Emergence exit: MA students perform double bill of brand-new dance pieces at Waterside

As the title suggests, Emergence is the first tour from the brand-new postgraduate company formed by current MA students at the University of Salford. Led by the course’s Programme Leader Sarie Mairs Slee and the Artistic Director of the award-winning Joss Arnott Dance Company, the 12 dancers are heading out to perform two new works created especially for (and with) them – one by Arnott and the other by Phoenix Dance Theatre’s Artistic Director Sharon Watson, who is the fledgling company’s guest choreographer for 2018-19. Both pieces take empowerment as their starting point: Watson’s And still I walk… drawing inspiration from the women’s suffrage movement and featuring costumes designed following a visit to Manchester’s People’s History Museum; Arnott’s thrilling When Worlds Collide using exhilarating cinematic-style lighting and soundtrack as a means to draw out a unique physical language, designed to resonate with the audience long after the actual experience is over.

Fri 1 Feb, Waterside, 1 Waterside Plaza, Sale, Manchester, M33 7ZF, Tel: 0161 912 5616, 7.30pm, £9-11, www.watersidearts.org

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