Stephen Shropshire: We Are Nowhere Else But Here

We all carry within us traces and knowledge from history. The great challenge is interpreting them. Inspired by political theorist Edward Said’s suggestion that coexistence would be the greatest challenge of the twenty-first century, Stephen Shropshire’s newest work explores the challenge of coexistence in our most intimate encounters, buried, as he writes, ‘in the density of the human knot’. Shropshire’s piece for two dancers explores very personal and sometimes painful endeavours to achieve coexistence, to find ways of understanding the other, our direct counterpart, beyond all generalisations. Piano music by Beethoven and Schubert floats through a door in the background; the man and the woman barely let go of one another. To what extent can she “bear” him? How much respect for her can he maintain? Shropshire, an American based in Maastricht in the Netherlands, was a guest at the first COLOURS Festival in 2015. His new piece has just been awarded the Dutch dance prize “De Zwaan”.

“Brilliant. Disturbing, but brilliant.” – artstalkmagazine.nl, Netherlands

“Stephen Shropshire has excelled himself. This is a jewel, remarkably danced and acted.” – De Volkskrant, Amsterdam

“Here the small can become big: Shropshire’s highly physical piece is an innovative and sophisticated demonstration of the contemporary duet, the art of cooperation in dance.” – NRC Handelsblad, Amsterdam