A breathe for I exist For we exist
Like the swallow that flew through our ancestors Like a chain of time, that is the only gesture Lost in space.  

Whether filled with rage, pleasure, pain or silence, screaming is a powerful and profoundly intimate act. It provokes instant empathy that also summons up our most common and instinctive emotions. It opens a crack in space and time.   

Together with performer Sati Veyrunes and composer Yamila Rio Manzanares, Benjamin Kahn examines the means of expression connected to the feeling of emergency. Screaming is less well documented in the history of philosophy and the social sciences. It is mostly equated with anger, hysteria or chaos and is often silenced.   

This solo is an attempt to reappropriate the scream in order to articulate and tame this raw and staggering material. The journey is physical, sonic and aims at making this vital impulse accessible to all, once again.  

"Bless the Sound that Saved a Witch like me" is the second part of a trilogy of portraits, composed by "Sorry, But I Feel Slightly Dissidentified...", a solo for Cherish Menzo and the solo The Blue Hour for Théo Acremanne (2023).  

• Benjamin Kahn (choreographer) is a dancer and choreographer. He studied dramaturgy and theatre at the University of Aix en Provence and the Conservatoire de Rennes, and is a graduate of ESAC (École Supérieure des Arts du Cirque) in Belgium. Since graduating, he has worked with choreographers such as Philippe Saire, Benjamin Vandewalle, Nicole Beutler,  Ben J. Riepe, Frédéric Flamand, Maud Le Pladec, Eglė Budvytytė and Alessandro Sciarroni. 

This show is co-presented with Kaaitheater as part of the It Takes A City festival.