The Diminishing Present

The mind, the heart and human existence each in turn, become studies for bgroup’s launch programme, a collection of three compelling works: thought latching to thought and pulling (originally commissioned for the 2006 Place Prize), passing strange and wonderful and
small acts.

Collaborating with the acclaimed lighting designer Guy Hoare and created for a company of five performers, Wright presents meaning without explicitness, choreographing robust and delicate pictures that reference the fragility and beauty of our human condition.

Note:

Under certain circumstances each individual work can be programmed separately, as part of mixed bills or festival programmes.

Click Here to contact bgroup for more information about this.

Download the technical rider.

Thought Latching to Thought and Pulling

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This visually arresting quartet for four men takes its title from a
phrase coined by the poet Rimbaud to describe his method of writing. The dancers progress through images of quiet contemplation into explosive passages of movement; as the air slowly clears, the performers become more visible, as if mental clarity descends.

“Lyrical movement in waves as if ideas are passing between them, this is a serene piece.”

Londondance.com

"It offered a great deal to absorb, think and feel about. It snuck up on and, quite unexpectedly, touched me."

Donald Hutera

Choreography: Ben Wright

Performers: Neb Abbott, Keir Patrick, Matthew Winston, Robert Clark

Lighting Design: Guy Hoare

Music: Tim Sutton played by Londonflutes

Costumes: Theo Clinkard

Passing Strange and Wonderful

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"Ben Wright’s Passing Strange and Wonderful
builds beautifully upon the moody and astutely crafted emotional intensity pervading his exceptional male quartet. Performed in silence, this riveting, pared-down yet carefully detailed duet for dancers Delphine Gaborit and Robert Clark is shot through with a truthful and tender dynamic. In tone and content, their embodiment of a relationship in complex and loving turmoil achieves an almost perfect balance between the universal and the particular. Simply stated, Wright’s dance hits home"

Donald Hutera

Choreography: Ben Wright

Performers: Delphine Gaborit and Robert Clark

Lighting Design: Guy Hoare

Costumes: Theo Clinkard

Small Acts

Watch this clip on YouTube

Set to a collection of piano miniatures by the revered British
composer; Howard Skempton, small acts is a series of kinetic
studies that illuminate the mottled existence we lead. Five performers shift from one incident to another; using captioned banners, like the ‘legends’ in a silent movie, to title and inform their activities they create a panorama of human behaviour that offers moments extending from the intimate to the absurd.

Choreography: Ben Wright

Performers: Delphine Gaborit, Robert Clark, Neb Abbott,
Keir Patrick, Matthew Winston

Lighting Design: Guy Hoare

Music: Howard Skempton

Costumes: Theo Clinkard

Film Work: Ben Wright