dying duets | shimmering

dying duets is the extension of a Life process, through performance, where we dare to stay with the questions, shimmering, as we embrace the vulnerability of fragility and living risk. Join us in a reflective space where moving as witnessing lays the ground for story.

Drawing on the radical softness of the heart-space, Kirstie and Charlie explore the carrying of death through life and the momentary deaths that reveal Life in its most essential essence. The one choice, within the myriad of possibilities, that is called for in every moment; the burning away, and the joy and transformation that is released.

Our work is an affirmation of the poignancy of human connectedness, and its implications for health and resilience in facing the universal and personal challenges of our lives today.
Kirstie and Charlie’s ever-evolving collaboration is centered on their shared passion and dedication for dance and healing, which manifests through teaching, performing, and co-creating.

What people say about this performance:

‘It was wonderful to experience the subtle beauty of your work. You were both radiant. I felt a gentle warmth, tenderness and connection to self and others that will stay with me.’
Tessa Waite

‘Fundamentally, what moved me was the intimacy and vulnerability you both inhabited, how this speaks of the larger story; the need for loving kindness, how pain opens us into feeling ourselves in the current world.

There is this proposal by Barry Lopez that feels to be in the same field of immanence you invoke in your moving...

'In this trembling moment…is it still possible to face the gathering darkness and to say to the physical Earth and to all its creatures, including ourselves, fiercely and without embarrassment, I love you, and to embrace fearlessly the burning world?’ (2022)’
Simon Whitehead

Kirstie Simson (UK):
Has been a continuous explosion in the contemporary dance scene, bringing audiences into contact with the vitality of pure creation in moment after moment of virtuoso improvisation. Called "a force of nature" by the New York Times, she is an award-winning performer and teacher who has "immeasurably enriched and expanded the boundaries of New Dance" according to Time Out Magazine, London. Kirstie is internationally renowned today as an excellent teacher, a captivating performer, and a leading light in the field of Dance Improvisation, with a dance practice that spans over four decades. From 2008 – 2020 Kirstie held a position as a tenured professor in the Department of Dance at the University of Illinois. In August 2020 Kirstie returned to her home base in Wales from where she continues to deepen the investigation of her work, sharing her findings with others around the globe. Kirstie is framing her work now, in the light of our uncertain future, as practices that can help us develop resilience in the face of challenge. She uses her own experience of facing a life-threatening health issue as a foundation for ongoing research into the wisdom and healing powers we discover through listening deeply into our embodied intelligence.
www.kirstiesimson.com

Charlie Brittain (UK):
Charlie’s passion lies in empowering others to take ownership of their practice and champion their values through dancing. He continues to perform internationally with dance companies, independent projects and in collaboration with other artists alongside his choreographic work, which looks to the processes and innate wisdom of the body as a vehicle for learning and a means to extrapolate compositional methods. He is a sought-after rehearsal director and choreographic facilitator working across a range of artistic environments and ventures as well as a passionate teacher, regularly invited to lead classes and workshops for dance companies, educational institutes and festivals worldwide. Charlie integrates his art with his practice as a bodyworker, movement rehabilitator, biomechanics specialist, musculoskeletal health specialist and integrative health practitioner, specializing in the treatment, rehabilitation and education of dancers and movement practitioners as well as lecturing and examining on higher education programs in the U.K. and Europe. Charlie continues to practice clinically in frontline pre-hospital emergency care for U.K. emergency ambulance services; he is currently studying his MSc in Acute Medicine from the University of South Wales.
www.charliebrittain.com