24-year-old Robert Binet, Choreographic Associate with The National Ballet of Canada, has created his own company, Wild Space, with a mission to present ballet in unconventional physical and digital environments.
The company's first production, Terra Incognita will be performed at Abbey Hall in Suffolk, converted to a performance and exhibition space for an audience of 60 by Olivia Pomp and Gary Rowland, where it will be in residence from 10 to 30 July with performances on 28 and 29 July.
Binet has commissioned playwright Rosamund Small, who has previously worked on site-specific theatre, to create the story for Terra Incognita, which tells of a new planet, identical to ours but without any human inhabitants, that appears in the solar system. Humanity must decide who will leave our world and start a new civilisation there.
Binet will work with a company of five young dancers: Emma Hawes, Yasmine Naghdi, Ida Praetorius, Andreas Kaas and Martin ten Kortenaar. Music will be played by violinists Jonathan Morton, artistic director of the Scottish Ensemble, and Clio Gould, concertmaster of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.
Wild Space will work with new digital platform Artery. In the year following this performance, the dancers will return to their home cities (Toronto, Amsterdam, London and Copenhagen) to work with local dancers and artists to reinterpret Terra Incognita for new spaces.