ON TOUR: Step Sonic

November 12, 2019

Our brand new production, Step Sonic Part 1 & 2, is now on tour. Featuring an innovative form of live music / music dance, plus three new solos by three choreographers.

For tour dates, see www.tomdale.org.uk/production/step-sonic

PART 1: Step Sonic

Step Sonic aims to explore the hidden sound potential in a dancers movement…to showcase the inherent,
visceral musicality within the dancer’s body and soul. A new live form of dance music.

“Music has played an essential role in shaping new dance aesthetics throughout history but particularly over the last 20 years with the emergence of electronic music. It has been so influential in inspiring me to dance in the first place and then to explore movement styles and aesthetics as a choreographer. The live performance of electronic music is so often non-performative and all you see is the musician pressing some buttons if you’re lucky – I wanted to see how much mileage there might be in dancers becoming the sound source for the music. Step Sonic is experimental work at this stage and hopes to unlock new territory for both dance and music whilst showcasing the inherent, visceral musicality within the dancer’s body and soul and offer something back to music.” Tom Dale

Jo Wills
Jo is a composer and sound artist based in London. He is Artistic Associate at the Barbican Centre, the co-founder of WW Records and Artistic Director of Drum Works. His composition credits range from commissions for the BBC to collaborations with video artist Sophie Clements and Brian Eno. His extensive discography includes releases on WW Records, Gold Panda, Test Card Recordings and Clay Pipe Music. His installation work has been shown at the Barbican Centre, Bath International Festival, Aldeburgh Festival and Dolby labs.

Special thanks to Lakeside, Deda, Cambridge Junction, Dance4, Phil Hill, Inspire Youth Arts and students at Confetti Institute of Creative Technologies.

PART 2: Three Solos by Three Choreographers

RESONANCE of AIR
Choreographer: Eleesha Drennan
Dancer: Rose Sall Sao
Sound Design: Charlie Knight
Ultrasonic Bat Recording: Richard Devine
Malpensa by Julia Kent

Inspired by bat echolocation, Resonance of Air is about sensing the parameters of space by inhabiting sound. Hilda has the ability to navigate through echoes. She is a rare beast of heightened sensual capacities; endangered yet brave, primal yet sophisticated, she is lost on a quest to be found.

Special thanks to Michael Young for introducing me to the sound world of bat echolocation.

ESCAPE
Choreographer: Jamaal Burkmar
Performer: Juan Sánchez Plaza
BaBopByeYa by Janelle Monae

Inspired by the events of The ArchAndroid as told by Janelle Monae and Cindi Mayweather, an android illegally falls in love with a human and has to go on the run to avoid detection. Hoping to secure safe passage, our hero has to first fight off its original programming before making contact with the love it has left behind.

SURGE
Choreographer: Tom Dale
Digital Design: Barret Hodgson
Performer: Jemima Brown
Lighting Design: Richard Statham
Ital Tek – The Circle is complete
Amon Tobin – Goto 10

As digital innovation exponentially accelerates humans share the planet with new technology, a life force that cannot be controlled and is quickly
becoming a part of nature. Surge is inspired by ideas about enhanced movement and digital sound as we move into the augmented age.

Jamaal Burkmar
A graduate of the Northern School for Contemporary Dance in Leeds, Jamaal’s first creation as a student
Ocean proved successful with audiences and
was commissioned for VERVE. Upon graduating
Jamaal became a winner of the much-coveted New
Adventures Choreographer Award.

Eleesha Drennan
An award-winning British/Canadian choreographer, recipient of the Sky Academy Arts Scholarship award for the creation of Channel Rose and awarded first prize for her solo Whiskers at the International Solo Dance Theatre Festival Stuttgart. Previously House Choreographer for NDCW where she worked as performer and choreographer 2004-2013.