- Title: Bridge the Distance
- Summary: One of the last works that Davies made for London Contemporary Dance Theatre, the dance has a narrative thread with its links to Thomas Mann's Death in Venice. It is set to Benjamin Britten's String Quartet No. 3, Op. 94 (1975), which includes quotations from Britten's last opera Death in Venice, Op. 88 (1973). A number of critics have made various connections between these other texts and Davies' choreography.
- Work: Film (1986)
- Choreographer: Siobhan Davies
- Choreographer Comments: choreographed for the London Contemporary Dance Theatre
- Dancer Comments: Reharsal Director: Sally Estep
- Music: Benjamin Britten
- Sound Score: String Quartet No. 3, Op. 94
- Designer: David Buckland
- Lighting Design: Peter Mumford
- Other TV/Film/Radio Credits Comments: BBC2's Dancemakers - Siobhan Davies: The Choreographer And The Dance, Directed by Colin Nears, Transmitted on20/07/1986
- Analysis: ‘Bridge the Distance signalled a period of change for Davies. The thematic basis to the choreography, partly derived from Thomas Mann’s novel Death in Venice, offered an opportunity for Davies to demonstrate her fascination at that time with how dance deals with narrative situations. It also demonstrates Davies’ preference to work with the more mature and experienced dancers in LCDT, as seen particularly in Patrick Harding-Irmer’s extended solo. It is perhaps one of her more poignant and reflective choreographies’ (Sarah Whatley, 2002).
’Davies asked her dancers what it was that could be learnt through making or performing movements which are on the cusp of being more figurative. She was interested in how much or how little information would be needed within the movement to make it descriptive of a person or a situation’ (Deborah Saxon, 2009). - Production Date Original: 1985
