Les Oiseaux

Lenio Kaklea

“Les Oiseaux” by Lenio Kaklea invites audiences to see the world from a bird’s perspective. Through seven hybrid figures and a soundscape of birdsong, the piece explores the close relationship between nature and society and the fragility of our ecosystem.The fascination with birds in the western history of dance dates back to the first romantic ballets. But what would a choreography look like that doesn't consider birds as an object of study, but attempts to see the world from their point of view? Driven by this question, choreographer Lenio Kaklea creates a fantastic cosmos, in which seven hybrid creatures engage in a dance of competition and play, accompanied by live-shot images of a flying object and a hypnotic soundscape of birdsongs. “Les Oiseaux” is a fable about the fragility of our ecosystem, in which the boundaries between nature and society become increasingly permeable. 

TicketsFull 30 / 25 / 20 €Reduced 20 / 16 / 12 €We offer a special youth ticket for this performance. Children and young people up to the age of 14 pay a special price of 5 € when accompanied by an adult ticket holder. Additional service fees for booking online with Reservix apply.

Artist's Note by Lenio KakleaA turning point in my artistic practice emerged around 2022. Until then, my work had been rooted in autobiography, autofiction, and the social and political dimensions of movement, within a choreographic language closely tied to feminist struggles. Gradually, I felt the need to move beyond documentary approaches toward a postdramatic and hybrid stage language, bringing together feminist and postcolonial perspectives through diverse materials and practices.This shift marked the beginning of an eco-critical cycle with Αγρίμι (Fauve) in 2023 and “Les Oiseaux” in 2025, both driven by an urgency to address the disappearance of living worlds, the contradictions in our relationship to nature, and the ways these tensions are inscribed in the body.“Les Oiseaux” grew out of a persistent image that had accompanied me for years. Birds occupy a central place in our imagination: they embody freedom, lightness, and utopia, but also cruelty, predation, conflict, and ecological loss. This ambivalence became the foundation of the work, which seeks to move beyond a romantic vision of birds in order to engage with their darker dimensions.My starting point was The Birds by Aristophanes, which tells the story of two humans escaping war and corruption to found a new society among birds. Despite its anthropocentrism and misogyny, the play remains relevant in its central question: how can we reimagine forms of collective life when existing human systems begin to fail?I later expanded my references through Les Guérillères by Monique Wittig, whose hybrid female figures—part human, part animal—opened up ways of thinking the body through uncanniness. From there, I explored questions of coexistence and hybridity: how bodies move together while preserving their singularity, and what it means to inhabit a non-human perspective. Finally, the encounter with scientist Thierry Aubin was decisive for the project, opening it to the study of bird bioacoustics as complex forms of language. Through his research and rare field recordings from inaccessible natural sites, I discovered vast sonic worlds shaped by emotion and communication beyond human understanding. These archives became a rich sonic terrain that we explored further with composer Éric Yvelin.To conclude, I see “Les Oiseaux” as an attempt to imagine a space of transformation and coexistence beyond normative frameworks. In a time marked by ecological collapse, distrust in science, rising populism, and war, choreography becomes a way of rendering these tensions perceptible. Rather than a manifesto, the piece offers an experiential space where audiences can feel, sense, and reconsider the complexity of their bodies and the living world. The stage thus becomes both a space of representation and a site of collective perception—where new intimacies between bodies and identities quietly emerge.

1 h 00 min

Artists/Collaborators: Lenio Kaklea (Choreografie & Regie), Nefeli Asteriou (Von & mit), Liza Baliasnaja (Von & mit), Amanda Barrio Charmelo (Von & mit), Luisa Heilbron (Von & mit), Dimitri Mytilinaios (Von & mit), Raoul Riva (Von & mit), Jaeger Wilkinson (Von & mit), Lou Forster nach “Les Guérilleres” von Monique Wittig und “Les Chimères” von Gérard de Nerval (Text), Eric Yvelin (Sound & Technische Leitung), Clio Boboti (Bühne), Jean-Marc Ségalen (Licht), Olivier Mulin (Kostüm), Thierry Aubin (Wissenschaftliche Betreuung), Christina Sougioultzi (Trapeztraining), Olivier Poujol (Administration & Produktionsleitung), Fanny Virelizier (Distribution), Angeliki Vassilopoulou-Kampitsi (Assistenz Bühnenbild), Angeliki Baltsaki (Dekoration)

Production abdCo-production Charleroi danse – Centre chorégraphique de la Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles, Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) Los Angeles, Le festival d’automne, CCN – Ballet de Lorraine, Théâtre de la Vignette, NEXT Festival, CCN – Ballet National de Marseilleabd receives structural funding from DRAC / Île de France. Supported by Consultation of the 2025 convention of the Institut français of the city of Paris, Montpellier Danse Festival, Atelier de Paris / CNDC, Le Carreau du TempleThanks to the scientific committee of La Pop, ParisWith the kind support of Institut français and the French ministry of culture.

Next date:

• Date Friday, 21/August/2026 20:00 bis 21:15 ( 2 more dates )
• Venue Hebbel am Ufer - HAU2
• Address Hallesches Ufer 32, 10963 Berlin-Kreuzberg
• Price from €22.00

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