Duration: 50 min
Premiere - Saturday 14 March 2026 at Rich Mix - London
Part of Certain Blacks' Black Athena Festival 2026
Van Huynh manages something quite rare here: turning very real, visceral anger into a thing of beauty. It’s a political, sweaty mess, and utterly human.’ Fjord Review on Exquisite Noise
“Elaine Mitchener is a singer who redefines what singing means.” The Guardian
Concept: Dam Van Huynh
Choreography: Dam Van Huynh in collaboration with Elaine Mitchener
Performance and Vocal improvisations: Elaine Mitchener
Music and Sound: Michael Picknett
Production Management: Michael Picknett
Photography: Robert Piwko
A ‘performative graffiti’ that transforms the space into a living canvas of collective energy, Graffiti Bodies XV overlays movement, sound art, poetry, sculpture and visual imagery. Responding to Jean-Michel Basquiat’s 1981 painting La Hara addressing police brutality against marginalised urban communities, the performance reflects on the theme of marginalisation through a sensory overload of movement and a cacophony of sound and visual noise. Graffiti Bodies XV urges us to resist the cyclical nature of history and sparks a discussion on who controls the narratives, reminding us that creativity thrives on the streets and amidst community settings.
A new Certain Blacks commission with further support from Centre 151
Paul trained at The Northern School of Contemporary Dance, graduating with a First Class Degree in 2015. He went on to complete an apprenticeship with Motionhouse Dance Theatre, touring over ...
Elaine Mitchener is an experimental vocalist and movement artist whose work encompasses improvisation, contemporary composition, sound art, music theatre, physical theatre and performance art. She currently studies with Jacqueline Bremar. ...
Ian Tang (BFA HKAPA, MFA School of Creative Media, City University of Hong Kong) is a Hong Kong-based cross-disciplinary sound artist and composer. As a composer, his work has spanned ...
Ieva was born in Kaunas, Lithuania in 1991. There she graduated from A.Martinaitis Visual Art School and Kaunas Dance School. Later Ieva majored in Dance at Idyllwild Arts Academy, CA, ...
Over the past 12 years Tommaso has built an extensive career as a performer and more recently as a maker. Based in the UK since 2016 he has collaborated as ...
Duration: 60min
Premiere - 27 November 2024 at Fruitmarket - Edinburgh
Part of Deep Time, Fruitmarket’s festival of new music
“Mitchener is a genre-crossing virtuoso.” Financial Times
“Dam Van Huynh is in his own very stylised world, and has perfected the art of drawing an audience into it.” CriticalDance
Dam Van Huynh concept, choreography & direction
Elaine Mitchener vocals, movement, music direction
Michael Picknett sound artist
The Rolling Calf:
Jason Yarde saxophone, electronics
Neil Charles bass, electronics
Xhosa Cole flute, saxophone
Photography: Wendy Huynh / Tessa Veldhorst - Musical Utopias
Texts by: Julius Eastman, Jeanne Lee, John Coltrane, Jenny Holzer, bell hooks, Françoise Vergès, Stuart Hall, Mitsuye Yamada, Renee Levine Packer
“But now music is only one of my attributes. I could be a Dancer, Choreographer, Painter, or any other kind of artist if I so wished." Julius Eastman
Moving Eastman is a new dance and sonic performance that takes inspiration from the intersectional life of the Black American composer Julius Eastman.
Eastman, who died in 1990 aged just 49, is a key figure in late 20th century American music, but was marginalised during his lifetime. A black, gay, contemporary music composer, he lived every aspect of his identity to its fullest. His attitude was a total assault on the status quo.
Inspired by his life and legacy, the show responds to Mitsuye Yamada’s quote “invisibility is not a natural state for anyone”, sparking a discussion on who controls the narrative and who possesses the authority to tell their stories.
The piece embodies Eastman's unconventional approach to making art across genres and disciplines in a quest for artistic freedom. The performance is led by British Afro-Caribbean vocalist, movement artist and composer Elaine Mitchener with original concept and choreography by Dam Van Huynh. Elaine is accompanied by her long-time collaborators The Rolling Calf: Jason Yarde, Neil Charles, Xhosa Cole.
Supported using public funding by The National Lottery through Arts Council England.
Moving Eastman was commissioned by Fruitmarket as part of Deep Time, Fruitmarket’s festival of new music. With further development support from the Barbican, Hellerau - European Centre for the Arts – Dresden, Musical Utopias – The Hague, Britten Pears Arts, Centre 151 and EMProjects.
"Mitchener doesn’t so much dance to the electronic music (...) as become a pulsing embodiment of it, an astonishing fusion of a cappella song, ragged breathing and shaking limbs. Repeating Eastman’s lines about 'emancipating myself from myself' and being 'black to the fullest, a musician to the fullest, a homosexual to the fullest', she inhabits him and his questing, blurring and symbiotic approach to different art forms (...)" The Wire
"British Afro-Caribbean singer-dancer Elaine Mitchener doesn’t dance to the music but as it: a possession, an Eastman." AIR MAIL
Previous dates:
27 November 2024 – Fruitmarket - Edinburgh (Premiere)
Part of Deep Time, Fruitmarket's festival of new music
9 January 2025 - Korzo - The Hague
Part of Musical Utopias
3-4 April 2025 - Barbican - London
8 April 2025 - Hellerau - Dresden, Germany
Part of Dresdner Tage der zeitgenössischen Musik (DTzM)
Duration: 55min
Premiere - 19 March 2024 at The Arts Centre - Edge Hill University - Ormskirk
“This is a performance which pushes at the boundaries of what dance can be (...)” ★★★★★ To Do List on Re:birth
Concept: Dam Van Huynh
Choreography: Dam Van Huynh in collaboration with the performers
Composer: Ian Tang
Lighting Design: Patricia Roldán Polo
Costume Design: Emma Lyth
Sound: Michael Picknett
Rehearsal Director: Tommaso Petrolo
Performers: Paul Davies, Laura Kenyon, Ieva Navickaite, Tommaso Petrolo, Marely Romero, Neil Yuen
Created with input from: Marc Krause, King San Lo, Wai Shan Vivian Luk, Divija Melally, Elaine Mitchener, Giacomo Pini, Marley Seville, MORUA, Dance Bridges Festival
Photography: redManhattan Photography
Texts by: Jenny Holzer, Jayne Cortez, Trinh T. Minh-ha, Mitsuye Yamada, Walt Whitman, bell hooks, Thich Nhat Hanh, Audre Lorde, Alan Moore, United States Declaration of Independence
“I am no longer accepting the things I cannot change.
I am changing the things I cannot accept.” Angela Davis
Honouring the art of assembly, choreographer Dam Van Huynh explores alternative methods of dissent, drawing on noise to embody defiance and celebrating the power of coming together.
Sounds of protest against inequalities take centre stage, creating a unique sensory experience through music, lights and movement. This is a dance between disruption and communion, an invitation to wake up our collective spirit in an act of solidarity and care.
Supported using public funding by Arts Council England
With further support from The Arts Centre at Edge Hill University, Pavilion Dance South West and Centre 151
'Exquisite Noise is less about storytelling than about collective awakening. What emerges is an onto-epistemological choreography: a sensorial experience of bodies, lights, and sounds that redefines the essence of noise as a political gesture and a deeply human ritual.' Dive(rse) Dance
'Furiously outspoken, the work leaves you buzzing with confusion at the scope for cruelty that humanity possesses, but also with hope for better times.' Dive(rse) Dance
'Van Huynh’s interest in the power, freedom, strength and solidarity of protest and its ability to allow people to find their political voice, resonates with the terrifying present when democracy across the world is under threat and people’s rights and liberties are gradually being eroded.' dance art journal
'Van Huynh manages something quite rare here: turning very real, visceral anger into a thing of beauty. It’s a political, sweaty mess, and utterly human.' Fjord Review
'One saw an active body in peril, one of resistance and community, and all of this represents the power of dissent when used for a valuable cause.' Gramilano
'Visually and kinetically, Exquisite Noise is astonishing. The minimalist staging and strong lighting create a sense of exposure, of risk. There’s nowhere to hide.' Salterton Arts Review
'It’s loud, disorienting, and yet somehow beautiful.' Salterton Arts Review
Interview
Dive(rse) Dance
'The audience and myself go on the same journey and try to understand what [home] means.'
Upcoming performances: Exquisite Noise
Previous dates:
20 February 2024 – Pavilion Dance South West - Bournemouth (Preview)
19 March 2024 - The Arts Centre, Edge Hill University - Ormskirk (Premiere)
19 November 2024 - The Nuffield Theatre - Lancaster Arts
21 November 2024 - University Theatre - Bath Spa Live
4 February 2025 - Exeter Phoenix
7 February 2025 - Old Fire Station - Oxford
4 June 2025 - Blackwood Miners' Institute
5 June 2025 - Trinity Centre - Bristol
10 October 2025 - The Place - London
Originally from France, Laura (she/her) is a London based and international contemporary dancer and yoga teacher with a Flamenco and partner acrobatic background. Laura completed her Dance degree at Kingston ...
Martyna Poznańska is a cross-disciplinary artist who works with different media across disciplines, building connections between the intangible medium of sound and solid matter. This includes the practice of listening ...