Staged in Sadler’s Wells main theatre but in an intimate configuration with only seating for 400 (including some on stage) this is a unique presentation. Numbers and counting set the pace – and the theme for this remarkable work. For centuries, dancers have counted to four, six, or eight, and then started over. In modern choreography, they may count in more complex ways, combining 13s and fives, but what would happen if they counted to infinity?

Boris Charmatz explores the relationship between the finite nature of the body and concepts of infinity.

Navigating mathematical purity and the symbolic value attached to numbers, the performers mesmerize as they dance and count at the same time, in a test of memory and resilience. They count on the spot, backwards, towards the infinitely small and the infinitely large, alone or in unison, keeping the beat or standing in the face of time.

Part of Dance Reflections by Van Cleef & Arpels Festival

Image description: A dancer, head bent, jumps over a cable between electrical fittings mounted on the floor. With feet pressed together, they are some 20 centimetres in the air, one arm pressing out to the side, the other curled in, forming a fist. They wear only a beige vest with black pants pulled up high over it, and pale blue ankle socks and sparkly red shoes with a strap, like Dorothy’s shoes in the The Wizard of Oz.

Co-presented by Sadler’s Wells and Dance Reflections by Van Cleef & Arpels
Header image © Alain Scherer