Between us

Young Sarah Huygens-Jawla, Flemish maker with West-African roots, caught the eye of Julidans. That is because her dance performances are close to the skin, raw, and dramatic. In her work, she walks the thin line between reality and theatre. The performances deal with themes such as identity and gender. The performers' personal stories are always the starting point, which can lead to both recognition and discomfort.

As in Women in Love (2018), women play the leading role in Between Us. Maker and performers go in search of the essence of female energy. The spectator is taken to another world. A world of intimacy and closeness. Huygens-Jawla works with performers from inside and outside the queer community.

-|-In preparation, Huygens-Jawla trained with Atsushi Takenouchi, a worldwide expert in Japanese Butoh dance. It is both a dance and a transformation technique, not only for the body but also for the consciousness. In Huygens-Jawla's case, the movements that emerge from the subconscious are complemented by personal experiences of the performers. Thus, inner self and outward appearance, underworld and upper world come together in an intense performance of love, friendship, being allowed to be yourself, and meeting each other.

Huygens-Jawla graduated from the Hogeschool voor de Kunsten in 2015. She then went in search of her own 'form of creation', taking the personal stories and the bodies of players as her starting point. She feels challenged to bring her black identity into her work to further explore how her identity, with roots in both Europe and West Africa, influences her as a creator. Huygens-Jawla was selected for the New Makers course of the Bijlmer Parktheater and the New Makers Scheme of the Dutch Performing Arts Fund. As part of this course, she developed In Between Us at the Bijlmer Parktheater, a regular partner of Julidans.