This Bright Field

 Audiences are invited to share the stage with thirteen exceptional performers for an immediate and memorable event that examines notions of perspective and attention.

Conceived in two distinct halves, This Bright Field begins with a looped installation which is tailored for a small, mobile audience. Using Clinkard's plywood set design, the dancers deftly collapse and expand the spaces they inhabit to create a curious flow of bodies, corridors and rooms. By engineering panning shots, close ups and an accentuated depth of field, they direct and edit the audiences experience of themselves.

The second half provides a new perspective where the audience are zoomed out from the action. As the auditorium seats are filled, the stage is stripped back and the live action continues as if in wide screen. A sculptural group body inhabits the stark space until the sheer mass of the thirteen strong company charges the stage with an energy which can be felt as much a seen.

Clinkard's creation process will further his interest in the bridging potential between roles of the observer and observed, asking how we, as witnesses to the performed act, could experience dance though our own bodies. In turn, he will be working with the company to establish how their sensorial perception of their bodies, the space, the audience and each other informs and empowers their dancing. His aim with this work is to uniquely activate both performer and audience through use of scale and perspective and celebrate the subjective experience of the shared act.

Clinkard will be working closely with each venue to tailor an opportunity for their audience to inhabit a familiar space with a new viewpoint, right from the way in which they enter the building. While striking design, breathtaking performances and live music, shared on both an intimate and expansive scale ensure this event shifts expectations of dance as an art form.

This Bright Field is a Dance4 co-production. Co-commissioned by The Lowry, Tramway and Dance4, with additional support from Greenwich Dance, The Point and the Tanja Liedtke Foundation.