Bread Breath I Am

About the show:

Bread  Breath  I Am  –  an experimental, high-energy solo performance.

Molly, leads the audience through emotional and personal changes in her life through the act of baking sourdough bread. Overflowing with thoughts and feelings, she shares her inner world directly with the audience. Moving between the practical process of baking and a raw, unfiltered emotional journey

With humor, vulnerability, and absurd musicality, Molly’s transformation unfolds through unconventional storytelling, movement, and (un)spoken word. Her hands are deep in dough, yet she creates space for profound reflection and connection.

Drawing inspiration from the alchemical process of baking, which begins with the seemingly disordered combination of different ingredients and becomes a harmonious whole as the journey of Molly unfolds. The fermentation process, in which co-existing bacteria becomes a metaphor for transformation, highlights different aspects of this change, shifting values, uncertainty, anxiety, societal pressures, and the relentless search for emotional and physical balance.

Society has convinced us to perceive menopause in a negative light, seeing it as  unstable and a diminishing process. This performance reclaims and embraces this transformation through female vision as one of empowerment, growth, wisdom, and creativity.

Bio:

Mati Elias is an Amsterdam-based interdisciplinary artist, former modern dancer and choreographer, working across performance, writing, and visual art. Her artistic background began in visual art, but her path has been multidisciplinary. Finding her voice in modern dance she spent over a decade working as a choreographer and dancer, presenting work internationally in cities such as Amsterdam, Berlin, and New York, supported by cultural grants and subsidies.

With motherhood Mati shifted her focus toward collaborative, community and education Art projects. During the pandemic she returned to her solo performance practice, reigniting her passion for performing and writing, including the text for this solo work. Mati works with an interdisciplinary language, combining movement, theatre and storytelling to create an intimate and unconventional form of storytelling that shapes the concept of her solo practice.

Credits:

Grainne Delanay — Dramaturg and writing coach
Uri Ivgi — Presentation