Two London versions of Abreu's new Solo For Two

Published: 5 May 2018
Reporter: Vera Liber

In the first new commission for dance in the refurbished Purcell Room in London's Southbank Centre, British-Brazilian choreographer Jean Abreu’s new dance work Solo for Two with Belgian dramaturg Guy Cools explore how his dual identity, formed between different cultures and dance languages, is created by cycles of loss, letting go and new beginnings.

Danced by Abreu and Rita Carpenteiro to a new electronic score by Luca Biada and a collage of songs and laments, the dancers joined by a third performer, a little robot called Macheba, who mirrors, observes and interacts with the dancers. A two-headed female character, with a birdy-light as the conscious eye and a projector as the subconscious, Macheba scans the dancers’ memories and projects their feelings.

Macheba is the creation of Michele Panegrossi, Luca Biada and computer scientist Leon Watts in collaboration with Abreu and Cools. Abreu continues his exploration of the challenges of technology in his work following BLOOD, his 2013 collaboration with Gilbert & George.

Watts said, “Macheba enters into the process as an agent of renewal; a totem of embodied technology and of personal memory. In one moment, Macheba is an extension of the self, in another a separated identity speaking to the alien otherness of technical systems.

"This collaboration has been a process of conceiving, designing, choreographing and sharing and demonstrates how a scientist with an analytical mindset, the fluid holistic mindset of an artist, and rapid prototyping by a creative technologist, can all work together to find new understandings of interaction in society."

Cools added, “after BLOOD, Solo for Two is a further exploration of Jean Abreu’s personal history as an artist who moves between dance cultures: how there is no fixed origin and how every departure not only implies loss, but is also a new beginning. As a dramaturg, I am happy to support the birth of this new creation as a ‘midwife’.”

There will be a 'site-responsive' version of Solo for Two at the Horniman Museum and Gardens in Forest Hill which has co-commissioned the work.

The London première is at the Purcell Room, Southbank Centre, 23 and 24 May. The site-responsive performance is in the World Gallery, Horniman Museum, London on 19 July. Solo For Two then tours to Bath (16 and 17 May), Swindon (18 May), Lincoln (21 June), and Luton (24 August).

*Some links, including Amazon, Stageplays.com, ATG Tickets, LOVEtheatre, BTG Tickets, Ticketmaster, The Ticket Factory, LW Theatres and QuayTickets, are affiliate links for which BTG may earn a small fee at no extra cost to the purchaser.

Are you sure?