Part of Dancin’ Oxford’s Family Dance Festival, Neon Dance presents an interactive contemporary dance show that incorporates world-class performers, immersive sound design, music and the latest in AI robotic technology. Prehension Blooms explores relationships and themes of companionship and loneliness; set in a distant future and ancient past – an alien world of sand where robot creatures lurk underfoot.
Conceived by choreographer and director Adrienne Hart, acclaimed for her previous Neon Dance works (Empathy and Puzzle Creature), Prehension Blooms features specially made, insect-like robots, named by the team as ‘hōki-mon’ (rake monsters), designed and built by Bristol Robotics Lab in collaboration with award-winning visual artist Ana Rajcevic. The weave of dance and movement between the hōki-mon, dancers and the audience is presented with an original score by composer Sebastian Reynolds, whose cinematic, electronic soundscapes help transport audiences to another time and place.