Rosie Kay Dance Company Returns to Home with MK ULTRA

Rosie Kay, one of the UK's leading choreographers, renowned for her athletic movement, rigorous research and intelligent theatricality, presents her company's new show MK ULTRA, which calls in at HOME on Wednesday 3/Thursday 4 May.

Kay, a research associate to the University of Oxford School of Anthropology and Museum of Ethnography, choreographed the hit feature film Sunshine on Leith and is best known for the five-star and award-winning 5 SOLDIERS - The Body is the Frontline, which HOME presented at Rusholme Army Reserve Centre in May 2015.

Following several years exploring the weird world of conspiracy theories, and inspired by the bizarre realm of pop culture, mind control and Illuminati imagery, MK ULTRA brings a hypnotic, high energy, supercharged mash-up of dance, music and imagery to the stage.

Renowned for tackling important, pertinent and challenging subject matters, the company looks at a weird world of symbolism, hidden messages, and occult signs, deconstructing it for an aware and an unaware audience. MK ULTRA is a CIA code word for a real LSD-fuelled brainwashing technique developed by the US military.

Popular conspiracy theory believes that MK ULTRA is still active and programmes high-profile public figures and celebrities such as pop stars Britney Spears, Miley Cyrus, Justin Bieber and Rhianna - puppets of the 'Illuminati', a shadowy elite intent on creating a New World Order of authoritarian world government.

In MK ULTRA, Kay, with a typically fearless eye, delves deeply into this world and conjures up something entirely new, subverting the subversive. If you didn't know about the Illuminati, you soon will and if you did, expect MK ULTRA to shatter the Illuminati's illusory control.

Kay is reunited with the award winning 5 SOLDIERS creative team - composer Annie Mahtani, set and video designer Louis Price (who designed The Funfair and The Emperor at HOME), lighting designer Mike Gunning (who also worked on The Funfair and The Emperor), and dramaturg Tessa Walker.

Marking his first design for contemporary dance is MK ULTRA's costume designer Gary Card. A set designer, illustrator and one of London's most talked-about talents, Card designed props and head-dresses for Lady Gaga's 'Monster Ball' tour. His clients have included Comme Des Garc?ons, Topshop, House of Holland, Nike, Adidas, Stella McCartney and Penguin.

"I'm delighted to be returning to HOME with our new work," says Rosie Kay. "We brought 5 Soldiers to HOME in 2015 as part of their opening season, presenting the piece in Rusholme Army Reserve Centre to sell-out audiences. I won't forget HOME director Walter Meierjohann's face as a uniformed soldier handed him a show programme; asking me if he was part of my cast or a real soldier? He was a real sergeant! That blurring of reality and art is what makes my job so exciting, and this partnership with HOME so fruitful.

"As a choreographer and director, I feel my work fits really well with the aims of HOME. We want to connect with people and get new audiences really excited about the power of theatre and dance.

"MK ULTRA is the result of three years' intensive research which has taken me through the world of surveillance, state police, torture and brainwashing, through to pop culture, mainstream media and celebrity breakdowns, all the way back to politics and a comment on the post-culturism state we are in now. At a time when everything is fake, or at least we don't trust what's real any more, MK Ultra looks at what this world really feels like, and what effect it is having on us, whether we know it or not.

"Working with cult film-maker Adam Curtis will really spell out the background to this conspiracy theory and show what this means about our times now. It's new, it's about now; six months ago, mentioning conspiracy theory would have drawn a snort from many over the age of 25. Explaining MK ULTRA to people has become a lot easier in recent weeks. It feels fearless."

MK ULTRA will feature seven outstanding dancers - Shanelle Clemenson, Harriet Ellis, Shelley Eva Haden, Lizzie Klotz, Joao Maio, Ryan Munroe and Oliver Russell.

MK ULTRA is supported using public funding by Arts Council England and is commissioned by DanceXchange, Warwick Arts Centre & Birmingham Repertory Theatre.

For more information, see here; watch a short trailer here.