Sea Change
Choreography : Boris Charmatz

Creation 2021,
Première for the opening of Manchester International Festival on July 1st

On Thursday July 1, 2021, MIF 21’s opening night, Boris Charmatz presented a daring new dance work designed for Deansgate and featuring more than 150 Greater Manchester residents and 8 professionnal dancers among the cast. Sea Change is a huge human jigsaw, and it’s down to the audience to put together the pieces and complete the picture.

Sea Change fills a city-center street with a chain of professional and non-professional dancers, each performing and repeating a section of the choreography on the spot. Rather than the work moving on in front of audiences, it is up to them to ‘move on’ the work: walking or even running past waves of dancers to animate the action into their very own living flipbook.

“ With Sea Change, we will be arranging our choreographic line in a street – like a moving line crossing the city. [...] We are going to work on this with groups of amateur dancers from Manchester and professionals, creating a moving landscape in which the choreographic development of the piece is gradually revealed to the moving spectator. » - Boris Charmatz

A new edition of Sea Change will be presented in Wuppertal on May 21st, 2023 with more than 170 amateurs dancers and with the dancers of Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch and with the actors of Wuppertaler Bühnen: Schauspiel.

Durée : 3h

Interprétation :

dancers-assistants : Djino Alolo Sabin, Claire Godsmark, Neil Callaghan, Thomasin Gülceg, Gemma Higginbotham, Estela Merlos, Ilario Santoro, Marion Zurbach
with 130 amateurs dancers from Greater Manchester de Manchester and 25 professionnal dancers

Choreographic assistant: Magali Caillet Gajan
Sound : Dan Steele
Music selection: Olivier Renouf
Technical director : Erik Houllier
Costumes : Florence Samain
Sound engineer : Perig Menez
Deputy director [terrain] : Hélène Joly
Director of productions : Lucas Chardon, Martina Hochmuth
Production managers: Jessica Crasnier, Briac Geffrault

Production and distribution : [terrain]
Thanks to : John McGrath et les équipes du Manchester International Festival, Yann Aubert et Pro Helvetia, Tim Etchells, Ashley Chen, Olga Dukhovnaya, Sidonie Duret, Julien Gallée-Ferré, Peggy Grelat-Dupont, Alexis Hedouin, Rémy Héritier, Annie Hanauer, Gemma Higginbotham, Johanna Elisa Lembe, Mai Ishiwata, I-Fang Lin, Filipe Lourenço, Julien Monty, Thierry Micouin, Fouad Nafili, Christian Ogou, Noé Pellencin, Asha Thomas, Frank Willens

Sea Change was created on July 1st, 2021.

Commissioned by Manchester International Festival.

TANZTHEATER WUPPERTAL PINA BAUSCH, May 21st, 2023 (on going)

Choreography : Boris Charmatz
Choreographic assistant : Magali Caillet Gajan
Dancers-assistants : en cours
With : 170 amateurs dancers from Wuppertal with the Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch Ensemble, dance students from the Folkwang Universtät der Künste and actors from Wuppertaler

  • Sea Change (2021), Manchester International Festival trailer
    © Manchester International Festival et [terrain]
  • Sea Change (2021), Manchester International Festival, Making-of Nicholas Wood
    © Manchester International Festival et [terrain]

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