Citizen Nowhere
World première: 12 February 2017
Dutch National Ballet, Het Muziektheater, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Choreography and Concept David Dawson
Music Szymon Brzóska
Set Design Eno Henze
Costume Design Yumiko Takeshima
Light Design Bert Dalhuysen
Film Design Altin Kaftira
Assistants to the Choreographer
Charlotte Chapellier / Rebecca Gladstone
CITIZEN NOWHERE was created as a portrait about childhood, love, immortality, friendship and fear, and about being human during a time in our world history when the ‘lonely modern predicaments of statelessness and extended refugee status seem to diminish the opportunities for so many, but never the humanity of those who live out their existence within them.’
Inspired by The Little Prince, this solo work gives physicality to the philosophy of Antoine de Saint-Exupery. It ‘shows how the solitary existence of being a human is the most precious thing in the world. Even if you are surrounded by a million people, you still experience your own pain. You still experience your own truth, your fear, and your joy. No one can experience those things for you. That is the miracle of being human.’ Though just like in The Little Prince, we sometimes aren’t aware of what we are giving up to move forward.
“For those who are homeless due to the vagaries of history or war or international politics, for those who have departed from one homeland by choice and perhaps found another home elsewhere, for all of us who have left a rose behind or who feel the pull of another star, CITIZEN NOWHERE is an anthem of sorts. It is an affirmation that love, though invisible to the eye, is real. That friendship can be found in the most unexpected of places. That fear can paralyze, but our response to it can liberate and take us far beyond the confines of the worldview into which we were born.”
— Sarah Bringhurst Familia
Together with Brzoska, Henze, Takeshima and Dalhuysen, CITIZEN NOWHERE brings all the elements of the theatrical art form together to create a work of balance and new ‘gesamtkunstwerk’.
