Sonic Bites: Dance Off

Cryptic presents the fifteenth in our sensory series of audiovisual appetisers broadcast at 13.00 BST every second Thursday and available for 24 hours to offer you a welcome lunchtime escape from emails and online meetings. Down tools and indulge in some digital delights to invigorate and inspire for the afternoon ahead.

Time to take your lunch break and savour a Sonic Bite… on Thu 6 May

A swirl of noise and vision, Dance Off links our own movements to that of bees, exploring individuality and community in the process. It is the pivotal moment within the narrative of choral sound work The Swarm, when the bees have to decide as a group where they will build their new home together. Scout bees seek out potential new locations, like metal cylinders, ventilation shafts, hollow trees, and other cavities found in an urban environment. They then return to the waiting cluster of bees and communicate their findings using a sequence of movements, called a ‘waggle dance’. With this work, Heloise Tunstall-Behrens & Auclair wanted to imagine the world from a bees-eye view, collaborating with Rosalind Fowler, Tilly Mint & Simon Ryninks.