One of the UK’s most celebrated contemporary dance companies returns to Newcastle this month as Phoenix Dance Theatre presents a compelling evening of creative collaboration at its core with ‘Interplay’ at Northern Stage on Tuesday 16th and Wednesday 17th June. This striking mixed bill fuses dialogue, contrast and human connection at its heart.
The programme, created by internationally acclaimed choreographers James Pett and Travis Clausen-Knight (Pett and Clausen-Knight), Ed Myhill and Yusha-Marie Sorzano, alongside Phoenix Dance Theatre’s Artistic Director Marcus Jarrell Willis, spans duet and ensemble works. Together, they deliver an evening that moves through wit, tension, rhythm and ritual, exploring the interplay between contrast, shared vision and artistic exchange.
Performances include ‘Why Are People Clapping!?’, set to Steve Reich’s ‘Clapping Music’, which uses rhythm as its driving force and finds musicality in everyday movement – from a tennis match to footsteps on an empty street and the pulse of daily life.
‘Small Talk’ presents two figures occupying the same physical space yet separated by an emotional distance, reflecting conflict, confusion and the quiet exhaustion that can emerge within relationships.
‘Next of Kin’, reimagined from its premiere in New York, explores the collisions and connections experienced throughout life, offering a deeply human reflection on identity and belonging.
The evening closes with ‘Suite Release’, a work drawing on the roots of hip-hop and house culture to reclaim dance as instinctive expression, resistance and communal joy.
Tickets, priced from £14.00 in advance, are available at northernstage.co.uk.
