Paul Michael Henry makes the kind of work that requires audiences to lean in. It’s not safe, bland or reassuring; rather, it’s powerful, intensely rendered and beautiful, the kind of work that resonates and stains your vital organs.
His performance for the Edinburgh Festival, Shrimp Dance, is no less a disquieting piece. At once a Butoh performance, meditation and examination of scientific discovery, it defies easy categorisation.
As well it should. Created by Henry with a collaboration from Dr Alex Ford at Portsmouth University, whose studies into the shrimp population being affected by antidepressants washing up in coastal waters provide the thematic backbone, this is a show mired in years of research.
A visceral experience, Shrimp Dance fuses dance with live visual projections from Jamie Wardrop and music from Jer Reid.
Read my full interview with Paul Michael Henry here :
Paul Michael Henry talks Shrimp Dance
Dance Base, Grassmarket,Edinburgh, August 5-14th
Hit The North 