A charming act of ingenuity
A Young(ish) Perspective
Click here for review
Spellbinding, moving & though-provoking
PDSW Audience Member
Plue is a queer disappearing act examining queer visibility, intimacy & privacy
Plue is a duet that fuses dance, illusion and object play to look at how queer people appear and disappear as they adjust and re-position in relation to others’ gazes - the dance of what, as queer people, we choose to share, what we feel pressured to hide, and what we don’t want to hide even if we could. Plue seeks to occupy and explore the gap between how queer people feel, and how they’re seen. It speaks to processes of intimacy, how we bare and reconfigure ourselves to connect with others, and all the incremental ways we work to bridge distance to hold each other close.
Plue is Eli Lewis and Joe Garbett’s first collaboration, an unlikely one that connects and tessellates two different ways of thinking about and doing dance to find strange new common ground.
Previous Touring
UK Tour Dates
The Place, Touch Wood, London
FABRIC, Birmingham
PDSW, Bournemouth
Cambridge Junction, Cambridge
The Place, London
UK Rural Tour Dates
Hatch Beauchamp Village Hall, Somerset, Take Art
Crediton Arts Centre, Devon, Villages in Action
Looe Community Academy, Cornwall, Carne to Cove
Liskerrett Centre, Cornwall, Carne to Cove
The Centre, Cornwall, Carne to Cove
International Performances
Vis-a-vis Festival, Artiste Associati, Gorizia, Italy
Credits
Concept & Choreography - Eli Lewis & Joe Garbett
Performers Jay - Yule & Joe Garbett
Dramaturgy - Orrow Bell
Choreographic Support - Jay Yule, Natifah White, J Neve Harrington, Kit Hall, Ania Varez, Riikka Lakea
Sound Design - Edvin Langfeld
Set Design - Hannah Sharp
Lighting Design - Jo Palmer
Costume Design - Berthe Fortin
Producer - Alison Thomas
Post Show Facilitator - Orrow Bell, Shivaangee Agrawal
Audience Connector - Lucia Fortune-Ely
Audio Description - Shivaangee Agrawal, support from Lesta Woo
Care Consultancy - Dais Hale, Orrow Bell, Shivaangee Agrawal
Team Care Lead - Nicolette Wilson-Clarke
Environmental Consultancy - Danielle Pipe
Illusion Consultancy - Neil Kelso
Photo/videographer - Rocio Chacon, Beliza Buzollo, Andy Mcredie, Maya Yoncali
A massive thank you to all the queer family, friends, collaborators, peers, interviewees, writers, doers, movers and thinkers who have fed and shaped the thinking behind Plue over the past 5 years. All those conversations, late-night debates, euphoric dances, sweaty workshops, lent books, shared links and voice-notes challenged us to widen and complicate our perspective on queerness beyond our own trodden routes. Thank you for your generosity, care and for ripening us up to further learning.
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
AURAL.EFFECT
A collaboration with sound artist and Bloomsburg New Contemporary, Jesc Bunyard, Aural.Effect invites the public into a darkened room to experience dance in a new way - through sound alone - unmasking the physical and emotional effort dancers exert when they perform. Click here to find out more about Jesc's work.
Past Public Performances
Jan 2017, The Bluecoat