STABAT MATER, the body’s voices

© Alain Scherer

STABAT MATER, the body’s voices

Creation 2026

Ana Pérez and José Sanchez continue their exploration of the Stabat Mater, a medieval poem evoking a woman standing in the face of the loss of her child. This wounded yet upright body embodies both extreme pain and fierce dignity—a vital tension made palpable through flamenco dance, with its expressive and organic power.

Following a first approach as a duet with Stans in 2024, the two artists now develop a new composition for three bodies, one voice, and one musician. Through this secular and contemporary version of the Stabat Mater, they seek to create a dialogue between eras and aesthetics—shaping a living architecture where sound textures, rhythms, songs, and gestures echo, intersect, and layer.

Guitar, voice, and dance form here an inseparable triptych—an organism in resistance, stretched between collapse and resurgence, building a space of struggle, memory, and transcendence. This journey gives shape to a reinvented flamenco, carried by the intense spirituality of the Marian hymn and the power of the feminine.

Choreography: Ana Pérez
Dancers: Ana Pérez, Miranda Alfonso, Marina Paje
Music composition: José Sanchez
Flamenco vocals: Alberto Garcia
Text adaptation (poem rewriting): Frank Merger
Lighting design: Arno Veyrat
Sound manager: Lambert Sylvain
Dramaturgical advisor: Arthur Eskenazi

Co-production (in progress):

Klap, Maison pour la danse, Marseille ; Théâtre Durance – National Stage Château-Arnoux-Saint-Auban ; Ballet National de Marseille studio residency ; Théâtres en Dracénie Draguignan ; Pôle des Arts de la Scène – Friche la Belle de Mai Marseille ; La Manufacture CDCN Nouvelle-Aquitaine Bordeaux – La Rochelle; Boom’Structur – Choreographic Hub; DRAC PACA;
the Haplotés Fund; and the Cléo Thiberge Edrom Foundation.

With the support of the Bouches-du-Rhône Department – Departmental Center for Creation in Residence.
With the support of Centre Soléa and Viavox Production.

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Premiere: January 9 and 10, 2026 at KLAP Maison pour la danse, Marseille, in co-presentation with ZEF Scène Nationale Marseille.