Tarantismo is a moving procession, a performance of bodies, sound, and fabric that threads through the industrial bones of White Bay Power Station. Inspired by the Tarantella, a traditional Southern Italian dance said to cure the body through rhythm, the work conjures memory, labour, and resistance through collective action. Dancers, musicians, and local community participants guide audiences through the Turbine Hall and Boiler House, building intensity as they go. A single flute note opens the space. Percussion replies. Choreography ripples across bodies and fabric. Large silk sculptures drop from the ceiling in sudden Kabuki reveals, falling like breath or rupture, suspended, then released. The textiles are carried, dragged, danced with, and left behind, marking the space with both presence and absence. Rooted in Lauren Brincat’s ongoing exploration of sculptural instruments and performative objects, Tarantismo reclaims public architecture as a site for embodied memory. It honours her grandmother, a seamstress at the former Bonds factory, and all forms of matrilineal, migrant labour that have shaped this city. This is a work about gathering, listening, and moving forward, together. A choreography of resistance. A score of remembrance.

Image: Lauren Brincat, 2026. Photography: Daniel Boud.