TOM DALE COMPANY Comes to Watermans Arts Centre

Tom Dale Company's newest show, SURGE, is being exclusively previewed at Watermans Art Centre in Brentford on Friday February 25th.

The worlds of electronic dance music and contemporary dance collide inventively in this absorbing, immersive live performance and accompanying VR installation, SURGE DIGITAL.

Critics' Circle National Dance Award nominee, "the mesmerising Jemima Brown" (Culture Whisper) is dancer and vocalist; the original electronic score is by composer/musician Ital Tek and it will feature live vocals during the performance by Jemima Brown. The music will be played against a digitally created visual landscape.

Artistic Director Tom Dale says: "Humanity is pushing at the boundaries of evolution; the digital world is on a quest to re-create life and does this by making ever more real copies of our world which means we're increasingly sharing the planet with a new life force: technology. We ask: 'what is the future of the human body in a world where evolution is replaced by intelligent design?'

Says dancer and vocalist Jemima Brown: "I've always wanted to incorporate my love of music and dance into my work as an artist. Having the opportunity to sing in this show is amazing new territory for me. While it presents a tricky balance between getting the vocals and breath to work in harmony with the movement, Tom and I focused on getting it right throughout rehearsals. We both admire Ital Tek's work and I really enjoyed collaborating with him to find the right blend of vocals with his electronic sound. I worked remotely on recording the vocals, layering harmonies and backing vocals to create an atmospheric sound. Then Ital Tek blended the results into his work to create the sound score for 'SURGE'."

SURGE, the live show, is part of a family of work made by Tom Dale Company during lockdown. In the prototype stage of development is a new Virtual Reality immersive installation called SURGE DIGITAL which will be available for visitors to Watermans to experience over the weekend of February 25th-27th in the venue's art gallery.

Via a VR headset visitors will be able to enter the virtual world of SURGE DIGITAL:
Says Tom: "We want to place audiences inside a world that explores dance and movement in liminal spaces. Audiences will be able to affect the shape and form the dancer takes, and the soundscape they hear. It will enable the user to become a participant in the performance environment. We're really excited to engage the public at this stage with the prototype of this experience and gain feedback that will shape the future of this experience as it develops."

SURGE DIGITAL has been developed in association with The Mixed Reality Laboratory (MRL) in the School of Computer Science at the University of Nottingham and Confetti Institute of Design and Technology in Nottingham, with the support of the Studio Wayne McGregor Quest Lab Network.

The SURGE family of work will be extended to include SURGE-MAKE ME FEEL a BBC/ONE DANCE UK film commission made by the company with dance filmmaker Alice Underwood due to be broadcast on BBC i-player from 20th February 2022. SURGE-MAKE ME FEEL is a short dance film taking material from the live performance and distilling it into 5 minutes of pure visual magic.

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