• Countless Yellow Chairs

Laïla Diallo and Jules Maxwell

(UK/France)

'At the heart of it are nine chairs. The two of us, and nine chairs. In turn, they, and we, are an aloneness, an embrace, a memory, an imprint, witnesses. They are bones, they are a forest, they are stacked, they are an aftermath, they are a ballroom, they are resting, they are one short, they hold our weight, they hold our wait. They are countless. And they are nine yellow chairs.’ — Laïla Diallo


Countless Yellow Chairs invites a contemplative gaze on an unfolding of events that speak of presence, of memory, of memories and of the passing of time. The objects take centre stage, firing our imaginations and bringing to light something of our own humanness.

Devised and performed by dance maker Laïla Diallo and composer Jules Maxwell, Countless Yellow Chairs follows on from their first collaboration, Hold Everything Dear.


After the performance Groundwork Pro will be hosting a meet and greet with Laïla and Jules in Chapter's theatre foyer. Click here for details about a special ticket deal for the Groundwork Pro network.


Laïla is also performing In This Moment as part of a double-bill with Liz Roche Company on Thursday 9 November. Click here for more information.


'Gaping jaws and Jurassic spines, hilltop gallows and fallen battalions, caves opening from rocky crags, and transient, messy human tenderness in a clean, linear world. So many images suggested from nine yellow chairs.'
Katy Noakes, Restaged and One Dance UK
‘A pensive, delicate assemblage of movement and music’
The Times on Hold Everything Dear

Credits
Devised and performed by Laïla Diallo and Jules Maxwell
Photos by Jack Offord

Countless Yellow Chairs is supported using public funding from Arts Council England. It was co-commissioned by Theatre Bristol, Bath ICIA and Bristol Old Vic Ferment/Jerwood Charitable Foundation.


Laïla Diallo and Jules Maxwell

Laïla Diallo is a dance maker based in Bristol. Recent work includes Edge and Shore, a collaboration with visual artist Helen Carnac commissioned by Siobhan Davies Dance, last presented at The Whitechapel Gallery in London, and Something about wilderness and several attempts at taming beauty, a collaboration with choreographer Mélanie Demers commissioned by Skånes Dansteater in Sweden. A recipient of a Rayne Fellowship for Choreographers in 2006, Laïla was also an Associate Artist at ROH2, Royal Opera House, between 2009 and 2012.

Jules Maxwell is a theatre composer and songwriter based in Northern France. Recent work includes Doctor Faustus, Antony and Cleopatra, The Merchant of Venice and Boudica at Shakespeare’s Globe in London, Virgin Territory for Vincent Dance Theatre and Spectrum for Skånes Dansteater in Malmo. As a piano player Jules has toured with Dead Can Dance, Duke Special and Foy Vance. He is currently collaborating with Lisa Gerrard on songs for Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares, and lighting designer Lucy Carter on a sound and light installation. 

Laïla and Jules also worked together on Hold Everything Dear