COMPANY Borderline Arts Ensemble
DIRECTOR AND CHOROEGRAPHER Lucy Marinkovich
WRITER AND COMPOSER Lucien Johnson

Thu 12 – Sat 14 Mar, 6.30pm
Sun 15 Mar, 4pm
$53 / $59

Sunday 15 March: Today’s performance of Strasbourg 1518 has been cancelled due to circumstances outside of the control of NZ Festival, the company, or Circa Theatre. All patrons will be contacted by Ticketmaster to resolve bookings.

Please Note: Contains nudity

Runtime: 1hr 14mins

Post-show Artist talk: Sat 14 March

Strasbourg, 1518. A city on the brink. The triple threat of escalating inequality, rampant misogyny and a devastating drought threaten to break the town in two. When a lone woman steps out of her house and begins to dance, everyone is bewildered. But within days, hundreds more have followed her lead. As the authorities invent ever more bizarre ways to resolve this new crisis, the city falls one by one into a delirious hypnosis of a real-life dance with death. 

Directed and choreographed by Lucy Marinkovich and written and composed by Lucien Johnson, Borderline Arts Ensemble’s world premiere explores the unsolved and enigmatic true history of the 1518 Strasbourg dance epidemic. With live music and an outstanding company of dancers including the legendary Michael Parmenter, this production is a visceral, explosive exploration of the limits of rationality, the power of the subconscious and the pivotal need for dance in human lives. 

‘A feast of visual artistry’ — Dominion Post on Lobsters 

“An incredibly innovative and original piece of performance art” – DOMINION POST on Lobsters 

“…Lucien Johnson’s delirious compositions work beautifully with the dancers” – THE PANTOGRAPH PUNCH on Lobsters 

Commissioned by New Zealand Festival of the Arts. Supported by Creative New Zealand, Wellington City Council, Wallace Arts Trust and the Australian High Commission. 

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