Fused

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fused was the culmination of an adventurous collaboration. Inspired by the central idea of fusion, three partnerships of composers and choreographers worked together from the initial conception to create pieces that truly unite contemporary dance with original new music.

fused 1

"People are constantly walkining in and out of my life without even noticing that I'm there." Choreographer's diary, aged 14.

Looking at the way individuals interact within a modern European society, this piece takes a narrative form with emphasis on the negative fusion of a group of individuals and specifically asks the questio: can we separate ourselves from normality?

Composed and choreographed by Tom Young and Sharon Hart

Dancers: Katie Fernandez, Katie Grey, John Hainsworth, Sharon Hart, Fiona Lait, Lucia Ruprecht

Regeneration - nearly 100 years ago, in an article about his new art, Kandinsky wrote of "the winds of change blowing across Europe." Now, as we enter the 21st century a gale of contrasting and conflicting ideas and traditions sweeps continually across the world threatening to leave all lands bare or strewn with meaningless fragments. So it sometimes seems. In "Umdanso we Sangoma" a fiery South African and a suave cosmpolitan Scot steeled themselves and locked horns to create an artistic space where different cultures could mee, interact or simply stand apart from each other. Breezes from the Orient, storms from l'Afrique, dreich gusts from ancient Scotia...

Enigmatic and evocative, with an all-powerful presence that allows her to summon and embrace the spirits of the ancestors, the Sangoma (Witch-doctor) is the remnant of our memories, embedded in the now. Zulu diviner, healer and oracle, with her supernatural strength she transcends the realm of the present, bridging the gulf between the past and the future, between flesh and blood and the ethereal, from disease to health. Through incantation, chant, frenzied song and ritual dance she forsees all, bringing resolution.

Composed and choreographed by Iain Morrison and Jina Swartz

Dancers: Lucie Cluver, Katrin Rosswog, Jina Swartz, Joe Wicks

fused 3: Phase-Shift

Given the starting point of fusion, we approached our piece by brainstorming everything that the concept meant to us. From these scribbles, we realised that we were both interested in working with an abstract idea with no associated meanings. With that in mind we took our inspiration from science, and used the idea of phase shifting. We chose the opposites of fluidity and rhythm as our phases, and used music and dance to explore the possibilities of interference. The piece opens by introducing each pure quality and exploring its interference with itself, starting with fluidity. It progresses to one quality interfering with the other, which ultimately leads to complete breakdown. After this we widen the scope to look at the interference between the dance and the music. Both the music and dance take on their own oscillation between fluidity and rhythm. When the two oscillations are superimposed, they shift in and out of synchronisation. The piece eventually resolves back to its original starting point.

Composed and choreographed by Phil Venables and Clare Parfitt

Dancers: Christen Mirth, Clare Parfitt, Jocelyn Phillips, Tamzin Plenty