Polina Lyapunova is taking part for the second time in the youth project Muziektheater Transparant, the final performance of which is being shown at De Singel in Antwerp. The team of professionals in the field of directing and performance practices, new every year, recruits singers, dancers, instrumentalists from 15 to 25 years old and creates a musical theatre performance in 2 weeks of intensive work. Not everyone passes the rigorous selection process, but our Polina, with her experience in the “Antwerpriza” theatre and vocal lessons, is in her second year in the temporary troupe of talented young people. For the TransLab (RE)SET production she wrote a song, the performance of which made me tear up involuntarily. Polina embodied the gothic task of taking the place of a girl with the knowledge of early death in the melody of a Slavic woman’s folk lament for her fate (my interpretation) and my unconscious feminine nature plus my mother tongue reacted with tears. Young actors of different ethnic backgrounds are in the project and are free to use their mother tongues. I was also moved by the song in Portuguese.

The team of professionals working with the kids is exceptional in quality and experience. You can talk about each one for a long time and a lot, such are their creative biographies. The Belgian choreographer and dancer Benjamin Vandewalle (a student of Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker) was the main director in 2024. His projects often combine elements of visual art, technology and architecture, and he creates immersive experiences that go beyond traditional dance performances. The retro-futuristic costumes, after interviewing each young actor about their life preferences and interests, were sewn by performance designer and author J Boy. Her artistic practice revolves around the human body and utilises a variety of media including text, sound, installation, textiles and dance. The images she created emphasised the individuality of each while articulating a collective identity.

(RE)SET is a performance about transition, death and rebirth, endings and new beginnings. About establishing and rebooting. About vulnerability, the search for safety, the fear of letting go, of blending in with the group and shutting yourself in for your own world. The adult filmmakers inspired young people with the challenges we all face on our journey today, in times of change and uncertainty, but also gave thought to dreams and their realisation in turbulent times. Muziektheater Transparant is musical and everyone was given the opportunity to express themselves through music and dance, to go through a theatrical transformation. History knows examples of this. The authors of the project drew inspiration from ancient sources such as Ovid’s “Metamorphoses”.