Anneleen Keppens | Lullabye

A lullaby is a gentle form through which difficult things can be expressed, a loving gesture that helps us embrace what is dark or unknown. In the solo performance Lullabye, Anneleen Keppens dances, embodies and sings lullabies about the ambivalence of motherhood and other care practices.

The movement in Lullabye emerges from a body in service. This body fluctuates between carrying and resting, rocking and falling, singing and growling. Strength and vulnerability are so tightly intertwined that they become impossible to distinguish.

Through a scenography that unfolds as a space of rest and support, Lullabye imagines a social fabric in which those who carry in our society are themselves carried. The performance explores the impact of care on a life, while at the same time softening, comforting and connecting.

Credits

Concept, choreography, lyrics, performance Anneleen Keppens

Soundscape Nicolas Rombouts

Scenography Erki De Vries

Textiles and costume Sofie Durnez

Lighting design Meri Ekola

Artistic assistant Peter Savel

Dramaturge Libby Ward

Vocal coach Anja Kowalski

Assistants textile Tabetha Mayet and Hyaejin Lee

Advise interaction scenography Hugo Mega

Production Tender Ground vzw

Coproduction KAAP, NT Gent, Perpodium

With support of Vlaamse Overheid, the taxshelter of the Belgian Federal Government via Cronos Invest

A taste of our creative process

An Encyclopedia of Radical Helping - Edited by Erin Segal, Chris Hoff, Julie Cho "Why do we follow them like sheep in a flock allowing ourselves to be led to the edge of nowhere, without thinking or speaking or resisting, even when our backs are breaking and our bodies heavy with the burdens of life" (Dimple D. Dhabalia)

R.S.V.P - Senga Nengudi "R.S.V.P. I belongs to a series of performance-based sculptures comprising pantyhose that have been ﬁlled with sand and stretched across space. Created as Nengudi observed her body’s changes following childbirth, the work possesses seemingly contradictory qualities; it sags and swells, is fragile and firm. When she ﬁrst made the R.S.V.P. series, the artist and her collaborators performed with the work, stretching and contorting the nylon forms, becoming entangled in and expanding its parts." (moma.org)

MOOTHERR - Laure Prouvost "In Prouvost’s watery, milky world, breasts are imagined as fountains offering a never-ending abundance of nourishment, and the job of maternal nurture becomes a collective act in which the boundaries between mother and other, human and more-than-human soften and blur." (Hettie Judah in Acts of Creation)

Motherload - Tabitha Soren

Als de dieren - Lieselot Mariën "Jij en ik, het had zuiver kunnen zijn, eenvoudig en licht, als wij niet verstrikt waren geraakt in die gruwelijke paradox: de paradox van een liefde zo intens en tegelijk zo onhoudbaar dat ze aan de lucht zelf ontbrandt, als een balsem van witte fosfor op de ziel."

Acts of Creation - On Art and Motherhood - Hettie Judah

Women Holding Things - Maira Kalman "Sometimes, when I am feeling particularly happy or content, I think I can provide sustenance for legions of human beings. I can hold the entire world in my arms. Other times, I can barely cross the room. And I drop my arms. Frozen."

Nightbitch - Rachel Yoder "And later that night, the boy would not sleep. For hours and hours and hours, they lay side by side, dueling. She did not allow herself to growl, to bark ferociously, to show her teeth, to narrow her eyes and pull her ears closer to her skull, though she would have liked to do all these things."

Calendar

10-10-2026

AMOK Festival - KAAP - Bruges - Belgium

Lullabye

Upcoming

11-10-2026

AMOK Festival - KAAP - Bruges - Belgium

Lullabye

Upcoming

29-10-2026

CC De Spil - Roeselare - Belgium

Lullabye

Upcoming

14-11-2026

C O R S O - Antwerp - Belgium

Lullabye

Upcoming

22-05-2027

Leietheater - Deinze - Belgium

Lullabye

Upcoming