Longtime collaborators reunite in an exploration on staying present amid uncertainty.

Katye Coe and Charlie Morrissey return to something that was started here twelve years ago. Bodies changed. A different world. A practice shaped and reconfigured over time. There is a whole lot of water under the bridge.

Coe and Morrissey come together following This Thing That We Do in 2015, a piece presented at Sadler’s as part of their curated evening of performance, Preparation. In this new work, the two performers pay forensic attention to what is happening and what has already happened. They test what can be done under pressure, stay alert, resist drift and act decisively within shifting conditions. They can stop. Start again. Enter midway. Propose another way. But each proposition is the final version of itself. There is no going back – only a return imprinted with what has already taken place.

This is a piece about how to be present when things feel urgent and unstable. Making decisions on the hoof, the two performers commit to each action and its consequences.

Drawing on decades of performance making experience, Countermeasure is an ongoing negotiation between the two collaborators: how to act, how to know, how to stay present enough to choose – and to keep stepping up on shifting ground.

Sadler’s Wells Co-Commission

Supported by Yorkshire Dance and Wainsgate Chapel

Header image © Camilla Greenwell

Header image description: Two performers dance in a wood panelled room, their bodies connecting at many points. A performer wearing an orange jumpsuit is held high by the other performer, who wears blue trousers and a grey t-shirt.