Eve Stainton

“Welding has a strong alchemical presence,” says Eve Stainton. Impact Driver combines the dangerous work of forging workpieces with the movement of bodies, staged somewhere between camp-looking cowboys and the pragmatic uniformism of industrial factory workers. Events are backed by anti-rock experimental soundscapes by Leisha Thomas and Mica Levi’s film scores and lo-fi punk. 

The choreography feeds off methodologies for constructing thriller-like suspense – without delivering a traditional resolution. Borrowing the logic of a welding workshop, Stainton banks on activities that require live negotiation and decision making. Drawing from time-based notions of being “caught in the act” and “on tenterhooks,” they explore how suspense as a rumbling undercurrent has the potential to punctuate fixed identity constructions. Haunting, time-stretching, absurd.

Credits 

Concept and Choreography: Eve Stainton | Performance: Eve Stainton, Tink Flaherty, Imani Mason Jordan, Romeo Roxman Gatt, Leisha Thomas & Mica Levi | Sound World: Leisha Thomas & Mica Levi | Producer: Michael Kitchin | Set Design and Fabrication: H S Design Studios | Production Manager: Helen Mugridge | Stage and Welding Manager: Hester Moriarty Thompson | Lighting Designer: Charlie Hope | Costume Designer: Ella Boucht | Dramaturgical Support: Liz Rosenfeld & Jamila Johnson-Small | Access Dramaturg and Embodied Writer: Kat Bailed | Choreographic Support: Florence Peake

Co-commissioned by Sadler’s Wells, ICA, Take Me Somewhere, Wysing Arts Centre and Dansehallerne. Supported by Bergen Kunsthall and Wainsgate. Supported using public funding from Arts Council England. Supported by Horizon.