Previous Productions
Kernow Agan Tre
Cornwall Our Home
A Dance Theatre production by Numinous Dance Theatre Company, toured Cornwall 2024-26.
Celebrating Kernow, Kernowek people & their stories throughout time. Reminding us of our need for Connection, Joy & Hope.
Directed by: Sapphire Sumpter
Choreographed by: Sapphire Sumpter (& dancers)
Music by: Dalla, Teyr, Holly Ann Coles, Matt Kelly, Tommie Black-Roff, Dan Woodfield, (Harry Glasson)
Sound design by: Jago Coleman (& Kyle Richardson) Words by: John Harris
Performed at: AMATA & Hall for Cornwall 2024-25
Performed by: -Sapphire Sumpter -Ishita Raina -Chrissy Warren -Julia Stalica -Olivia Walton -Katie Rose Whincop -Dorka Zatonyi -Meg Underhill Neeve Richardson -Anna Broome -Katie Pritchard -Student performers from Jason Thomas Performing Arts (mentored by Sapphire Sumpter)
Special Thanks to Klub Nos Lowen for the continued support and inspiration.
Sorrow
SORROW - choreographed and shown by nine dancers including Sapphire Sumpter in the role of the ‘outsider’, performed at Signatures (LDIF19), a collaboration between Serendipity and Dance4, the Curve, Leicester. Set to the second movement of Gorecki's Symphony no.3 and Audiomachine’s Farewell to Earth, Sapphire Sumpter's choreography examines and explores the concept of sorrow as a transformative process with the potential to lead people out of their trance. The perpetual cycle of hate and fear can thus be broken, moving towards compassion, forgiveness and humanity - eventually leading to a state of oneness.
Performers: Sapphire Sumpter, Chih Yuan-Yang, Llewellyn Brown, Jacob Gale, Dominika Dosledova, Neneka Koboyashi, Napasorn Setasartit, Jonothan Lutwyche, Jade Thomas
View Sorrow here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKtVokpoRgM
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Excerpts From Forgiveness
‘Excerpts from Forgiveness’ follows the inner journey of the individual to find the strength to forgive the unimaginable. The piece begins sometime after the unforgivable has taken place and starts with an individual’s plight to break free from the invisible cage that binds her to the painful wounds of the past. This struggle is one of primal awakening and utter desperation, that leads the individual on a journey through eternity, represented by a desert landscape. As the individual grows exhausted from this struggle, she is met by others who are on the same journey to break free from their past suffering, and although it takes a while to realise she is not alone, the individual eventually begins to understand that she never has been, and never will be alone. This first section is set to ‘Song of the Butterfly’ by Estas Tonne and is in reality the part of this journey where the souls are finally releasing the anger and hurt from past trauma to leave space for new emotions of loving kindness to be prominent. The souls - weary and exhausted from this release - find themselves in what appears to be a healing cave, with a pool of water that both tempts and transports the souls into a trance-like state, where all is still and calm and beautiful. It is in this stillness that the souls hear and feel the frequency of the universe as well as the sound of life beginning – represented by ‘Voices of Eternity’ by Jane Winther. With the arrival of the last piece of music “Poem of the Atoms II” by Armand Amar, the scene evaporates, and the audience is left unclear if the water filled cave was indeed real, a mirage, or if the whole journey is the inner world of one of the individuals. The souls now stand on top of a canyon, looking out over a deep orange sunset, full of nostalgia and catharsises for now they are healed enough to remember the past and to feel again. One of the souls finds sadness in remembering and is reminded by another that this is indeed only the beginning of the journey and that now they are free.
Performers: Sapphire Sumpter, Chih Yuan-Yang, Dominka Dosledova, Joshua Freedman, Llewellyn Brown, Zoe White
View Excerpts from Forgiveness here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_C9gJsghWog
Timeless Voices
Numinous' debut work, performed in 2022. A duet with live music titled Timeless Voices, a site specific work commissioned by the Hall for Cornwall and performed in several locations around Cornwall
Initially inspired by reading old hand written texts and diary entries by Cornish people over the period when mining was one of the main forms of work in Cornwall. These are stories that are still so relevant to us now, in 2022, because we as human beings still experience the same trials, tribulations, joys and hardships when experiencing life, love, joy and loss and the various cycles that repeat in all of our lives. As we emerge from a very difficult couple of years, it is vital to remember and embrace our past in order to build a brighter future.
Borne from a combination of myth, legend, folklore and history, this piece told stories of men and women of Cornwall’s past and shared the universality and timelessness of these voices.
Using a combination of live music, spoken word and improvised dance, it was a pleasure to work with George Clement Peer and Lloyd Lovell, and many thanks to Ben Sumpter for providing historical context and research as a starting point for the piece.
Performers: Sapphire Sumpter, LLoyd Lovell
Musician: George Clement Peer
Song of the Golden Dragon
A performance by Numinous Dance at the Sterts Midsummer Dance last year. Commissioned by Dance Centred. Created and performed by Sapphire Sumpter, Steve Slimm and George Clement Peer. A structured, improvised performance in which we discovered the dance as we performed it. Program note: There is a moment in every journey of the self where we finally break free from our old selves, from everything that we once believed to be true, from the walls we built for our protection that since became our prison. Song of the Golden Dragon is that moment of breaking free from this prison. It is the moment of shedding our winter skin, our shell we have outgrown, it is this bursting out into the unknown.
In an instant of blind trusting I break out of my prison of comfort
And as I open my eyes I realise that all I once saw
Was nothing but illusion and falsity.
And so, with heart beating and deep breathing I take in this new earth around me.
Allowing and embracing the rawness of renewing
It is beautifully overwhelming.
As I dance with every fibre of my being,
I awaken parts of me I long believed were lost
And I realise who I really am.
I see the world as it really is.
I remember.
It is time.
Performers: Sapphire Sumpter, George Clement Peer (music), Steve Slimm (music)
View Song of the Golden Dragon here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QIgJP5Ekx8w
The Journey
Shamanic Journey is a collaboration between filmmaker Julian Konczak and choreographer Saphire Sumpter. The film incorporates the ancient and wildness of the West Penwith landscape with a chereographed dance sequence unfolding across underground caves and wide open heaths. The camera remains static, allowing the performance to portray transitions into the archetypal spaces of shamanic journeying - the upper world and lower worlds of compassionate spirits that reveal elements of the soul to the self.
Performer: Sapphire Sumpter
Production: Julian Konzcak
Music composed & performed by: Barry Ganberg, Jason Ganberg