Dancers from Canada, Sweden, Poland and Wales arrived in Pembrokeshire yesterday to begin the Welsh leg of their tour of a production at the Torch Theatre, Milford Haven that promises to be ‘out of this world’ in more ways than one.

Weird science and inspiration from Professor Brian Cox’ Wonders of the Universe documentary combines with hip-hop dance for a piece entitled Pixelated Squid & the Universe which will visit Swansea, Newport, Abergavenny and Pontypridd in the next week.

The evening of dance promises to take audiences on a journey from the bottom of the sea to the far reaches of the universe and the Pembrokeshire coastline provided the perfect backdrop for their first meeting on Welsh soil as the performers wasted no time by dancing on the beach of Broad Haven to announce their arrival.

Company members include Swedish/Canadian B-boy and B-girl duo Emmanuelle Lê Phan and Elon Höglund aka Tentacle Tribe, Poland’s Karol Cysewski and Wales’ Gwyn Emberton (Winner of Best Male Dancer at this year’s Wales Theatre Awards) and Alex Marshall Parsons (Nominated for Best Male Dancer at this year’s Wales Theatre Awards).

Marketing Manager for the tour, Jamie Rees says it’s a production that will get audiences thinking:

“People will take away breath-taking dance, laugh out loud humour and a thought provoking experience at the theatre. Pixelated Squid & The Universe, as a title alone, makes you think and wonder doesn’t it? This show will make you see the world in a different way – it will also make people look at dance in a different way. Just watching the Canadian/Swedish duo from Tentacle Tribe who perform Pixelated Squid in the first half of this show and the way they use their bodies in the most fluid and beautiful way to depict diverse creatures of both land and sea through hip hop dance is stunning. Bear in mind these two dancers have performed with Cirque du Soleil – so this is top class stuff coming to Wales. Likewise with Karol Cysewski’s Wonders of the Universe – which makes up the second half of this show – I never thought Contemporary Dance would make me laugh out loud, but this does.”

The tour, which opens in Milford Haven tonight, will visit The Riverfront Newport (25 February), Taliesin Arts Centre Swansea (27 February), The New Muni Pontypridd (29 February), and Borough Theatre Abergavenny (2 March) before disappearing into the ether.

It has been organised by the Wales Dance Consortium, and programmer Judi Hughes insists it’ll offer the perfect introduction to contemporary dance for new audiences with specially reduced ticket prices arranged across the tour to encourage people who have never experienced dance on stage before: 

“Each show is exquisite in its own way - the amazing physical virtuosity of Pixelated Squid alongside the joyously absurd Wonders of the Universe show (4* in the Guardian) makes this a double bill that people will love to see. If you’ve never seen a piece of contemporary dance before this is a great place to start” 

Tickets for the tour are available at www.squiduniverse.com or by contacting the individual tour venues directly.

Tour Dates:

Torch Theatre, Milford HavenTue 23 Feb at 7pm | torchtheatre.co.uk   

The Riverfront, NewportThu 25 Feb at 7.45pm | newportlive.co.uk/riverfront  

Taliesin Arts Centre, SwanseaSat 27 Feb at 7.30pm | taliesinartscentre.co.uk 

Muni Arts Centre, PontypriddMon 29 Feb at 7.30pm | rct-arts.org  

Borough Theatre, Abergavenny Wed 2 Mar at 7.30pm | www.boroughtheatreabergavenny.co.uk