What if you could step inside someone’s mind, hear their unfiltered thoughts, and experience their emotions in real time? Where We Meet, the latest immersive creation from Unwired Dance Theatre, invites audiences to do just that. This boundary-pushing performance blends interactive storytelling with improvisation, giving each viewer a unique journey shaped by their choices. We sat down with Clemence Debaig, the visionary Artistic Director behind the show, to discuss the themes of connection, the power of sound over visuals, and what happens when dance meets cutting-edge technology.
The show is highly interactive. How do different audience members influence the outcome of each performance?
The main influence the audience has is actually what experience they want to have for themselves! As a starting point, the piece begins as a "chose your own adventure" format, with 3 characters in the space. Audiences decide which one they want to engage with by moving close to them. But the 3 stories happen simultaneously, so they can only catch the ones they want to approach. Then as the piece develops, they might be invited in gentle moments of interactions with the performers and other audience members. Those moments are triggered by the dancers, depending on the audiences behaviour. The more people engage, the more the dancers will invite them to participate.
Becki is a social butterfly seeking a meaningful connection. Adam is a perfectionist reevaluating the meaning of success and Faith is struggling with her relationship with her body. Can you talk about the themes behind each of these character’s stories and why they were chosen?
The themes behind those 3 characters are very inspired by the own challenges of the creative team. We've poured our own stories into the piece as a starting point and we're all very much a mix of Becki, Adam and Faith. Additionally, we have also done some research with participants, through Age UK (focusing on loneliness) and Rambert School of Dance, supported by their resident psychologist Kio Tomiyama (focusing on perfectionism) to go into more depth on each of the topics. Our co-director Livia Massarelli is a certified wellbeing coach and has been instrumental in leading those conversations. Then this served as raw material for Emma Nuttall to develop and write each of the stories.
Improvisations appears to be central to the performance. How do the dancers balance structure with spontaneity?
Each dancer has worked around creating their own movement vocabulary for their character. And as part of the process, and led by Livia Massarelli, choreographer, they have developed 'movement cells and anchors' - short, signature sequences that capture the essence of each character. These cells are not just choreographed movements but are imbued with the character's unique traits and emotions. The movement cells are then woven into an improvisational score. This score is a flexible framework where specific movement tasks guide the dancers, ensuring they maintain the character's nature while allowing room for spontaneity. This approach is crucial, given the interactive and ever-changing nature of the performance. The dancers must be prepared to adapt and respond authentically to the audience's choices and reactions, making each performance unique and alive. It is a delicate balance between structure and spontaneity, but this is what allow the performance to remain fresh and engaging and to adapt to each audience.
More about the choreographic process: https://www.unwireddancetheatre.com/in-the-studio-blog/where-we-meet-the-choreographic-journey
Traditionally, XR experiences focus on the visual, you’ve opted to champion the audio. Why did you make this choice and how does it affect immersion?
I am really excited about the potential of audio for immersive storytelling. Current technologies tend to hyper focus on visuals, which tend to spoon feed audiences with flashy experiences and ready-made emotions, I don't think it always serves storytelling. Audio has the incredible potential to 'augment imagination' (to paraphrase Rob Morgan) which is the best starting for mixed reality storytelling.
It also makes a lot of sense for what we wanted to achieve with the piece. Which was all about connection and recentering the story around the humans in the room. The project started towards the end of the pandemic. We were (and are still) surrounded by so much technology, especially for communication, and we wanted a way to reconnect, human to human.
If this technology existed in everyday life, would you use it? If so, whose thoughts would you like to listen to and why?
I have a slight fascination with the human psyche. I like getting to know people at a deeper level. And I always feel that exposing our vulnerabilities, challenges and quirks is what make us fall in love with each other, not the brave mask we put on. So I'd love an easier access into someone's inner world. And vice versa. But on demand, and with consent. There's obviously a very eavesdropping / voyeuristic aspect in Where We Meet that I wouldn't want to introduce in the real world. But I wouldn't mind being able to share my own world with others, my overly complicated mind thinks that providing insights and context would certainly make me more bearable to others!
Where We Meet is at the Cockpit Theatre from Friday 28th February – Sunday 2nd March, with up to 6 performances per day. For more information,visit: https://www.thecockpit.org.uk/show/where_we_meet Tickets from £16.45
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