Unbound Dance Theatre

Photo Credit Simon K Allen

Unbound Dance Theatre was founded by Sandrine Monin in 2024. Grounded in Monin’s extensive work with blind and visually impaired adults, the company’s mission is to champion inclusivity, connection and expression. echome is a foundational tool in the company’s work, especially the effort to free dance from dominant visual registers. One specific way in which Monin is using echome with workshop participants involves the creation of complex trans-sensorial imagery, consisting of different kinds of images, which can be explored progressively or separately. Each of these images constitutes a unique combination of a specific sound (from the in-built echome library or sourced independently), a movement quality and a set of verbal prompts. By creating the sound through her own movement whilst giving vocal prompts, Monin creates a kinesonic web (see Kinesonic Embodiment Video 5) through which participants can safely explore different movement qualities, relation to space and internal imagery. The technology is then handed over to the workshop participants who can create some of these images through their own movement and/or cue the movement of others.