Following its premiere in autumn 2017, and sell-out shows across the UK and Italy, Motionhouse presents the London premiere of Charge, the company’s latest electrifying multimedia production. Art and science collide in Charge as dance-circus, film and music trace the extraordinary story of electricity in our lives, running from Wednesday 21 – Saturday 24 March at The Peacock, London.
Performed in, on and around a five metre high stage set, six dancers bring Charge to life with athletic movement, awe-inspiring acrobatics and daring feats as stories of the electrical charge that sparks human life, the beating of our hearts and the memories we make unfold. For Charge, Artistic Director Kevin Finnan, MBE worked with Professor Frances Ashcroft and her team at the University of Oxford to delve deeper into the science that influenced the company’s latest work. Ashcroft published ‘The Spark of Life’ about electricity in the human body, and is recognised for her outstanding contributions to the public’s awareness of science.
2018 marks 30 years since Executive Director Louise Richards and Finnan founded the company in 1988. In three decades Motionhouse has presented more than 40 productions across the world, and last year alone more than 80,000 people saw the company perform or took part in one of its learning and participatory activities that continue to inspire the next generation of dancers and audiences.
Charge explores the historical understanding of the role of electricity in the body with Galvani’s experimentation with frogs as a starting point. Finnan also refers to the popular interest in electricity that resulted in Mary Shelley’s ‘Frankenstein’. This was one of the first ever science fiction novels, and celebrates its 200th anniversary in 2018. As the third element of Finnan’s ‘Earth Trilogy’, Charge builds on relevant environmental themes explored in Scattered (2009) and Broken (2013).
Motionhouse has become the ‘go to’ company to create visionary large-scale events. Even beaches, stately homes, harbours and inner city wastelands have received the Motionhouse artistic and creative treatment. The company recently created a large-scale outdoor spectacle, Watermusic, for the Aarhus 2017 European Capital of Culture celebrations in Randers, Denmark, and will be involved in Coventry 2021 UK Capital of Culture Celebrations.