In the final edition of da:ns focus this year, the Esplanade presents da:ns focus – Out of Site, a weekend of dance performances that foregrounds the intersection of extreme sports and dance. Presented from 6 – 8 December, it’s time to break new ground as these programmes consider how sites of extreme sports function as catalysts for dialogues with risk that unlock new thresholds and stir up new possibilities.

Corps extrêmes, the widely acclaimed creation by Rachid Ouramdane, Director at Chaillot – Théâtre National de la Danse in France, will come to Esplanade after captivating audiences worldwide. In this piece of immense scale and vision, breathtaking levels of acrobatic and athletic virtuosity gently give way to a luminous sensitivity and humbling vulnerability as ten performers meet between earth and sky.

Created with two extreme sports athletes—the French highline world record holder Nathan Paulin, and Swiss climbing champion Nina Caprez—alongside eight acrobats, Ouramdane’s electrifying yet meditative choreography sees these unlikely collaborators flirting with gravity, traversing a magnificent climbing wall built on stage and testing the limits of the body. Somewhere between documentary and dream, simultaneously intimate and larger than life, Corps extrêmes sheds new light on what it means to stand on the edge of a precipice, literally and figuratively.

Also playing will be A Reason for Falling by Malaysian choreographer Hwa Wei-An, which will finally premiere as a full standalone production. This Esplanade commission was first seeded in 2022 and seen at Forward Shift, an Esplanade platform for new works-in-progress by Asian dancemakers. Integrating Wei-An’s background in b-boying with concepts from competitive freeriding, the work will return after two years of development with fresh inspiration and lingering curiosities.  

A Reason for Falling is an exploration of the possibilities that exist between a loss of balance and a meeting with the ground. It is a look at what happens when we let go of control, give in to gravity, and embrace the experience of a fall.This work is inspired by the experience of watching freeriding, the practice of riding down uncurated mountain faces on bikes, snowboards or skis. It is one dancer’s way of translating these practices from vast, open terrains onto the flat, safe space of the dance floor, and to pursue possibility, wonder, and joy.

What else might emerge when we bring the spirit, philosophies and physicality of these sports out of their locales and into the theatre? While we might not all be able to understand what it means to be a professional athlete or might be hesitant about watching contemporary dance in a dark theatre, we may find familiarity in the spectatorship. Come connect with these unusual dance forms taking the human body to its physical limits, and feel the adrenaline pumping as the Esplanade presents da:ns focus – Out of Site this December.

da:ns focus – Out of Site runs from 6th to 8th December 2024 at the Esplanade. Tickets and full programme available here