Productions

Under Choreographer/Director Charlotte Vincent, Vincent Dance Theatre has a reputation for inventive political productions which quite literally delve into the fabric of British society through a socially engaged, UK wide research process.

In Loco Parentis (2020) turned the company’s attention towards themes of home, family and belonging. Made through a process of socially engaged research and informed by real-life testimonies, this intergenerational dance-theatre production reflected on inherited cycles of trauma, rupture and repair that result in children being placed into foster care, care homes and adoptive families.

Building on the company’s research for In Loco Parentis – halted a week after the premiere, mid-tour in March 2020 due to the global pandemic – Vincent Dance Theatre’s new full-length production Hold Tight reflects on themes of enforced separation and insecurity to draw parallels between the impact the global pandemic on family relationships and the effects adverse childhood experiences have on young lives.

Hold Tight is an inter-generational ensemble production performed by established VDT collaborators (including Rob Clark, Janusz Orlik, Aurora Lubos) with teenage performers Eben ‘Flo (Shut Down) and Maia Faulkner (Virgin Territory), staged on a set with a huge blackboard backdrop, originally designed for In Loco Parentis.

Reflecting on our current experience of social and physical isolation, Hold Tight removes all touch from the company’s physical repertoire and is constructed in solo modules over 6 months, combining material from In Loco Parentis based on testimonies from care-experienced children, adoptive parents and foster carers and newly created solos that reflect on the impact that our collective experience of adversity has had on family relationships, emotional wellbeing and our sense of human connection.

Layered with psychological and emotional tension, with a beautiful soundtrack by Jules Maxwell, Hold Tight offers a window into the often detached and dislocated lives of care-experienced young people, embedding their stories within a wider exploration of what home, family and belonging means to us now.

“Really beautiful very, very moving” Audience member & Q+A participant

“I loved the multi-layering and your varied use of media. I thought this enabled the audience to have a sense of the confusion around our children… I actually think it was so profound that some were stunned into silence. I think many will be processing what they experienced for many weeks.” Louise Michelle Bombèr, Strategic Attachment Lead Teacher & Therapist (Post-show Q+A Panel Member)