Ghost Dimensions is a performance by Project X (Mele Broomes and Ashanti Harris) in collaboration with Healer Oran and Tseliso Monaheng, and supported by Creative Scotland and The British Council. The piece was performed at The Centre for the Less Good Idea in June 2019 as part of The Centre’s For Once programme of events.

Merging live performance, electronic soundscapes, and abstract cinematography, Ghost Dimensions explores the idea of the body as a repository of incorporated histories, both internalised and externalised. The performance begins as audience members begin to file into the venue and find their place. Two dancers, Broomes and Harris, emerge and begin to move slowly, twisting in the light. They are separated by a thin sheet of fabric, a boundary that’s navigated by performers and audience members alike. Mirrored and manipulated visuals of sprawling cityscapes provide the setting for Broomes and Harris’ performance, the soundscape comprising abstract looped vocals, pitchy atmospheric samples and sound-bites.

Throughout the performance, the two dancers engage in a measured duet. They are turning, lilting, rising spectres moving through the space, basked in the acidic purples and greens, watery blues and electric pinks that play out in duotone. As Harris and Broomes engage in this ritual of memory and fragmented sound and visuals – a unique synergy of contemporary diasporic dance and performance techniques – the audience stirs throughout, standing up and walking around, constantly navigating the boundaries of the performance in order to gain a new perspective.

Across the 50-minute piece, sound, lighting, visuals, performance, as well as audience engage in the collaborative acts of moving and viewing, and Ghost Dimensions unpacks the form and function of the body, metaphorically and metaphysically. It is a dance through history, through practice, process and more.

– David Mann

CREDITS:

PERFORMERS | Mele Broomes & Ashanti Harris
MUSICIAN | Healer Oran
VIDEOGRAPHER | Tseliso Monaheng
CREATIVE PRODUCER | Rhea Lewis
PRODUCTION MANAGER | Shruthi Nair
SUPPORTED BY | Creative Scotland & The British Council