How does a dance company get a choir? How do fairy tales begin? There was once a group of people who met voluntarily on Saturday mornings to try out things for which there was no money, and therefore no time, with the professional choir of the Madrid Opera. It was the run-up to the production C(H)OEURS (2012) in which the choir played a leading role. The choir in Ghent formed a stand-in with which we could experiment in terms of movement. There was no real singing to be done.
That changed in 2020. Then we were looking for 100 Ghent citizens who would represent the city as a Greek choir in the performance Mein Gent. But singing was the condition because Mein Gent had to be a cross between operetta and popular theatre.
The C(H)OEURS volunteers/singers were joined by members of a choir in Sint-Amandsberg accompanied by composer Steven Prengels. Because the choir members were too one-sidedly white and grey, they could not represent the city of Ghent. We slaved away for more colour, more young people, more diverse profiles.
Until we thought: these are the people who want and can engage in this way. We'll do it with them. When Mein Gent was postponed a first and a second time because of corona, the choir continued to sing on Saturdays and we found new destinations.
To begin with, the laGeste choir sang for the birth of laGeste in the old Maternity Home on Bijlokekaai, where the offices will be rehoused in the future after renovation. That was September 2023.
Afterwards, we joined the parade Wild Carnaval Sauvage for the beginning of spring, an initiative of Arts Centre VIERNULVIER, then still called Vooruit. The Ghent version of 'Die Gedanken sind Frei' was a success.
When the corona pandemic finally subsided, Mein Gent could premiere in the summer of 2023. The 16 performances in De Vooruit's theatre hall were sold out even before the premiere. Meanwhile, the laGeste choir had made itself indispensable. From singing extras, they transformed into rotators of the set, passers-by drawing the urban context, gilets jaunes who would tear things down, and finally movers and buyers for the flea market. For most choir members, the play sequence became a penetratingly intense experience. We could have left it at that.
Only it turned out that the choir was capable of singing increasingly complex scores and remained willing to plunge into increasingly reckless adventures. For instance, the choir was part of Ballrooms, a radical co-creation project with Andrew Graham that introduced the concept of 'mixability' to laGeste. On three Saturdays, the choir took to the dance floor and got noticed with musical interventions inspired by Edith Piaf, The Who and Pina Baush ('Seasons March Dance' by Louis Armstrong). For Andrew Graham's new creation O Amor Natural (premiering January 2025 at De Vooruit), the choir will sing the music from a new composition by Steven Prengels.
The laGeste choir is also open to all kinds of requests, such as Brian Lobel's to take parts in the performance 24 Italian Songs & Arias on 5 and 6 April 2024 at De Vooruit. Also on 1 May, they will be part of Parade of Fire and Abundance, a tour full of animation through Ghent.
They can also be seen and heard again this summer at De Vooruit from 8 July to 17 July for a revival of Mein Gent and during Bijloke Wonderland on 24 & 25 August 2024 (more info later) in STAM's abbey refectory.
We consider the choir our extended family by now. The choir is more than a wonderful accident, it connects us through many stories with the city in which we work and with the people who live there.
