LIGHT

Presentation

LIGHT explores the threshold between darkness and light as a space of becoming. Inspired by the opening verses of Genesis, the work returns to the moment light first breaks through darkness, asking what this timeless act of creation can reveal about being human in a world that longs for light.
Developed through HUMANHOOD's embodied research and cultural immersion, LIGHT draws together years of artistic enquiry across continents. From practising with gurus in India, to learning from shamans in Ecuador, to living with indigenous communities in Papua New Guinea, to training alongside traditional percussion masters in Taiwan, and recently exploring ritual, worship and collective presence within North American communities, the creative process has been guided by one enduring question:
What—or Who—awakens us to the light?
In LIGHT, this enquiry is distilled into an immersive theatrical experience where the stage becomes a living universe in continuous transformation. Performed by seven dancers, bodies emerge, dissolve and reappear as movement, light, smoke and sound continually reshape the space around them. At the heart of the production is a bespoke Smoke Cannon, developed in collaboration with Artem, the special effects company behind BBC productions, which launches monumental smoke rings that glide silently through the theatre like celestial bodies before dissolving into nothingness. Together with HUMANHOOD's distinctive fluid movement language and a subtly woven voice, these ephemeral architectures blur the boundaries between presence and absence, the visible and the invisible, inviting audiences not only to witness the work, but to inhabit it.
Ultimately, LIGHT asks whether, in a world increasingly shaped by distraction, division and uncertainty, awakening to light might also awaken us to one another. Rather than offering answers, LIGHT creates the conditions for reflection, inviting audiences to rediscover wonder, presence and the possibility of human connection.

Co-producing Partners