States of Being, in a Small Space

William Bracewell

Principal Dancer of the Royal Ballet, The Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London 
A Film by Candida Richardson, 2023
Commissioned by Clare Farrow Studio

States of Being is an experimental study of the human body, moving, inhabiting and responding through dance movement to a small space. William Bracewell's Barbican Estate studio was transformed by Intervention Architecture in 2020 just before the pandemic. In this film, shot over six hours in May 2023, he responds not to the structures and patterns of a music score, as a ballet dancer is trained to do, but directly and freely to the space itself: his dressing room of 22 sqm, backstage in The Royal Opera House.