Two women delve into their personal and shared memories. They reveal their histories of tactile encounters with people, places and environments – the funny ones, the weird ones. The really not so good ones.

Written in the Body is a duet about memory, touch and consent.

It’s a sometimes joyful, sometimes confronting experience as we go on a journey with the performers. Sometimes, their words come tumbling out and connect with our own stories. Sometimes, there is nothing to say. Then, their bodies do the speaking.

Physical contact holds communities together. What do we lose when this disappears?

This new dance piece will bathe you in sensation, washing over you and through you – in focus or drifting. It was imagined long before COVID-19 changed our understanding of touch and how people connect with each other. And yet, here we are, re-learning how to relate socially, physically and emotionally. Rebuilding our sense of ourselves.

Following a decade of creating performances in unusual outdoor spaces nationally and internationally, acclaimed company Charlotte Spencer Projects return to the theatre to ask new questions and start new conversations about who we are. Step into and embrace the transformative world of Written in the Body.

Written in the Body contains themes of memory, touch and consent which some audience members may find triggering. As an audience member the memories shared in Written in the Body can bring into focus our past experiences based on our individual life journeys. We wanted to acknowledge that there is the potential for this to be triggering.

Recorded by Shivaangee Agrawal

[Image description] A close up of two women standing face to face in soft light in a white room. They hold each other’s gaze: one seems to gently cup the ears of the woman opposite; she, in turn, frames the other’s face with her fingers.

Co-commissioned by Brighton Festival, Sadler’s Wells and South East Dance with funding from Arts Council England. Additional support from University of Sussex.

Research 2020-22 was supported by The Place through their Choreodrome Research Residency programme, Siobhan Davies Dance as part of their Percolate Programme, Wellcome Collection, a Bonnie Bird Choreographic Development Award, South East Dance and Arts Council England.

Header image © Rosie Powell