The critically acclaimed French artist and choreographer Jérôme Bel returns to Tate Modern with a thirty minute excerpt of Gala, as part of Dance Umbrella. Performed by a mix of professional and amateur London-based dancers from a diverse range of backgrounds, Gala invites us to consider the preconceptions we might have when watching dancers perform live onstage.
About the artist
Jérôme Bel’s work was first presented at Tate Modern in 2012 when he inaugurated the BMW Tate Live Performance Room series with a twist on his 1997 performance Shirtology. His work is characterised by the use of humour as a device to disrupt the conventional formality of dance presentation. Gala follows Bel’s earlier works, Disabled Theatre (2012), and Cours d’honneur (2013), in investigating how we might foreground individuals and bodies that are typically excluded from onstage representation. This celebratory work questions how we might reshape the conventions of dance presentation into a democratic representation of society that is open and accessible to all.
Performance credits
Jordan Ajadi, Gyorgy Báan, Julie Cunningham, Teresa Elwes. Colm Gallagher, Stephanie Gallagher, Anoushka de Grunwald Crepaud, Claire Heafford, Seth Kent, Arunima Kumar, Godfrey Leak, Rosie Leak, Finnbar Love, Andy McCleod, Zach Opere Onguende, Samantha Philpott Jones, Finn Burnett Pope, Symoné (Rachel Brown), Jackie Richards and Rosie Terry.
Assistant: Maxime Kurvers
Assistants for the local restaging: Simone Truong, Chiara Gallerani
Artistic advice and company development: Rebecca Lee
Production manager: Sandro Grando
Technical advice: Gilles Gentner
Gala at Tate Modern is curated by Catherine Wood, Senior Curator, International Art (Performance) with Isabella Maidment, Assistant Curator, Performance and produced by Judith Bowdler, Production Co-ordinator, Live Performance and Film.
A Dance Umbrella production in partnership with Bernie Grant Arts Centre, LIFT, TATE and Sadler’s Wells