Fish Dance When They Are Not Sleeping (Opera for the Deaf) is an immersive, interdisciplinary opera that emerges from a meeting of two distinct yet equally rich cultures: one grounded in spoken language, the other in the visual-kinetic expressiveness of sign. This collaboration weaves a poetic, surreal journey into an imagined underwater realm, where ethereal, fish-like beings encounter a group of future-bound humanoid travellers. Their meeting unfolds at the threshold between dream and waking, between fluid intuition and hyper-rational clarity, a space where perception, logic, and language dissolve and reform.

This work is both an artistic exploration and a cultural dialogue, a response to the misrecognition often faced by Deaf communities in a world designed for hearing. Rather than translate, it seeks to intertwine: to create a space where gesture and voice, rhythm and vibration, silence and sound, move not in opposition but in resonance.

The libretto includes original work by Ilse Jobse, a celebrated Dutch Deaf sign singer, performer, and actress, whose contributions shape the opera’s sensory and linguistic landscape. Through the integration of motion sensors, vibration, light-responsive technologies, and choreographic language, the piece transcends conventional modes of operatic storytelling. What emerges is not merely a performance, but a new, shared language, a sensorial world where multiple ways of being and knowing are held in balance.

Credits

Phase I
Artistic direction – Jerzy Bielski, Tatiana Rosa, Thomas Brand

Phase II
Artistic direction - Jerzy Bielski and Thomas Brand
Concept, composition, stage directing, libretto - Jerzy Bielski
Dramaturgy, video, visuals, light design - Thomas Brand
Choreography, dramaturgy - Sandra Abouav
Audio programming, live electronics - Tatiana Rosa
Technologr programming - Nikzad Arabshahi
Costumes - Nine van Weert
Libretto - Ilse Jobse
Perfomers - Ali Shafiee, Dennis Massar, Sharon Wesseling, Pawel Moleda, Olga Siemienczuk, Juho Myllylä, Pau Sola Masafrets