Neon Dance Presents PREHENSION BLOOMS On UK Tour This Autumn

Swindon based dance company, Neon Dance, have collaborated with Bristol Robotics Lab to create robots that will interact with audiences this Autumn. With the latest in AI robotic technology, this new contemporary dance show is set in a distant future and ancient past - an alien world of sand where robot creatures lurk under foot. With the audience seated in the performance area, Prehension Blooms is both a high concept art installation and emotive, innovative contemporary dance show. It features internationally renowned dancers Fukiko Takase and Travis Clausen-Knight who have between them performed for the likes of Thom Yorke, Studio Wayne McGregor and Rambert Dance Company.

Neon's new contemporary dance show will premiere at Bristol Beacon followed by a London premiere and co-presentation at The Place & artsdepot and performances at Oxford Science and Ideas Festival. Ahead of the Autumn tour, there will also be a Wellcome Collection residency, in partnership with The Place, where members of the public will be invited to take part in testing out the robots. Conceived by choreographer and director Adrienne Hart, acclaimed for her previous Neon Dance works (Empathy and Puzzle Creature), Prehension Blooms features specially made robots, named by the team as 'hōki-mon' (rake monsters), designed and built by Hemma Philamore, Alix Partridge and Calum Gillespie of Bristol Robotics Lab in collaboration visual artist Ana Rajcevic. The weave of dance and movement between the hōki-mon, dancers and the audience is presented with an original score by composer Sebastian Reynolds, whose cinematic, electronic soundscapes help transport audiences to another time and place.

Choreographer and director Adrienne Hart said,"Prehension Blooms explores the nature of companionship and loneliness through the dance of human performers alongside robotic hōki-mon. Audiences both present in the space and joining from their homes across the world will be able to interact with the robots whilst experiencing world class performers up close."

Neon Dance is an internationally renowned company that embraces a diverse and digital population; a place where artists, partners and people can engage in experiences that are experimental and original, yet accessible to all.

Tour Dates

28 Sept - 2 Oct Bristol Beacon

Trenchard St, Bristol BS1 5AR

(Wed 28 accessible performance with audio description & touch tour, Thurs 29th Press Night)

7.30pm | Price £15 (plus booking fee or £16.35 incl booking fees)

bristolbeacon.org | 0117 203 4040

12 Oct IF Oxford Science & Ideas Festival

OVADA, Osney Lane, OX1 1NJ

7PM | £12 (£8) (Complientary drink on arrival included) if-oxford.com

14 - 15 Oct The Place, London

17 Duke's Rd, London WC1H 9PY

8pm | £17 (£13)

(Touch tour , Friday 14th Press Night)

020 7121 1100 | theplace.org.uk

21 Oct artsdepot, London

5 Nether St, London N12 0GA

8pm | Tickets from £15

(BSL interpreted Post Show Q&A)

020 8369 5454 www.artsdepot.co.uk

3rd - 5th Nov Setouchi Art Triennale, Japan

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