Jana Jacuka - HA - Peteris Viksna
Jana Jacuka - HA - Peteris Viksna

HA

By Jana Jacuka

Sometimes you can only laugh when someone crosses your boundary. And that is exactly what HA explores with vocal extremities: laughter as an escape mechanism.

Through grunts, fry-screams and sounds on inhalations, Jana Jacuka transforms the voice into an extra body part. Armed with the voice as an “extra limb” to create choreography, Jacuka communicates in a way that goes deeper than words. She comes with empty hands. Just the space, her and you... and then suddenly: HA.

“A friend of a friend put a hand around me, ha
I'm feeling insecure but I just went hahahaha”

Choreographer and performer Jana Jacuka creates performances that spring from almost nothing. In doing so, she uses her body, voice and text as starting points. For Jana, the past two years have been about exploring the voice and the letters H and A. She explores how the voice can become an extension of the body, like an extra limb with which she creates choreographies.

Her work has appeared at several venues, including Frascati (NL), Amsterdam Carré (NL), DansBrabant (NL), the AUAwirleben Festival (CH), Kanuti Gildi Saal and SAAL Biennaal (EE), the Homo Novus festival (LV). Jacuka has previously collaborated with Marina Abramović, Dries Verhoeven, Arno Schuitemaker and more. HA won the International Bursary Award (Amsterdam Fringe Festival).

Credits

Choreographer / performer

Jana Jacuka

Mentor

Miguel Melgares

External consultant

Bruno Listopad, Ira Brand

Outside eye / dramaturgical advice

eva susova, Sam Scheuermann, Toni Steffens

Teskt consultant

Joachim Robbrecht 

Text editing in collaboration with

Nicolas Lange

Vocal advisers

Moa Holgersson, Monica Janssen, Maria Magdalena Kozłowska

Graphic designer

Estere Betija Gravere

Photographer

Peteris Viksna