Where the Veil is Thin
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Musician and composer Brìghde Chaimbeul joins forces with performance artists Maëva Berthelot and Temitope Ajose in an ode to the enigmatic Cailleach Bheur, as her final dance unfolds.
The Cailleach Bheur is a significant character in Gaelic mythology, a one-eyed giantess who lived for centuries on the island of Erraid.
Closely associated with the creation of the landscape and bad weather, she brought in the winter and fought against the spring, and her death marked the fulfilment of a bleak prophecy. It is said that as she died, she sang.
As the Cailleach meets the echoes of her past, navigates the complexity of her duty and reckons with the consequences of a world forever altered, Where the Veil is Thin explores what it is to be a creator and a destroyer, to be feared and revered. Together, Chaimbeul, Berthelot and Ajose weave a narrative that evokes the delicate balance between life, death and the eternal dance of nature’s forces.
Brìghde Chaimbeul
Brighde Chaimbeul (Bree-chu CHaym-bul) is a leading purveyor of experimental Celtic music and of the Scottish smallpipes; a bellows-powered set of bagpipes with a double-note drone. She has devised a completely unique way of arranging for pipe music that emphasises the rich textural drones of the instrument; the constancy of sound that creates a trance-like atmosphere, played with enticing virtuosic liquidity.
Brighde's mesmerizing musicianship has earned her global recognition, including a BBC Radio 2 Young Folk Award, BBC Radio 2 Horizon Award, and in 2021 performed to world leaders at the opening cemerony of COP26.
Her style is rooted in her native Gaelic language but continues to push the boundaries of her instrument and her sound. Her most recent album Carry them With Us featuring renowned artist Colin Stetson has been widely acclaimed and has been most recently profiled in The Guardian, The Irish Times, Stereogum and Dazed & Confused. She has also been featured on Caroline Polacheck's ground-breaking album Desire, I Want To Turn Into You.
Maëva Berthelot
Maëva Berthelot is a choreographer, performer and teacher whose mode of working unfolds along the threshold between experimental, performative and collaborative approaches. Born in Paris, of Guadeloupean and Greek origin, she obtained her MA in contemporary dance from the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Paris in 2003. However, it is abroad that she pursued her artistic career for 20 years.
As a performer, she has collaborated with artists and companies such as Ohad Naharin, Roberta Jean, Emanuel Gat, Sharon Eyal, Damien Jalet and spent six years as a senior member with Hofesh Shechter Company, contributing creatively as an original cast member in numerous pieces and as a teacher.
Drawing from improvisational and somatic practices, her research ongoingly investigates themes of consciousness, transformation, healing, death and rebirth and fnds its roots in a movement practice which explores the multiple layers of the body as well as the invisible systems and structures to which it belongs and with which it interacts. She conceives the body as a receptacle of the echoes of individual and collective memory and sees the choreographic space as an opportunity to create places of resistance, empathy and emotional exchange
Temitope Ajose
Temitope has staged works at venues such as The Royal Opera House, The Place, DanceXchange, RichMix, Dancebase and the Soho Joyce (New York).
As a dancer Temitope has worked with Punchdrunk, Director Carrie Cracknell at The Gate Theatre and The National, Theo Clinkard, Protein Dance Company, Lea Anderson, Joe Moran,Seke Chimutengwende, and Lost Dog to name a few. She performs for visual artists Florence Peake, Adelaide Cioni,Sam Williams and Megan Rooney.
Temitope also engages in movement direction (Old Vic and National Theatre) and for Artist Megan Rooney on her solo shows, at Kunsthalle Germany, Salzburg Kunstverein and The Lyon Biennale.
Temitope continues to make her own work My Name is my Own at The Southbank with director Jo Tyabji in collaboration with critically acclaimed writer Jay Bernard. And her solo work Lady M (at home with Lady Macbeth) commissioned by The Place, which premiered May 2023.
Presented by Attenborough Centre for the Creative Arts in partnership with Brighton Festival
Commissioned by Somerset House Studios and supported by PRS Foundation’s The Open Fund for Organisations