THE QUIET DANCE & THE UNISON PIECE – BURROWS & FARGION

“Burrows and Fargion mix their idiosyncrasies with passion and a kind of genius. The joy of these duets is that they deliver dance and music in ways we never expect.” The Guardian

Choreographer Jonathan Burrows and composer Matteo Fargion have collaborated for over 35 years and their duets continue to tour widely. The work is hard to place, combining intellectual rigour with unexpected humour, but it has its roots in a shared love of musical forms, which they clash against an approach to performance that is at once open to audience but also anarchic and joyful.

At Wainsgate Chapel the two artists will share their 2005 performance The Quiet Dance which collides walking and vocal sound in a constantly surprising overlap of coincidences, followed by their most recent work The Unison Piece (2025), a timely investigation, critique and celebration of doing things together,
performed at tables with two electric guitars.

Duration: 50 minutes no interval

“It’s incredibly quick, rehearsed to astonishing precision… simple material becomes quietly spectacular.”

The Independent

Burrows and Fargion have created an internationally acclaimed body of duet work including Both Sitting Duet (2002), The Quiet Dance (2005), Speaking Dance (2006), Cheap Lecture and The Cow Piece (2009), Body Not Fit For Purpose (2014), Rewriting (2021) and The Unison Piece (2025).

Fargion has also written music for many other performance makers including Helga Arnalds, Claire Croizé, Siobhan Davies, Mette Edvardsen, Karl Jay-Lewin and Andrea Spreafico.

Burrows is the author of A Choreographer’s Handbook (Routledge, 2010/2025) and Writing Dance (Varamo Press, 2022), and is currently Associate Professor at the Centre for Dance Research Coventry University

“It’s all wildly, unclassifiably bonkers – postmodern music hall or performance art in a house of mirrors or a tower of Babel. But the timing of every note, shrug, laugh and gesture is awesome. The nonsense has a shining clarity.”

The Guardian ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐