Charleroi Danses

Kiss and Cry is a potent story of love and loss that stars a dexterous duo of dancing hands in ravishing miniature landscapes, their sensual ballet filmed live and screened for a cinematic perspective.

As an ensemble of performers, camera crew and prop manipulators gathers around small-scale sets, a journey through one woman’s memories begins. Enhanced by mesmerising visual effects made live, Giselle’s dreamlike recollections of past romances unfold, the central characters portrayed surprisingly by nimble fingers and hands.

This masterful image-rich show, which is shot and projected simultaneously on a big screen, comes from Belgian filmmaker Jaco Van Dormael and choreographer Michèle Anne De Mey. The husband and wife team draws on contemporary dance, cinematography, puppetry, stagecraft and poetic storytelling to produce a theatrical gem that returns to the Barbican, having enchanted audiences across the globe.