Body & Soul

How do we interpret the world around us? How do we respond and react, in our bodies and in our minds? Crystal Pite and Kameron N. Saunders create two powerful works which go to the very core of the human experience.

This bold new programme features the UK premiere of Body and Soul (Part 1) from acclaimed choreographer Crystal Pite, who originally created the piece for Paris Opera Ballet and has worked with companies across the world.

This hypnotic work explores our response to bereavement and the resulting conflicting impulses. It opens with two dancers in black suits and white shirts, bathed in a stark light. They move to a voice, speaking in French, describing their actions. As the words repeat, with loops and echoes, the duet swells to a crowd, seamlessly blending precision and fluidity and morphing to create mesmerising waves of movement across the stage.

With intimate duets set to spoken text, and powerful moments harnessing the energy of a group of dancers, Body and Soul (Part 1) is reminiscent of Pite's acclaimed pieces seen on stage at Sadler's Wells, including Revisor (with Kidd Pivot), Emergence (with National Ballet of Canada) and Figures in Extinction (with NDT and Complicite).