Candoco Dance Company is to collaborate with choreographer and designer Theo Clinkard and Joe Newman of Mercury Prize-winning band alt-J on Hot Mess which will be performed in Coventry and Nottingham.
Hot Mess, an “unpredictable and anarchic performance set to a pounding, eclectic score”, will mark the first time Newman has written music for the stage.
Candoco, a company of disabled and non-disabled dancers, became the first contemporary dance company to perform on BBC One’s Strictly Come Dancing in November 2018.
Clinkard said, “it feels like a huge privilege to spend each day with these extraordinary dancers. Their capacity for engaging with ideas and deeply investing a physical conversation is unlike any other company that I’ve worked with.
“I hope to craft a work that they’ll love performing for years to come and, judging by the tingling hairs on the back of my neck, a dance of quiet power and celebratory chaos is emerging for this company's ever-expanding fan base.
“While Joe and I have been friends for only a few years, his delicate and epic tunes have been jangling my bones and welling up my eyes for much longer. I was really excited when he accepted my invite to collaborate.”
The new work will be paired with Yasmeen Godder’s Face In which premièred at Sadler’s Wells in 2018. Set to an urban indie score, Face In “presents arresting images interwoven with daring and uninhibited dance”.
Hot Mess and Face In will be staged at Warwick Arts Centre, Coventry on Thursday 3 October and Nottingham Playhouse on Thursday 10 October.