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Jana Jacuka

HA

Les Printemps de Sévelin | Arsenic

  • 50'
  • G Hearing loops
  • B Accessible to persons with reduced mobility







Choreographer / Performer: Jana Jacuka
Tutor: Miguel Melgares
External Advisors: Bruno Listopad, Ira Brand
Outside eye / Dramaturgy advice: Eva Susova, Sam Scheuermann, Toni Steffens
Text advisor: Joachim Robbrecht
Text editing in collaboration with: Nicolas Lange
Vocal advisors: Moa Holgersson, Monica Janssen, Maria Magdalena Kozłowska
Graphic designer: Estere Betija Gravere
Photographer: Peteris Viksna
Traces left by Stina Force and Amparo Gonzales.







This work would not have been possible without Veronika Abdul-Visocka, DAS Theatre tutor and peer support.
The performance was developed within the context of the DAS Theatre Master Programme, with financial support from the ATD–Aart Janszen Fund (NL) and the State Culture Capital Foundation (LV).


Co-produced by Theatre on Gertrude Street (LV)



“A friend of a friend put a hand around me, ha, I’m feeling insecure but I just went hahahaha.” 

In everyday situations, our boundaries are often crossed, leaving us unsure of how to respond. HA explores the performativity of laughter as an escaping mechanism. 

By stripping away theatrical distractions, Jana Jacuka’s solo work emphasizes the raw and essential elements of performance, inviting the audience to engage with the visceral experience of extreme vocal practices. HA is an investigation of the voice as a choreographic tool. In HA the voice becomes an extension of the body. She grunts, fry-screams, speaks while inhaling and shifts into communication beyond words. 

She vomits sounds out of her body.
She will come empty handed.
It’s just the space,
her and you,
and suddenly
HA 

This work won the International Bursary Award 2025 at Amsterdam Fringe Festival 2025 and was nominated by Latvian Culture awards 100g of Culture / Autumn Theater Season 2025. 

Biography

Jana Jacuka(1995, NL/LV) is a choreographer and performer, recently graduated from the DAS Theater masters programme in Amsterdam. She is curious to create performances almost out of nothing and uses her body, voice and text as the departure points.

For the past two years, she has been exploring the voice and the letters H and A. She investigates how the voice can become an extension of the body—like another limb with which to create choreography—and how it can be used to move the audience. 

Jana’s work HA received the International Bursary Award 2025 at Amsterdam Fringe Festival 2025 and was nominated by Latvian Culture Awards 100g of Culture. Inspired by Jana’s work HA, artist Dries Verhoeven invited her to collaborate on his upcoming work for the Venice Biennale 2026 – Dutch pavilion.