There are dancers who execute movement. And there are dancers who simply are the movement – Jemima Brown is one of those. She is an incredible mover, melting through space or glitching in sharp shards of motion. It all seems completely natural to her.
For several years Brown has worked with Tom Dale, a choreographer who makes dance that is steeped in technology, digital culture and electronic music. Surge, which opens this double bill, is a solo where Brown not only dances but sings live. She appears android-like, an AI-enhanced future human, in white skin-tight costume and close-cropped bleached hair. The feel is unearthly, Brown’s voice pouring over a dark electronic score by producer Ital Tek. She is part robot, part house diva. Surge’s universe is created by designer Barret Hodgson, with sheets of light slicing the stage, and complex digital projections, suggesting neural networks and electronic circuitry, patterns chasing Brown across the floor – sometimes she seems to control them, sometimes they control her.
