About the Artist

Gillie Kleiman is an artist living and working in Newcastle upon Tyne. Her work starts from interests in dance and choreography and manifests in performances, texts, and events, presented in venues and festivals associated with dance, live art, theatre and visual art, nationally and internationally, including at Sadler’s Wells, Dance Umbrella and Nottdance. Recent shows include Recreation, DANCE CLASS: a performance and A Lyrical Dance Concert, the latter two of which were presented at Dance City.

As well as possessing degrees in dance and performance, Gillie is near completion of an AHRC-funded practice-based PhD in choreography at University of Roehampton. She has previously received the danceWEB Scholarship, was supported by Artsadmin’s Artist’s Bursary Scheme in 2013-4, took part of the first Sadler’s Wells Summer University, and is an associate artist at Dance4.

‘I find connections between the choreographic and the political, speaking to and through questions of labor, friendship, civic participation and free time through methods that are unique to dance and choreography. Despite being a formalist at heart, the audience’s experience is always at the forefront of my thinking.’ 

 

About the work

Familiar will be a full-length evening of performance comprised of two works: one authored by Gillie and performed by theatre-maker Greg Wohead, the other authored by Greg and performed by Gillie. An exploration of pairing, doubleness and kinship, the works will be intimately entangled, made in tandem and presented as an inextricable diptych, together offering a satisfying connection and complexity.

Familiar plays out what it means to be companions, where we think we know everything about each other whilst facing the fact that we can’t.