PLUE
A queer courting ritual that scrutinises where intimacy, visibility, privacy and queerness blur.
Eli & Joe are a queer couple who make dance. Their collaboration is an unlikely one, joyously smooshing two very different creative practices together like barbie dolls. This unholy matrimony has just begun, and it’s spewing out bizarre choreographic offspring, the first of which is Plue. Find out more about Joe's work by clicking here.
Currently in its infancy, Plue is a contortion of colour and mirror trickery, exploring the interplay between queer intimacy, disconnect and visibility. Spurred on by Eli & Joe's experience of lockdown together in rural Somerset, Plue uses layers of illusion to explore what happens when you attempt to camouflage parts of your identity. Somewhere between a clockwork doll’s courting ritual and a slow-motion magic show, Plue invites you to a place where all is not quite what it seems: Where people shrink & expand before your eyes. Where bodies warp and merge into many legged chimeras before dissolving into thin air with a puff of pink & blue smoke.
Eli & Joe want to examine rural queerness and physicalise the intimate-awkwardness of living on top of each other during lockdown. They want to capture the different stages of trying and failing to connect with someone in all its clunky absurdity.
During Plue's first R&D, Eli & Joe connected with 5 other LGBTQIA+ couples living rurally in the South West, documenting rural queer perspectives on how the pandemic has effected queer visibility, expression & intimacy. You can read some of the conversations they had by clicking here.
Production Credits
Creators & Performers // Elinor Lewis & Joe Garbett
Costume Maker // Chloe Mead
Photographer & Videographer // Rocio Chacon
Support
Arts Council England, Artsadmin, Taunton Pride, 2BU, Somerset Lesbian Network, Qart and Diversity Trust.
TIMBER
A suspenseful balancing act about managing risk and finding space to flourish within precarious situations.
Six, wooden, door-sized frames, balanced upright in a row - waiting to fall like dominoes. Two people defiantly occupy this precarious space, performing a suspenseful balancing act. Skin on wood, they strain against the frames, straddling the frames like lovers. Joints creaking, they slowly queer the timber, becoming slow-moving, part-human-part-frame hybrids.
In a kaleidoscope of light, TIMBER is about reclaiming risky spaces, straining against limitation, and finding space to flourish within precarious situations. This slowly unfurling work explores the simmering power of silence, stillness, and gradual change, whilst playfully testing people’s attitudes toward risk and precariousness.
Production Credits
Creator and Choreographer // Elinor Lewis
Creative Contributor // Hannah Parsons
Performers // Elinor Lewis and Hannah Parsons
Set Designer // Hannah Sharp
Lighting Designer // Nao Nagai
Costume Designer // Berthe Fortin
Photographer and Videographer // Rocio Chacon
Consultants // Dr Sophie Jones, Viv Gordon and Hamish MacPherson
Many thanks to TIMBER's interview participants, whose stories and ideas helped fuel TIMBER's creative research. You can read these conversations by clicking here.
Support
The Place, DanceXchange, Arts Council England, Artsadmin's BANNER Award, Goldsmiths College, The Welcome Collection, Take Art, Pavilion Dance South West, Taunton Pride, Somerset Lesbian Network, Diversity Trust and Chard WATCH.
ORCHARD
Like a rarefied circus act, it is part minimalist dance, part installation. Mesmerising and nerve-wracking.
Neil Norman Resolution Review 2018
A forest of vertically balanced poles, vulnerable to the lightest touch. Two performers navigate this precarious environment with the ever-present risk that one mistake could prove catastrophic.
Production Credits
Creator and Choreographer // Elinor Lewis
Creative Collaborator // Nuria Legarda Andueza
Lighting Designer // Nao Nagai
Costume Designer // Berthe Fortin
Photography // Ludovic Descognets
Support
The Place, Arts Council England, Aerowaves Twenty19, Artsadmin, Goldsmiths College, PDSW through #SWDancing2019
Past Performances
The Place // London, UK
Artsadmin // London, UK
BORA BORA // Aarhus, Denmark
Mac Val // Spring Forward Festival, Val-de-Marne, France
Baluarte // 948 Merkatua Festival, Pamplona, Spain
WHERE YOU TO?
Where you to?
Commissioned by Brewhouse Theatre, Taunton, WHERE YOU TO? is a interactive, digital, choose your own adventure website that dances you through the unseen natural beauty of Somerset. Elinor collaborated with Joe Garbett to create WHERE YOU TO? which is made up of 62 dance GIFS and 32 dance films.
Have a go at making your own dance adventure by clicking here.
Production Credits
Creators // Elinor Lewis and Joe Garbett
Performer // Joe Garbett
Photographer and Videographer // Elinor Lewis