Words by Maxine Flasher Duzgunes.
“How can a sculpture retain its autonomy and coexist in the same space with dancers?” asks Bolivian-American sculptor Cecile Johnson Soliz, collaborator with choreographer Faye Tan on the interdisciplinary production In Tandem, weaving dance, sculpture, drawing, and sound, and premiering at The Dance House in Cardiff on January 30 & 31, 2025. Faye, originally from Singapore, currently dances with National Dance Company Wales, and met Cecile through a laboratory initiated by the company in 2022 that matched dancers with visual artists. After being paired by a panel, Faye and Cecile shared two weeks worth of rich conversations and out of that began to view their creative practices in novel ways.
In that intense period, Cecile noticed that they both shared an interest in time-based art and how time passes differently in dance and in sculpture. Prior to their meeting, Faye had been working a lot with repetition in her choreography, and so the addition of sculpture proposed the idea that it could be an extension of human gestures, and could make something physical out of the ephemeral. This relationship suggested how not just dance and sculpture could have a conversation, but other art forms as well – drawings, costumes, soundscape – and how even in keeping their distinct identities they could create a collective conversation.
After the successes of this research together, National Dance Company Wales commissioned Faye and Cecile to collaborate on a full scale work, to be toured and performed throughout 2025 which premieres this week at In Tandem.
Blurring the lines between performance space and gallery space, In Tandem features Faye and Cecile’s piece “Infinity Duet” which is performed three times over the course of the event, offering audience members opportunities to view the work from various perspectives and oftentimes at the level of the six performers. Cecile’s six-meter-long drawings will drape over wooden structures and newsprint rope that can be moved by the dancers, all made through an incredibly physical process. The costumes for “Infinity Duet” have been printed from the drawings themselves, whose abstract patterns are reminiscent of the body going over the surface of the drawing and breathing. And the other set of costumes are huge, noisy ball gowns, also made from newspapers, crinkling like the sea crashing against the shore. The choreography, as well as the soundscape created by composer Richard McReynolds, then picks up on these visual elements, a somatic reverberation of a site which is already somatic in its mere existence.
“I think our collaboration kind of exemplifies the act of being conscious of how we perceive the length of our time on this planet,” says Faye, “and I think sharing those passions with another artist really validates this passion, and it just feels extra important as a human experience to share with other people.” This collaboration has helped both artists grow in their awareness that what they’re saying extends further than the artwork itself, and allows audience members to respond in a manner unique to themselves, as fellow artists and humans in the world. “It relates to the particular time we’re living,” says Cecile, “without using [it] as a subject with a capital S. So it’s about evoking certain things and bringing people, perhaps in an emotional way to those places, but not actually saying, ‘Okay, now we’re going to talk about, you know, in a kind of literal or verbal or written way.’”
“It’s rare that we have two worlds that come together,” continues Cecile, “We have a dance world which is thriving. We have an art world which is thriving, and not just in Cardiff.” Folks all the way from London and Bristol will be coming for the premiere, which will function not only as a site for performance but as a site for brewing exchanges between geographically and artistically diverse audiences.
After its premiere in January, After its premiere in January at In Tandem, “Infinity Duet” will be featured as part of Shorts | Byrion at The Dance House, Cardiff in March, and again as part of National Dance Company Wales’ UK tour throughout the fall. Follow @ndcwales on Instagram for updates on their touring schedule. Header image: Photo by Cecile Johnson Soliz, featuring Faye Tan.