Inspired by pho­tos of crowds around the world, Joanne Leighton has cre­ated a visu­al score for the Seiko Dance Com­pany, embody­ing and deploy­ing a shared vocab­u­lary of jubil­a­tion, protest, ritu­al and dance.

Bel­gian cho­reo­graph­er Joanne Leighton has been col­lect­ing pho­to­graphs of crowds from all over the world for over ten years, united by a col­lect­ive phys­ic­al lan­guage that dates back to the begin­ning of human­ity. These images inspired her to cre­ate a piece for eight per­formers, ded­ic­ated to these uni­ver­sal authen­t­ic and raw move­ments. Male and female dan­cers bring these pho­tos to life in scenes of jubil­a­tion, protest, ritu­al and dance, set against a sound­scape fea­tur­ing Steve Reich’s fam­ous Come Out, which plays on the deph­as­ing of an end­lessly repeated phrase, and tra­di­tion­al Lithuani­an poly­phon­ic chants. Their ges­tures are tender or pro­voc­at­ive, sheltered or exposed, between chaos and immob­il­ity, weav­ing a power­ful yet famil­i­ar phys­ic­al language.