Salamèche

the humour, the pitch-perfect tension […] For a show that is deeply cynical about the way people are together, there’s no way the evening can escape the joy of filling your house with friends, finding the connections between people, and comparing your angles on the drama. A perfect house party.
– Tough Sell, October 2023

I was holding back tears. Catharsis arrives at unexpected times. […] We Move in Circles entwines life and performance: you enter the space as yourself but then you are included into a performance. It leaves you hanging on a cliff wondering, is it me talking, is it not?
– Dance Art Journal, July 2024

Every moment, a disaster was waiting to happen, and I think we all wanted it, even while each social faux pas made us cringe. It was difficult not to want to be a part of it all, and by the end of the show, I was sad it couldn’t go on well into the night.
– Emma Sporton, nottdance, October 2025

In 2019, we began developing a conversational practice with collaborators Sam Pardes and Orley Quick. Collectively, we studied and refined the fine arts of passive aggression, over-hosting and weaponised care, within a wider cultural moment preoccupied with politics of interpersonal encounters.

This practice developed into the performance We Move in Close Circles: a post-lockdown love-song to gathering and friendship, composed of food, toasts, argument, dancing, reality TV, singing, hysterical come-downs, and accountability circles. We Move in Close Circles intervenes on a culture of anxiety and control, in which many of us crave the company of others, while striving to protect ourselves from what such encounters might bring.

The performance takes place in people’s homes, for invited audiences, as a privileged site to address tensions of hospitality, intimacy and control. We Move is subsequently made available to these audiences to be presented within their own homes. This project relies upon and draws attention to our ever-expanding networks of invitation, gifting, trust, and mutual debt. It is an experiment in viral transmission, alternative touring models, and FOMO.

Each performance generates video footage of a party that most will never attend. We Move in Close Circles will culminate in a series of video works that can be available to a wider audience, which can simultaneously address how intimate relations and performed across reality TV and social media.

Performance for homes: First presented in London in February 2023.

Made and performed with Sam Pardes and Orley Quick. From Autumn 2025, performed by Pádraig Condron. The work features a dance choreographed by Elliot Minogue-Stone.

Summer 2023 tour across Nottingham, London and Bristol, hosted by Mil Vukovic-Smart, Andy Smart and Julian; Pádraig Condron and Charlie Dean; Deane McQueen and Rob, Harriet Braine and Seb; and Ben Kulvichit, Lillith Wozniak and Kieren Woods.

Winter 2023/24 tour across London, hosted by Anahi Saravia Herrera and Gianluca; Sophie Brassard and Nathan Marsh; A de la Fe and Rob Vesty; Odhran O’Donoghue and Damian Owen-Board; Liza Stubbs and Carl Marsh.

Summer 2024 tour across Nottingham, London and Coventry, hosted by Christopher Matthews; Daniela and Jamie Basuta-Hone; Tomas Cobbett; Richard Hornsey; Simon Ellis.

Spring/Summer 2025 tour across Nottingham and London, hosted by Lauren Wright; Liz Titherley and Camilla Franchini; Angel Dust and Junyi Lu; Lara Pawson, Julian and Jen; Chloe Willis and Jaden Morton; Rosa; and Emilyn Claid.

Autumn 2025 shows presented at nottdance, hosted by Richard Hornsey; Steph and Matt Crawford; Chris Preece and Harry Freestone.

Review: Tough Sell zine, published October 2023, available here.

Interview: By Maxine Flasher-Duzgunes for Dance Art Journal, January 2024, available here.

Review: By Paula Riofrio for Dance Art Journal, July 2024, available here.

Review: By Emma Sporton for nottdance, October 2025, available here.

Photoshoot images: Photography by Beth MacInnes, styling by Giulia Scrimeri.