About The Solvents

The Solvents are an emerging international (FR-UK / RUS / BR-IT / GER) performance group formed in Dartington College of Arts, 2003. We devise experimental events that question the tacit roles, rules and relationships entrenched in performative exchanges. Our work spans Dance-Theatre, Live Art, Site Specific Installations, Web Projects, Videos and the organisation of Interactive Parties.
The different nature of our projects has won us a new Award for Versatility, at NSDF06.


Our Mission

We are dedicated to make people reflect by eliciting strong responses in them.
We treat our audience like spiritual workshop participants (Cosmic Family), create gigantic props that makes them 'crawl out on their knees wanting more' (DCA Lecturer about Leviathan) and invite people to 'play' rather than come and see a play (Inside Out, Solvents Games and Parties). In each project, we create a 'play-world', with its own specific aesthetic, that allows the audience to interact with their preconceived notions of reality.

We want each moment of our performances to be on the edge between simplicity and insanity. We want the audience to feel they witness something engaging, surprising, sweet and sour at the same time, like life itself.

Our work was said to provide a ‘disturbing take on modern life’ (Three Weeks, Edinburgh Fringe 06), to be 'addictive' (South West Dance) and ‘as funny as it is terrifying’ (Rating 5/5 - Edinburgh Metro).
 

The Way We Work

By infusing our active ‘Solvent’ imaginations with traditional and contemporary devising methods, we create diverse facets of physical performance that expose the full horror and beauty of human experience. We draw upon, and shamelessly mix David Lynch aesthetics and Monty Python humour with approaches of Open Theatre, Butoh and contemporary dance, Post-modern collage and Fragmentation.
 
The members of the Solvents Theatre company believe perplexities can be solved by dissolving them. We experience our dreams, emotions and fantasies as an essential part of our 'eggsistance'.
 
'In our work we investigate how we can use dance and theatre to give shape to this inner world. Like one does to a marshmallow, we slowly roast our characters until their innards start spurting out through their skin, come to the light of day, and display both their horror and beauty.' - Klaus Kruse
 
We involve our audiences in our 'play-worlds' and attempt to 'open their eyes in their back' by giving them a five sense experience and experimenting with spectatorial positions, performance sites and contexts. Our projects bleed into the 'real world' when possible: they happen in Flats, Forests, Parties, Clubs, through Websites as well as in performance spaces.


 

Core members of The Solvents:
• Celine Smith
• Dani d'Emilia
• Dmitri Paranyushkin
• Klaus Kruse


Core collaborators:
• Nina Wehnert (Inside Out Guesthouse)
• Baptiste Ande (Inside Out Guesthouse)
• Michael Ulfik (Inside Out Projects)
• Mitsu Salmon (Inside Out Projects)

• Ula Dajerling (Cosmic Family, Acts, TASK ME flash mobs)
• Freaks in the Box (Pig Act)
• Supercomedian Reggie Watts (Pig Act)
• Rhiannon Chaloner (Leviathan, Free Range)
• Uta Baldauf (Leviathan, The Dogs Act)
• Bosworth Acres-Debenham (Leviathan)
• Coreo Balfour (Leviathan)
• Hiske Budding (Leviathan)
• Marcello Windolph (Cosmic Family)
• Matt Lord (Cosmic Family, Free Range, music for this website)


Documentation:
• Alex Forge (Video Stills - Cosmic Family Videos - Documentary on the Cosmic Family at the Fringe - Inside Out Projects)
• Kate Mount (Cosmic Family and Leviathan Photos) 
• Andrea O Mecci (Cosmic Family Photos)

Reviews of our Work

"A young performance company full of verve and attack who explore stimulating concepts and reframe them in their own distinctive style.
They have a charming performance style, which is believable and engaging, and the worlds they create are a delight to be part of. The Solvents are addictive."' - Ian Abbot, South West Dance
 

About Cosmic Family

“hilarious expressionist cabaret" - The Sunday Times
"as funny as it is terrifying" - Rating 5/5 Metro


About Leviathan

'Poetic event of aural beauty' - The Sunday Times
"The space becomes the ship, the sea, the inside of the whale with shifts in dimension and focus, the company skillfully employing the magic that only can happen in the theatre." - Dartington College of Arts Lecturer

more reviews on our Press page

Awards and stars

The news paper Metro has rated the show The Cosmic Family five stars *****, at the Edinburgh Fringe 06.
The Solvents had two of its shows selected for the National Student Drama Festival - NSDF06: Leviathan and The Cosmic Family . They were awarded the:

• Judges’ Award for Versatility
• Judges’ Commendation for Soundscape (Leviathan)
• Directors’ Guild Award (Klaus Kruse)