MIF23 – Live Art Alive

FIND YOUR EYES

Concept, Direction, Photography, Text and Performance by Benji Reid

AVIVA STUDIOS, WAREHOUSE ONE

Finding the Sublime in the Click of a Shutter: Benji Reid’s FIND YOUR EYES

There are some performances that ask for your attention,here Benji Reid’s FIND YOUR EYES does not ask, it commands it. From the first subtle toll of a bell to the final, well-earned ovation, Reid’s self-described Choreo-Photolist offering doesn’t just hold your gaze; it re-engineers it.

Originally commissioned for Manchester International Festival in 2023, it’s a thrill to see a local artist not just holding their own, but unequivocally owning the space as they return to their home city via touring the production to New York.

Reid, once a pioneer in the UK hip hop dance scene, now an alchemist of light and movement—merges dance, photography, and narrative with surgical finesse. This isn’t just interdisciplinary work. This is interdimensional. The camera, usually an archive tool, here becomes a conjuring device. Images are captured live and appear like magic on giant screens. Reid is a silent sorcerer revealing pages of his spellbook in real time.

The genius of FIND YOUR EYES lies in its transparency. Reid doesn’t conceal the trick; he hands you the wand. You see the fans, the foil, the flashes. You hear the barely-there click of the shutter. It’s not illusion, it’s transfiguration. We witness the banal become beautiful: a charging cable turned cyborg crown; a pole dancer becoming a mythic creature caught mid-flight. You don’t just observe the process, you are implicated in it.

Three performers Slate Hemedi, Salomé Pressac, and Zuzanna Kijanowska channel their bodies with a poise that feels both disciplined and transcendent. Hemedi and Pressac unfold themselves like origami, their precision so intimate it feels voyeuristic. Zuzanna Kijanowska seems more phoenix than pole artist as she defies gravity and expectation. These aren’t performances, they are revelations.

The set design by Ti Green deserves a standing ovation of its own: minimalist but mutative, each act unfolding new dimensions, as though the stage itself is evolving in step with the emotional tenor of the work.

The piece is not without pain. It speaks of loss sometimes in whispers, sometimes in shouts of grief, trauma, and the complicated legacy of Black masculinity. Reid’s monologues, stitched with poetic brevity, touch on family wounds, suicidal ideation, and the tender devastation of caring for an ailing parent. It is brave work, and yet never self-indulgent. Under the deft dramaturgy of Keisha Thompson, the deeply personal becomes piercingly universal.

But perhaps the most moving part of FIND YOUR EYES is its reverence for ritual. It treats creativity as ceremony: the lighting of a candle, the lifting of a lens, the building of a world. This isn’t dance as performance but more dance as invocation with the camera capturing moments in time. Reid is not merely a choreographer or photographer-but a high priest of fleeting truth.

In one of the final monologues, he offers the question: “It’s not how do you fly, but why?” FIND YOUR EYES doesn’t answer that question, instead it invites you to experience the lift-off.

AVIVA STUDIOS 25TH-30TH May 2025

FIND YOUR EYES

Dance, Photography, Theatre

Concept,Direction, Photography and Text by Benji Reid

Dramaturg Keisha Thompson

MANCHESTER ACADEMY

Part of Manchester International Festival

It is always good to see the work of local artists showcased at Manchester International Festival. It is absolutely brilliant when you see one of those local artists produce work that is so exciting and memorable that it easily becomes a highpoint of the Festival. Such is the case with FIND YOUR EYES as self-styled Choreo-Photolist Benji Reid skillfully blends the artforms of choreography, photography and music together in this new work. Set in a music venue this show is simply breathtaking on every level. At barely three minutes in there is a palpable feeling that this is something really special and when it ends 90 minutes later the standing ovation is immediate and resounding.

Benji Reid was originally a highly successful hip hop and popping dancer who worked with Soul II Soul before establishing his own dance company Breaking Cycles. His extensive dance knowledge and choreography skills are evident in this new work which showcases his skill as an award winning photographer. The focus of his work is primarily the Black British experience, Black masculinity and mental health and this production takes a deeply personal and unflinching look at abortion, suicidal thoughts and other family traumas.

It is absolute magic that abounds through this production. The audience is literally looking over Reid’s shoulder as he works softly coaxing expressions or poses from the performers. The imperceptible click of the camera shutter as resulting images appear on the screens. Lights are moved, fans blow, foil crinkles to make light dance or prism…the trick of his trade are unveiled and it feels awesome and exciting. The palpable thrill of being so intimately connected to this artform as the work emerges is genuinely thrilling.

The show opens with Reid tooling up with camera equipment, his back to the audience with vast projection screens either side of him. A bell rings once and so it begins…three Acts featuring intimate portraits, dancers showcasing everyday objects such as charging cables elevated to futuristic headpieces, a pole dancer morphing into a human kite and a deus ex machina bringing salvation to a pain ridden mother. The set design by Ti Green opens out with every Act to bring new possibilities like a box of magic tricks.

The three performers on stage embody grace and strength and fluidity. Slate Hemedi and Salomé Pressac are wonderfully present in every tiny movement they make whether it is being gently molded to hold a seemingly untenable position or to soar with balletic grace. Dutch Pole Dance champion Yvonne Smink adds to this otherworldly imagery by appearing to literally soar and fly off the pole. The whole performance is peppered with moments that make the audience gasp in wonder.

Benji Reid and Dramaturg Keisha Thompson have worked together in 2017 when he directed her one woman show Man On The Moon. The trust relationship is evident in the very personal natural of the text and content of this work. Moments when he speaks of his own trauma and that of his Mother when her body is devastated by a stroke are rendered here with sensitivity and tenderness. The whole feel of this production is of exploring the ritual of dance and photography in a way that feels prayer like and redemptive. The magic of animating life-force, building a moment and capturing it as a permanent image. This work like so much of the artists’ soars, Reid says of his work…”it’s like – not how do you fly, but why? Ask me why I’m flying.” FIND YOUR EYES is a beautiful exploration of human spirit whether we fly by choice or simply when we are momentarily untethered in this world.

Manchester International Festival 12 -16 JULY 2023

BENJI REID

All Right. Good Night.

Large Theatres, Performance Art

Written and Directed by Helgard Haug

Score by Barbara Morgenstern

Arranged by Davor Vincze

HOME

For Manchester International Festival/Factory International

MIF23 is once again working with German theatre company Rimini Protokoll. This time it is to present the UK premiere of the award winning All Right. Good Night. This is a deeply meditative piece which uses sound and text to immerse its audience in a reflection on disappearance, loss and how we as humans deal with uncertainty. Running at approximately 140 minutes without interval, this could be a daunting prospect but it is actually one of the highpoints of this Festival. Beautifully conceived and exquisitely rendered this piece interweaves two real stories of loss to highlight the fragility of life and the tenacity of hope even in the most desperate of situations.

Helgard Haug explores the uncertainty, grief and bewilderment faced by those who lost loved ones on Malaysian Airlines Flight MH370 from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing which disappeared from the skies in 2014. She draws parallels with her own experience of watching her Father descend into dementia around a similar time. The Father as he is referred to in this piece was a man who meticulously planned for his future and poignantly had already built flats for dementia patients. Plans and actual outcomes sadly often differ…people may queue up to board a plane that never arrives…parents may plan for the possible onset of dementia never knowing that the illness may rob them of the capacity to adhere to those plans.

On Stage are 5 musicians from ZAFRAAN ENSEMBLE MUSICIANS and the rest appear on screen and in recordings. The music by Barbara Morgenstern is beautiful and perfectly reflects each event and year that passes for the families in these two stories of loss. The use of projection screens at the front and back of stage help narrate the story as text floats across the gauze hinting at the fragility of life. When the music expands to include the full ensemble they are projected moving across the screen playing their instruments and loop around to surround those actually on stage. The overall effect by Marc Jungreithmeier is wonderfully playful yet hints at the ephemeral ghosts of those lost souls no longer tangible in this world.

The performers on stage ebb and flow…queuing up as a crackling tannoy makes flight announcements, they reappear to literally build a sandy beaches as others dressed in swimwear merges instruments with deckchairs and other beach paraphernalia and fragments of plabe wreckage. Waves lap on the projector screen and light becomes warm and sun drenched as the performers gaze out at the endless horizon. Years roll by as The Father moves from gaffes with birthday cards, confusion, terrors and rages to the inevitable loss of self. Meanwhile each day family members gather at the Malaysian Embassy in Beijing still hopeful of news of loved ones. Each reported possible cure for dementia reignites hope for families just as endless conspiracy theories continue to let individuals hold a glimmer of hope that one day they will be reunited with loved ones.

All Right. Good Night. was reportedly the last recorded words of the pilot on that fated flight. They sound eerily similar to the reassurances of a parent as they leave a child to sleep in the knowledge that the dawn of a new day reunites them. This production gently reminds us all of the fragility of life and the uncertainty that it evokes. Like this lush production it is to be cherished and fully appreciated in the moment…for that may be all any of us have, and perhaps that is ultimately enough.

Manchester International Festival. HOME 6 -8 July 2023

The Faggots And Their Friends Between Revolutions

Musical, Theatre

Music by Philip Venables

Wtiting and Direction by Ted Huffman

Based on novel by Larry Mitchell and Ned Asta

HOME

MANCHESTER INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL

The Faggots & Their Friends Between Revolutions achieved cult status since Larry Mitchell self published in 1977. In a world where acceptance and compassion can flow generously and hopefully then quickly appear to ebb away again, this new production feels timely as LGBTQIA+ rights and safety seems to be worryingly under threat. The blending of a wide range of musical styles, instruments and voices are a carousing anthem for unity and change. A high point of this performance is Kit Green breaking the fourth wall to bring the whole audience together in song. There is a palpable sense of unified passion as everyone literally sings from the same hymn sheet. The word Faggot is cherished here and used with real love in this celebration of queerness and the revolutionary attitude to male patriarchal society required to achieve self-determination.

This is the third collaboration between Composer Philip Venables and Writer/Director Ted Huffman. This new opera commissioned by Factory International is one of the touring productions which premieres at HOME before going to festivals in France and Austria. Previous work includes a highly disturbing opera production of Sarah Kane’s 4.48 Psychosis which apparently induced panic attacks in some of the audience members. Here there is a warmth and generosity in the music that is playful and highly engaging. The Faggots are alongside the faeries, the faggatinas and the women who love women. The music here has opera sitting alongside baroque, bossa nova, and club music. Fifteen musicians, singers, dancers and actors play multiple instruments from lutes and accordions to violins and viola da gambas. The score vividly evokes the sexually charged urgency as magic cock fluid is ejaculated, the folky sense of campfire singing in a Commune and the euphoria of a drug fuelled club night.

The history of the patriarchal society is told as a subversive fairytale. This story flips the history books and slyly suggests it’s the power and paper hungry men who are the aberrations in Society and its the Faggots and their friends who are the original people. All the performers have their moment in the spotlight with some beautiful virtuoso performances. However it’s the inimitable Kit Green and dancer/choreographer Yandass who primarily tell the story. They are a perfect foil for each other with Green all laconic, fluid elegance and pithy delivery whereas Yandass is a powerhouse of taut, passionate energy.

The stage at HOME looks like a vast black box creating a wonderful sense of looking back in time and seeing these performers in a stripped back way where there are no other visual distractions…they have to be seen…and they are seen…as extraordinary, gifted and ultimately human individuals who will carry on and survive whatever Revolutions are yet to come.

HOME 28 JUNE – 2 JULY

Manchester International Festival 29 JUNE – 16 JULY