Dead Point

This is a play in suspense, on a rope Swing. A fusion of aerial cloudswing choreography and original text, it is a journey up into expansive imaginative heights, from where the views are startling.

The dead point is the technical name for the still, quiet suspension point at the top of a swing. It is there, at that exact moment, that all the aerial choreography, the twist, turns and drops, must be executed. As the performer swings through space, she speaks: giving a voice to this mute moment. She swings between the extremes of waiting and weightlessness, despair and hope: this is a story of trying to find the point.

Dead Point was commissioned by ROH2 at The Royal Opera House with support from the Helen Hamlyn Trust. It developed out of a research project supported by The National Circus Development Project in 2003. It was premiered at The Royal Opera House at The festival of Firsts '05 with great success.

Conceived and performed
by Matilda Leyser
Written by Bryony Lavery
Aerial tuition and choreography
by Michele Weaver
Devised by: Annabel Arden, Annie Castledine, Bryony Lavery, Matilda Leyser, Michele Weaver.
Lighting design by Chahine Yavroyan
Costume Design by Liz Cooke