PLUE
Past Public Performances
May 2022, Hatch Beauchamp Village Hall
Nov 2021, Livestreamed performance from Artsadmin
Part queer courting ritual- part disappearing act, Plue is a playful examination of queer visibility and intimacy.
A collaboration with choreographer Joe Garbett. Click here to see more of Joe's work.
Somewhere between a queer courting ritual and a hypnotic disappearing act, Plue playfully examines queer visibility and intimacy – exploring the fluctuating degrees LGBTQIA+ people feel seen and pressured to camouflage. Plue (2020-onward) was spurred on by Eli and Joe’s pandemic experience as a queer/non-binary couple living in rural Somerset. Isolated from their city-dwelling queer community, they were uncomfortable with how easily their queerness/transness was obscured in our new home. It seemed they camouflaged without wanting or trying to. Plue inspects this queer- cloaking device. Eli and Joe are interested in the nuanced ways queer people signal and/or reveal their queerness to different people in different situations, how you can feel seen or invisible depending on who is in the room with you, and queerness’ mischievous propensity to expand beyond the parameters it’s given and spill out in to view.
Eli and Joe want to unpick, upend and reclaim the 'coming out' process and reinterprit it as something mischievous, coy and joyously queer.
During Plue's first R&D, Eli & Joe connected with 5 other LGBTQIA+ couples living rurally in the South West, documenting rural queer perspectives on how the pandemic has effected queer visibility, expression & intimacy. You can read some of the conversations they had by clicking here.
Eli and Joe are primed to expand, refine and resolve Plue’s choreography ready for touring. Plue’s final phase of development will focus on finishing two versions of Plue- one version to tour mid-scale dance theatre venues (such as The Place) and one stripped back version with wrap around engagement activity to tour rural touring venues (such as rural community halls, libraries and schools).
Production Credits
Creators & Performers // Elinor Lewis & Joe Garbett
Costume Maker // Chloe Mead
Illusion Direction // Neil Kelso
Choreographic Support // Natifah White
Photographer & Videographer // Beliza Buzollo
Producer // Alison Thomas
Support
Arts Council England, The Place, PDSW, South East Dance, Artsadmin, Taunton Pride, Off The Record Bristol, Diversity Trust Alphabets Youth Project, 2BU, Somerset Lesbian Network and Qart.
TIMBER
A suspenseful balancing act about managing risk and finding space to flourish within precarious situations.
Six, wooden, door-sized frames, balanced upright in a row - waiting to fall like dominoes. Two people defiantly occupy this precarious space, performing a suspenseful balancing act. Skin on wood, they strain against the frames, straddling the frames like lovers. Joints creaking, they slowly queer the timber, becoming slow-moving, part-human-part-frame hybrids.
In a kaleidoscope of light, TIMBER is about reclaiming risky spaces, straining against limitation, and finding space to flourish within precarious situations. This slowly unfurling work explores the simmering power of silence, stillness, and gradual change, whilst playfully testing people’s attitudes toward risk and precariousness.
Production Credits
Creator and Choreographer // Elinor Lewis
Creative Contributor // Hannah Parsons
Performers // Elinor Lewis and Hannah Parsons
Set Designer // Hannah Sharp
Lighting Designer // Nao Nagai
Costume Designer // Berthe Fortin
Photographer and Videographer // Rocio Chacon
Consultants // Dr Sophie Jones, Viv Gordon and Hamish MacPherson
Many thanks to TIMBER's interview participants, whose stories and ideas helped fuel TIMBER's creative research. You can read these conversations by clicking here.
Support
The Place, DanceXchange, Arts Council England, Artsadmin's BANNER Award, Goldsmiths College, The Welcome Collection, Take Art, Pavilion Dance South West, Taunton Pride, Somerset Lesbian Network, Diversity Trust and Chard WATCH.
ORCHARD
Like a rarefied circus act, it is part minimalist dance, part installation. Mesmerising and nerve-wracking.
Neil Norman Resolution Review 2018
A forest of vertically balanced poles, vulnerable to the lightest touch. Two performers navigate this precarious environment with the ever-present risk that one mistake could prove catastrophic.
Production Credits
Creator and Choreographer // Elinor Lewis
Creative Collaborator // Nuria Legarda Andueza
Lighting Designer // Nao Nagai
Costume Designer // Berthe Fortin
Photography // Ludovic Descognets
Support
The Place, Arts Council England, Aerowaves Twenty19, Artsadmin, Goldsmiths College, PDSW through #SWDancing2019
Past Performances
The Place // London, UK
Artsadmin // London, UK
BORA BORA // Aarhus, Denmark
Mac Val // Spring Forward Festival, Val-de-Marne, France
Baluarte // 948 Merkatua Festival, Pamplona, Spain
WHERE YOU TO?
Where you to?
Commissioned by Brewhouse Theatre, Taunton, WHERE YOU TO? is a interactive, digital, choose your own adventure website that dances you through the unseen natural beauty of Somerset. Elinor collaborated with Joe Garbett to create WHERE YOU TO? which is made up of 62 dance GIFS and 32 dance films.
Have a go at making your own dance adventure by clicking here.
Production Credits
Creators // Elinor Lewis and Joe Garbett
Performer // Joe Garbett
Photographer and Videographer // Elinor Lewis
AURAL.EFFECT
A collaboration with sound artist and Bloomsburg New Contemporary, Jesc Bunyard, Aural.Effect invites the public into a darkened room to experience dance in a new way - through sound alone - unmasking the physical and emotional effort dancers exert when they perform. Click here to find out more about Jesc's work.
Past Public Performances
Jan 2017, The Bluecoat