Sea Change was a daring new mass participatory public realm dance work created by French Choreographer Boris Charmatz for the opening of the 2021 Manchester International Festival. Featuring a company of over 140 Greater Manchester residents performing alongside professionals, Sea Change filled a 300m stretch of road in the heart of Manchester City centre with a chain of dancers, each performing and repeating a section of choreography over a three hour durational performance. Rather than the work moving on in front of the audience, it was up to audiences to ‘move on’ the work: walking past waves of dancers to animate the action into their very own living flipbooks.

Created especially for the Festival, Sea Change made for a unique and captivating response to the Covid-19 pandemic – a celebration of togetherness in a post-lockdown world.

“Sea Change is a huge human flipbook – and we invite you to flip the pages by walking down Deansgate past the performers. Stroll or walk to your own rhythm, and stop wherever and whenever you like: look around, look back and take your time. When you’ve finished, please feel free to do it again – as many times as you like… Sea Change is a moving landscape where you will discover the piece as you walk through the work. I am thrilled that after all these locked-down months, you’ve come to share this unique moment of togetherness with us.” Boris Charmatz

I was Producer of the project for Manchester International Festival, leading a team of over 200 to develop and deliver this ambitious mass participatory project under exceptionally challenging circumstances during the Covid-19 pandemic.