Burning Sweetgrass

In this visual and physical performance, Newcomer Collective UMA takes on the inevitable. For although every human being has to deal with death, we in the Netherlands prefer to give our mortality as little space as possible in our lives. In Burning Sweetgrass, UMA tackles this major subject with polyphonic part-song and exhilarating dance, in order to find an answer to the all-encompassing question: how can we live with death?

Stuttering conversations in the auditorium, whispers over cake and coffee, a slideshow of photos where no one knows if crying out loud is appropriate; people rarely behave as uncomfortably as they do at a funeral. What is the richness or poverty of the rituals we have created around death? How does the subdued, sometimes humorously framed Dutch sobriety compare to other cultures such as Creole and Indonesian? Where are you when you die and what role do those who have died play in the lives of the living? In a highly physical performance musically inspired by gamelan, organ music and Japanese advertising tunes, UMA takes the audience on a journey into death.