Freddie Ballentine / Kunal Lahiry – Our People

Freddie Ballentine and Kunal Lahiry present Our People, where singing, piano and ballroom come together. With music by Schubert, Purcell and Nina Simone and performers from the Belgian ballroom scene, a performance emerges about identity, loss and pride. Grammy Award-winning tenor Freddie Ballentine and pianist Kunal Lahiry create with Our People a space where music and ballroom converge. Together with performers from the Belgian ballroom scene, they present a performance about the search for who you are - and the power to make that visible. Ballroom, which originated in 1970s and 80s New York within POC queer communities, forms a living practice of expression, identity and community, featuring vogue among other elements as a performative language. The precision and intimacy of chamber music enter into a surprising dialogue with the sharpness and expressivity of movement language. Music and body reinforce each other and open new ways of listening and watching. Freddie Ballentine and Kunal Lahiry invite you to an intrepid musical journey, beyond loneliness, damnation, memory and revolution, towards their final destination: hope. The programme is as 'dazzling' and diverse as the performers themselves: think of Nina Simone, Franz Schubert, Ricky Ian Gordon and Margaret Bonds, among others. In the interaction between singing, piano and ballroom, Our People grows into a shared space where past and present come together.