Event Details

Seke Chimutengwende returns to the Nuffield Theatre with his first show here since 2023’s It Begins In Darkness. The Last Quartet imagines a “last work” or a “last attempt” at choreography.

“We shall not cease from exploration

And the end of all our exploring

Will be to arrive where we started

And know the place for the first time”

T.S. Eliot, Four Quartets

Four dancers are figuring everything out through movement - how to begin, how to connect, how to change, how to end - leaving fleeting traces of scenes, relationships, and characters for the audience to contemplate. They share the stage with composer Jamie McCarthy, whose elegiac, electro-acoustic score evokes the slow and sudden changes of weather systems and cloud formations.

Seke is thinking about this “last work” as an opportunity to go back to the beginning; back to the core elements of dancing and music, to imagine them anew. The Last Quartet offers a glimpse of limitless possibilities and new beginnings in this current moment where hope is scarce and futures lie everywhere in ruins.

Seke Chimutengwende is a choreographer, performer, movement director and teacher. The Last Quartet is inspired by T.S. Eliot’s ‘Four Quartets’. Following the performance of The Last Quartet, Seke will be in residence at Lancaster Arts for a week, researching his new choreography for six dancers set to Miles Davis’ groundbreaking 1972 album On The Corner. There will be a sharing of this work in progress on 20 November.

"A rare choreographic language."

Corridor8

Credits:

Choreographer: Seke Chimutengwende

Dancers: Temitope Ajose, Charlie Ashwell, Seke Chimutengwende and Matthias Sperling

Rehearsal Director: Stephanie McMann

Composer: Jamie McCarthy

Dramaturg: Efrosini Protopapa

Costume designer: Annie Pender

Lighting designer: Marty Langthorne

Set designer: Bethany Wells

Production manager: Michael Picknett

Producers: Metal & Water

For more info on Seke's work, please see: https://www.sekechimutengwende.com/

Age:12+

Image design: Jack Barraclough; Photography: Jemima Yong