Overflow – Alexander Whitley Dance Company at The Lowry
Kristy Stott, Theatre Editor
This urgent and visually arresting new dance work by the Alexander Whitley Dance Company explores digital technology and our place in a world overflowing with information.
An urgent and visually arresting new dance work
In the wake of the pandemic – now more than ever before – digital technology has become a seemingly indispensable part of our lives. This new work by the Alexander Whitley Dance Company, which premiered at Sadler’s Wells in May 2021, interrogates what it means to be human in the era of fast-evolving information and omnipresent technology.
Taking inspiration from surveillance technologies, feedback loops and unseen algorithms, Overflow juxtaposes sweeping group dance sequences with intimate solo pieces to explore the tension we feel as we scroll through social media platforms. Building on his reputation for creating ground-breaking visual spectacle with world-class collaborators, this new dance piece sees Whitley incorporate cutting-edge technology seamlessly alongside fluid movement.
Whitley incorporates cutting-edge technology seamlessly alongside fluid movement.
With a dazzling five-metre-long kinetic light sculpture by visual artists, Children of the Light and programmed by creative technologist Luca Biada, Overflow is set to mesmerise The Lowry’s audience. Intelligent, though haunting, the all-knowing sculpture scans the stage seeming to track the dancers’ movements across the performance space. Designer Ana Rajcevic’s costumes, which include biometric 3D printed face masks, take inspiration from facial recognition technology too. The performance also features an atmospheric lighting design by Guy Hoare and an exhilarating original score by electronic music producer Rival Consoles.
Of Overflow, Artistic Director Alexander Whitley said, “We are delighted to be finally bringing Overflow to live audiences across the UK. The work was created in 2019, well before the Covid pandemic struck, but its themes seem even more pertinent to the world we now live in. National lockdowns have resulted in a dramatic and irreversible paradigm shift, with the use of digital technology by citizens, organisations and businesses soaring globally.”
Fascinating and always cerebral, human behaviour and modes of expression have long been an ongoing theme in Whitley’s choreography. Catch this thought-provoking and hypnotic work at The Lowry – for two performances only – as part of its UK and European tour.
