Kassia Undead (2025) - Lara Barsacq

Between archives, fiction, documentary, autobiography and ritual, Lara Barsacq interweaves the tracks like no one else, and brings back into the light and into dialogue with our times some of history's forgotten women. A canonised hymn writer of the Byzantine Empire, Kassia was one of the first female composers of the Middle Ages whose scores have been preserved. Her work inspires the choreographer to make a cultural and temporal journey, a poetic attempt at exchanges with the beyond.

Somewhere between figures and troubadours, eight dancers and/or singers explore the duality between the divine and the demonic, the paths of necromancy and divination, the confluence of East and West, and the sources of polyphonic art. The stage will be draped with canvases and banners inspired by medieval and contemporary imagery. A moving landscape for a journey through time, from the distant past to the near future. M.B.

After Lost in Ballets russes (2018), IDA don’t cry me love (2019), Fruit Tree (2021) and La Grande Nymphe (2023), Kassia Undead is Lara Barsacq’s fifth project.

Kassia Undead premiered from 9 to 11 October 2025 in Théâtre de Liège ; with the performance on October 10 in the frame of Biennale de Charleroi danse and the Objectifs Danse platform.

UPCOMING TOUR DATES

  • 04.11.2025 | Les Brigittines, Bruxelles (BE)

  • 05.11.2025 | Les Brigittines, Bruxelles (BE)

  • 06.11.2025 | Les Brigittines, Bruxelles (BE)

  • 07.11.2025 | Les Brigittines, Bruxelles (BE)

  • 12.12.2025 | December Dance, Koninklijke Stadsschouwburg, Brugge (BE)

  • 17.12.2025 | Cité musicale-Metz, Metz (FR) - Première en France

  • 20.03.2026 | Les Ecuries - Charleroi danse, Charleroi (BE)

  • 21.03.2026 | Les Ecuries - Charleroi danse, Charleroi (BE)

PREVIOUS TOUR DATES

  • 19.06.2025 | Showing / Etape de travail, La briqueterie CDCN, Paris (FR)

  • 09.10.2025 | Théâtre de Liège, Liège (BE) - PREMIERE

  • 10.10.2025 | Biennale de Charleroi danse x Théâtre de Liège, Liège (BE)

  • 11.10.2025 | Théâtre de Liège, Liège (BE)

 

Kassia Undead - a project by Lara Barsacq (creation 2025)

Creation and performance: Marta Capaccioli, Cate Hortl, Tarek Halaby, Aymara Parola, Klara Verkin, Els Mondelaers, Agnès Potié, Emma Laroche
Original music: Cate Hortl
Music: Kassia de Constantinople, Salim Bali
Light design: Estelle Gautier
Artistic advisor: Gaël Santisteva
Voice coaching: Jean-Baptiste Veyret-Logerias
Art historian: Brunella Danna Allegrini
Stage design: Ateliers Indigo - Alexandra Siebert, Alice Forsberg, Clara Vandebotermet, Jean Everarts, Magali Cote, Patricia Calà (accompanied by Lily Sato, Adrien Vermont, Maya de Mondragon, Corinne Chotycki)
Screenprinting: Frédéric Jamagne
Set design intern: Teo Verougstraete
Costumes design: Lara Barsacq
Costumes production: Catherine Somers and the costume workshops of the Théâtre de Liège
Technical direction: Emma Laroche
Sound: Benoit Pelé
Administration & production: Mélanie Jourdan, Myriam Chekhemani, Elisabeth Maréchal (La chouette diffusion)
Communication & distribution: Quentin Legrand (Rue Branly)
Production: Gilbert & Stock
Coproduction: Théâtre de Liège, Charleroi danse - Centre Chorégraphique de la Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles, Les Brigittines, December Dance (Concertgebouw Brugge & CC Brugge), DC&J Création (BE), Cité musicale-Metz, La Briqueterie CDCN (FR)
Residencies: Charleroi danse, Théâtre de Liège, Grand Studio (BE), La Briqueterie CDCN (FR), CSC - Centro per la scena contemporanea (IT)
With the support of Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles, Wallonie-Bruxelles International, Grand Studio, the Tax Shelter of the Belgian Federal Government, and Inver Tax Shelter

Lara Barsacq is artist in residence at Théâtre de Liège (2024-2028) and at Cité musicale-Metz (2024-2026).

Photos: Stanislav Dobak

PRESS EXTRACTS

[ Review ] “After her pieces evoking the Ballets Russes, Lara Barsacq has now turned her attention to Kassia or Cassienne of Constantinople. (...) As usual, Lara Barsacq evokes and invokes this character through dance, music and song. Here, singers, dancers and the director are all on the same stage, switching from one role to another with astonishing ease. Voiceovers invoke Kassia in the hope of seeing her appear on stage, but it is through the eight performers that she will manifest herself. Even more than in previous works, singing and music take centre stage, creating a spellbinding atmosphere where the combination of voices works wonders, but where the use of certain unexpected instruments sometimes enriches the message. The dance, for its part, draws inspiration from this universe. Discreet, it unfolds in fits and starts, beginning with a human chain where we think we detect a few sirtaki movements, then developing, as the songs progress, in the manner of medieval dances, between grace and the grotesque. Sometimes the feet pound the ground in the style of flamenco, sometimes the bodies twist as in medieval bas-reliefs. Far from any linear narrative, Kassia Undead thus revives the spirit of an exceptional woman and achieves an ideal blend of music and movement.”
Jean-Marie Wynants, Le Soir, 14.10.25

[ Review ] “The choreography oscillates between solemn slowness and rapid, disjointed movements. The gestures evoke divinities, funeral figures, processions or fanfares. The percussive strikes of the feet, like frenzied tarantellas, break up the patterns. The bodies, like animated totems, give the stage a hypnotic and sensual intensity. (...) The evanescent nature of this piece is captivating. For me, “KASSIA UNDEAD” is like a perfume. A scent that appears and then fades away, leaving a heady trail. (...) Like each note of this fragrance, each fragment of the piece reveals itself at its own pace. “KASSIA UNDEAD” is a puzzle with finely crafted pieces: sometimes they fit together, sometimes they don't. It is a dance of sensuality, mysticism, invocation and incantation. The piece is carried by a remarkable cast: dancers and singers blend so subtly that it is almost impossible to distinguish their training. This rare porosity reinforces the fluidity of the whole and draws us into a universe that is both real and almost paranormal. (…) This is not a work that seeks thrills or brutal denunciation: its strength lies in subtlety and curiosity. It illustrates what I increasingly perceive in today's performing arts: a form capable of showing the historical and structural violence of the world without resorting to it. Through documentation and sensory experience, it invites us to see the past differently in order to think about and build a future that is, if only a little, more embodied and responsible.”
Lodie Kardouss, pzazz Theater, 14.10.25

[ Lara Barsacq ] “I like to think that Kassia came to me. She appeared during a discussion with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra of Liège, which had asked me to work on a symphonic piece. I wanted to bring in a female composer, and while doing some research on the internet, I came across Kassia, who was presented as one of the first European composers, before Hildegard von Bingen. I found her music extraordinary: liturgical hymns to saints and martyrs, sung with very few instruments. Although this music wasn't suitable for the philharmonic project, Kassia stayed with me. Since then, she has haunted the studio, and today we invoke her on stage. (…) We try to awaken her with macabre dances and steps inspired by the specific and sometimes grotesque gestures of the Middle Ages, knowing full well that we only have our imagination associated with representations to visualise them. Using these elements, medieval iconography and Kassia's songs, we have recreated a new imagery and a new set of gestures, invented through improvisation. These then take the form of tableaux vivants that undergo a metamorphosis. We have worked on slow-motion movements to represent Kassia's return from beyond the grave. Through this piece, we create our own folklore, nourished by fiction and storytelling. In this ceremony, I invoke forgotten women by saying their names, so that they may accompany us, heal us and carry us. I like to believe in the utopia that they will return to soothe us, even if the times are not conducive to the coexistence of differences.”
Lara Barsacq in conversation with Belinda Mathieu, September 2025

[ Lara Barsacq ] “I wanted to discover a work composed by a woman. During my research, I came across Kassia of Constantinople. Her songs moved me deeply: female voices of rare beauty and intensity. (...) I knew then that I wanted to take it further. To create a piece in which her music would be sung live, embodied. (...) Her music is astonishing: very relaxed, sometimes offbeat. It has a unique vocal intensity. The show allows you to discover this sound material, to immerse yourself in the world of the voice and its resonances.”
Interview with Lara Barsacq, Anne Golaz, Nouvelles De Danse, 29.09.25