Ladbury PR

Alexander Whitley & composer Daniel Elms present ‘The Age of Spiritual Machines’ at Southbank 14 May

On 14 May at the Southbank, London, boundary bending choreographer Alexander Whitley and award winning composer Daniel Elms will premiere "The Age of Spiritual Machines' - a new work created for strings, electronics & two dancers, exploring the relationship between music, movement and tech.

Inspired by the philosophy of transhumanism, which seeks to use technology to enhance the capabilities of the body, both artists have stripped away the tech components they regularly employ in their work, leaving the soft tissue of the movement and music to be revealed beneath.

Alexander’s dancers embody principles of machine intelligence; their movements and relationship to each other informed by the way technology, rather than the human gaze, sees the world. The sources for Daniel’s tempo, rhythms and harmony derive from his recordings of the hidden frequencies of electronic devices, made with a coil microphone. Once they had been used to create the form of the work, these sounds were removed to leave a freestanding musical structure. Live cello and violin are electronically processed, sustaining the tension between natural and artificial.

The Age of Spiritual Machines was created for Manchester Collective for their Neon Tour and will be also be presented on 18 May at Lakeside Arts in Nottingham and 19 May at Howard Assembly Rooms in Leeds.

In more Alexander Whitley news, Sadler’s Wells have just announced his ground-breaking and visually thrilling production Anti-Body will receive its London premiere on 6 October 2022. The work will see dancers appearing on stage wearing motion capture suits, allowing each movement to be captured and projected on to huge screens behind them creating a 'virtual dance', with dancers dancing not only with their own image but those of the other dancers. Plus an electrifying score from 2021 Mercury Prize nominee Hannah Peel & music producer Kincaid, and 3D visuals created by Unchartered Limbo Collective.  

Tickets for The Age of Spiritual Machines at Southbank on sale HERE

Tickets for Anti-Body at Sadler's on sale HERE