Brooke Sorensen, Congfang Xiao and Eve Walker
Resolution Festival 2025
About Brooke Sorensen, Congfang Xiao and Eve Walker
Cathedrals
Cathedrals is a provocation aimed at religious structures. Jewel-toned moonlight shines through cascading stained glass and hymns fill the vast, vaulted ceiling as six female dancers manifest reverence, rage and rebellion. In perfect symmetry, patriarchal hierarchies mirror the grandeur displays in religious spaces. Embodying years of generational pressure to conform to steep standards, dancers immerse the audience in a wrestle with twin tensions: the emotional tension women experience when holding conflict and the atmospheric tension palpable in cathedrals.
About Brooke Sorensen
From the U.S., Brooke Sorensen moved to London at 19 to pursue an education with London Contemporary Dance School. Here she honed her passions for research and choreography, creating work informed by feminist theories and new materialisms. Graduating with a First Class Honours in 2024, Brooke is now a Choreodrome Artist at The Place, a choreographer with Milton Keynes Dance Theatre, and pursuing an MA with VERVE. Brooke’s choreographic practice draws from her personal experience within wider societal contexts. For Brooke, creating dance is a form of rebellion; taking up and creating space for voices that she feels need to be heard.
Cast & Credits
Dancers: Carys Thomas, Daphne Wright, Louise Lawson, Ming-Chin Hsieh, Noor Darwish, Sunny Coco Marko-Bennett
Lighting Designer: Mila Mussatt
Producer: Elvi Christiansen
Hey STOP!!!
Hey STOP!!! is a dance piece exploring the theme of social anxiety. Through an interdisciplinary approach combining dance and installation art, the work seeks to uncover and address the deeper causes of inner fear, while inviting the audience to reflect on the psychological state of individuals as they interact with others in contemporary society. The piece aims to offer new perspectives on overcoming social anxiety, contributing to the healing of the mind.
About the Creative Team
Congfang Xiao (Spring) is a choreographer active in China and the UK, focusing on dance’s societal value and potential to drive social change. Hong Xu, based in London and Guangzhou, explores body perception and its spatial relationship with the external world through fashion design and interactive performance. Therese Ni, a visual artist, delves into the fluid dualisms of reality and fiction through film, photography, and performance. Jack Smith, a composer, works across acoustic and electronic environments, exploring diverse musical textures and atmospheres, often collaborating with multidisciplinary artists in dance and film.
Cast & Credits
Director/Producer: Congfang Xiao (Spring)
Choreographer: Congfang Xiao (Spring) and dancers
Costume/installation designer: Hong Xu
Composer: Jack Smith
Photographer: Therese Ni
Dancers: Sheldon Ridge, Lucie Ohnisková, Moose Sverrisson, Ya Shu, Hannah Todosijczuk
For Steve
For Steve is an improvised performance work between dancers and musicians influenced by the work of Steve Paxton and the principles of Contact Improvisation. Impacted by the pandemic and a lack of touch, the work explores how we can recall the touch of others and find ways to connect other than through the physical. Through conversation between dancers and musicians, questions explored include: When are we in contact with others? How are we in contact? Is the physical the only form to access contact? For Steve offers opportunities to delve into these questions and unpick these principles through improvised conversation amongst the two art forms of music and dance.
About Eve Walker
From North Yorkshire, UK, Eve Walker trained at Dance City Training Academy in Newcastle Graduating with First Class Honours in 2023 before going on to complete an MA in Dance Performance at The Place, London. Through both undergraduate and postgraduate training Eve's interest in choreography, specifically improvised performance alongside close collaboration with music, has developed resulting in the performance work of For Steve. With mentorship from Theo Clinkard, Eve's work has evolved as the experience of dancers and musicians that is simply witnessed by an audience in the moment whilst lending all trust to the art forms. Eve works with an approach of care and kindness and aims to work in this way not only with others but with herself as an artist too.
Cast & Credits
Choreographer and Dancer: Eve Walker
Dancer: Maria Giacchetto
Musician (keyboard): Findlay Hewitson
Musician (Saxophone): Grahame Easthope
Mentor: Theo Clinkard
