Cold Blood

Three virtuoso dancers use only their hands to create a tender and humorous story that is filmed live in front of an audience.

Cold Blood is a remarkable live, feature-length cinema-dance show. It’ll make you smile, laugh, and gasp in amazement. It’s like nothing you’ve ever experienced before.

A drive-in movie, a war-ravaged city, a space station. An old-time, Fred and Ginger-style tap routine. A night at the ballet. All conjured using an elaborate miniature film set, some tiny props – and a cast of dancing hands.

Brussels-born dancer and choreographer Michèle Anne De Mey and Belgian film maker and playwright Jaco Van Dormael collaborate to create a live film before your very eyes – a journey through time and space, through the mind of a woman balanced on the brink of life. Cold Blood is about seven deaths, but it is a celebration of life – of the senses, of the final moments of light, and of the unexpected memories at the moment of passing. 

With three virtuoso dancers using only their hands, and a crew of film technicians capturing the intricate choreography, exquisite tiny sets and evocative lighting – all projected on a giant screen above the live performers – Cold Blood is a poetic exploration of the miniature. It is poised between tragedy and comedy, tenderness and humour, where fingers intertwine then relax, caress each other then depart. Featuring magical visual creations alongside music by Schubert, Ravel and Gorecki, David Bowie, Janis Joplin and Nina Simone, this is no ordinary night at the theatre. You may never look at your hands in the same way again!

Magic happens. It is absolutely and undeniably charming. - Le Devoir

almost impossible to describe in any way that does it justice - The Scotsman

Introduction in the Bistro at 6.30 pm ahead of both performances