The Chronicles

From the womb to the tomb.

Pulsing with energy and sensuality, The Chronicles explores the cycles of life and inevitability of change. Twelve of the country’s top contemporary dancers meet a masterful electro-acoustic score by Robin Fox, which blends driving rhythms with the stirring, ethereal sounds of a children’s choir and a solo baritone singing live on stage.

Lake’s choreography – her signature blend of explosive dynamism and poetic introspection – navigates these cycles with tenderness and power. From the company that brought us Colossus (MIAF 2019) and Manifesto (RISING 2022), The Chronicles is their newest dance epic.

“Immaculate work from twelve of the most eloquent, individual exponents of contemporary dance in the country.”
- Limelight

“Breathtaking. Profoundly moving.”
- Dance Informa

Program note from Chloe Hooper

Once again Stephanie Lake Company delivers a blood-pumping, heart-as-bomb-ticking, breath-stealing exploration of what it means to be human. Within the space of an hour, we see not just a birth but inside the viscera and sinew of a body. We could be watching the neural pathways, the heart’s thumping ventricles, the urgency of sex. We begin in utero, freefall into adolescence, then inside an arcade game of virtual reality, the dancers becoming their own best and worst avatars. We’re in the rat race of adulthood, all burnt out automatons. We’re in a receiving line of condolence that turns to a violent danse macabre—and because there’s always, always a love of the absurd running through Lake’s work, we’re in a pillow fight as well as a maelstrom; a Pietà that becomes a science fiction story. How could we not be mesmerised? Lake offers a virtuosic dance of ideas. Electrified by Robin Fox’s score, the imagery and emotion of Chronicles implants in the brain, to remind us that we’re always remaking ourselves.

- Chloe Hooper