Anatomy of Survival, a new dance-theatre show by choreographer Frauke Requardt, composer Stefano Ancora, and writer Vivienne Franzmann, will receive its premiere performance at Shoreditch Town Hall, as part of their Autumn season exploring women's defiance, survival and climate change. 

This new multi-disciplinary collaboration produced by The Place is supported by the RPS Drummond Lockyer Fund for Dance. The show depicts 28 eyewitness accounts about a scenario that takes place in a café, examining the intimate ways in which the nervous system can shape our reactions and understandings of reality, and will also feature live drum performance from Stefano, using music to depict the experiences of the witnesses alongside two dancers and an actor. 
 

'A woman walks into a cafe. She orders a coffee. The barista doesn't understand her request. The woman loses it. Chaos reigns. 

With two dancers, an actor and a drummer, Anatomy of Survival questions how the human nervous system allows us to explore our colliding perceptions of reality. We have a whole series of strategies to survive in the modern world, but our nervous systems are stuck in the Stone Age. Using the everyday example of a public altercation, the show examines the fragility of shared social reality. 

Through dance, music, text, science, psychology – and a bit of mess – it exposes how easily things fall apart. Anatomy of Survival  is a show for all the nervous systems in the auditorium. Come and feel the rise and fall of yours.'

Anatomy of Survival will be performed 11 and 12 September at Shoreditch Town Hall, and then 23 and 24 September at The Place.

Anatomy of Survival is commissioned and co-produced by The Place in association with The Royal Court. Commissioned by The Royal Philharmonic Society. Supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England.

The RPS Drummond Lockyer Fund for Dance was established in 2007 in memory of the writer, broadcaster and lifelong dance aficionado Sir John Drummond CBE, by John’s long term partner Bob Lockyer OBE, himself a major force in British dance for decades, who sadly died in 2022. In the years since, it has supported a range of collaborations between composers and choreographers, as detailed here on our website.

Click below to find out more and to book for the performances.