Be Yourself

Be Your Self is a 70min contemporary dance work that explores conceptions of individuality by reframing the relationship between the self, the singular “I”, and the body. Be Your Self was the first work that Brendan collaborated with Garry Stewart, a collaboration that has since seen them work together on 7 major works and a bunch of smaller projects. The score was woven around tightly syncronised sounds to movement. Scored intricately from video of choreographic ideas, the work was mostly created in the rehearsal space with the dancers, allowing constant iteration and ideation. Formed of recorded sounds of human movement, the palette quickly opened up to including imagining sounds from inside the body, before extending further into object movement sounds in the world. This was all sewn together with Brendan's own unique take on minimal electronic score, spoken word, and sound design. The piece also featured a collaboration with the NYC Achitecture firm, DS&R, who worked with Garry to design the set. They describe their work as a wo­ven surface of elastic fabric bands that appears to warp the stage into a diagonal plane. The woven textile at first conceals the dancers, then allows their bodies and body parts to pass through its surface, enabling a surreal choreography of dismembered limbs to coexist with elements of traditional dance. The fabric surface also serves as a screen, receiving projections of moving shapes and patterns while the dancers pierce through its seams. The projected imagery confuses the audience’s sense of reality as the dancers’ bodies merge and interact with the changing visual compositions. The dancers respond to the projections in ways that blur the distinction between the immaterial graphics and the corporeal body: wiping light off the fabric surface as if it were sand, and in the end, disappearing headfirst into a shrinking pool of white light. Be Your Self was co-produced by Grand Theatre de Luxembourg, La Rose des Vents – scene nationale Lille Metropole – Villeneuve d’Ascq, La Rive Gauche Saint-Etienne – du-Rouvray, CentroCultural Vila Flor Guimaraes, Theatre de la Ville Paris, and Arts SA’s Major commission Fund.