Zuga’s new performance focuses on mental health. Like a big and sensitive animal, it lives in our homes, in our rooms, under our blankets, in our heads. What does it want from us? What does it need? What’s wrong with it?
Every day, young people have war, climate change, daily politics, changing schools, their parents’ divorce and a mean older brother on their minds. That’s enough. It’s even more than enough. But no, let’s add the attention economy, algorithms that demand extreme views and bot armies that spread misinformation. Why then, being aware of all this ourselves as adults, do we still ask young people “What’s wrong with you?”.
The performance “What’s wrong with you?” is created in collaboration with an Estonian mental health advocate Peaasi.ee. Before the creation process, Zuga underwent mental health first aid training and visited schools to discuss the topic with young people.
Young people’s minds seem completely unique to adults. Everything that surrounds young people seems either too big or too small; either terribly good or terribly bad or just plain pointless. Adults are scratching their heads in confusion, some of the best of them have locked themselves in a laboratory to finally figure out how young people’s brains work. They describe their discoveries like this: imagine opening the case of a fully functioning computer; you see wires with plugs at the ends all plugged in somewhere; you close your eyes and pull out some wires so that they are no longer connected and pull out some wires so that one end is still connected to the computer. Imagine that there are millions of these connections and imagine that most of them are either completely or partially disconnected. Now close your eyes and start putting those millions of connections back together in the hope that maybe you will succeed.
Zuga United Dancers is a collective of dancers and choreographers. They have been working on co-creation, audience involvement and addressing social issues through movement for over 20 years. Zuga’s productions are not created in a closed studio, but in real life – in collaboration with communities, children, young people and viewers. Their work is characterized by warmth, exchange and trust in the audience. Their children’s productions have received several theater and dance awards (Salme Reek Award, Draamakese Award, Estonian Theater Annual Award, Independent Performing Arts Award, etc.), and they have performed their productions both in Estonia and abroad.
More information: https://www.stl.ee/en/lavastused/zuga-united-dancers-new-performance
Türi Cultural Center • Hariduse tänav 1, 72210 Türi, Järva maakond, Estonia
