Live outdoor dance performance coming to Northumberland coastal village

Eliot Smith Dance, based in Newcastle, is staging Homecoming on Saturday, July 3 at 6.30pm.

It promises a packed programme of highly physical works, featuring recent virtual commissions by award-winning choreographers Mark Baldwin, Eliot Smith, and Jake Vincent.

It includes a world première by newcomer Yamit Salazar, and a short film celebrating the incredible 10-year journey of the Eliot Smith Dance company.

Yamit Salazar’s Bloom takes its inspiration from Colombia’s yearly ‘Festival of the Flowers’ and tells stories of strength, beauty, and the diversity of people.

A moving and colourful human work, Bloom is driven by traditional and modern songs, and draws particular visual reference to the end of human transportation by "Silleteros", the porters of Colombia who were hired to physically carry people and their belongings through routes such as mountain passes that were impassable by any other means of transport.

Alongside Bloom are Mark Baldwin’s Messiah, Jake Vincent’s Onward, and Eliot Smith’s TroY. The adaptation and modernisation of the story of Troy, with a cast of four male dancers, takes its inspiration from the Greek mythological story of Helen of Troy. Set to original music by award-winning composer Adam Johnson, the work explores Smith's investigation into identity, LGBTQ+, and gender, using the re-imagining of the ancient story.

This will be the last chance for audiences to see Eliot Smith as a dancer. He has chosen this as his final season before he retires from dancing to devote his time to choreography and to continuing his post as artistic director of Eliot Smith Dance, the company he founded ten years ago.

He said: “It’s incredibly exciting that we will soon be welcoming audiences back to our live performances and here our thanks must go to Arts Council England, Woodhorn Museum, Newcastle Arts and Culture Fund, and to many individuals for their support.

"We cannot wait to bring life back to our local theatres and community settings, and to let the joy of live dance performance inspire and entertain people once again. Everyone at ESD feels fortunate and excited to be able to go back to doing what they were born to do.”

Tickets are on sale on-line via www.eliotsmithdance.com/events

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