François Chaignaud, Cecilia Bengolea

François Chaignaud and Cecilia Bengolea have been provoking audiences from Paris to Tokyo with their fresh perspective on dance. Their sexually-charged work springs from a wide outlook on what constitutes dance, and a desire to challenge how dance history is written.

In their new work, they delve into their personal history of clubbing with an unusual anthropological take, physically examining free styles such as Jamaican dancehall, 70s voguing and today’s twerking. Together with New York voguer Alex Mugler, contemporary performers Ana Pi and Elisa Yvelin, Chaignaud and Bengolea have set themselves the challenge to trust dance and its poetic, expressive powers to create something immediate and visceral.

The piece is also a joyous exploration in grime music. An electro music form born in East London in the early 2000s, the genre combines sounds from dancehall, hip hop and UK garage, bringing the urgency of its MCs to an abstract yet ferocious synthetic sound. Leaders of the new grime wave DJs Elijah and Skilliam mix live on stage in this bold and energising performance.