CALL TO ARMS

2021
Installation & Performance

Smoke, marching, the glint of flares refected on helmets. Shields lock together, crowds scatter and re-form. Escalate, synchronise.





Call To Arms is an immersive artwork by PentHouss that uses dance, sound, light, optical illusion to explore themes of governmental power, control, and social unrest. Six dancers dressed in real riot police uniforms move through a series of crowd control tactics lifted directly from police training in a choreography that also draws from krumping - a dance style informed by street fight- ing. The action takes place in a mirrored hexagon, creating an infinite army before the viewer in its reflections. An exposé of the theatrics of order enforcement, Call To Arms reflects on the complex relationship between agents of power and the civilians they supposedly protect; on the instrumentalisation of fear; on the duality of “them” and “us” at street level. Movement is dance; movement is assembly; movement is a call to arms.








Artists - Anna Lann and Yonathan Trichter at PentHouss
Creative partner & curator - Helen Neven
Choreographer - Ekin Bernay in collaboration with PentHouss
Choreography assistant - Yamina Lyara
Original score composition -Anna Lann at PentHouss
VFX & CGI - Ran Bensimon
Performers - Kailon Chery, Gilles Geissbühler, Jevan Howard- Jones, Jonathan “Chino” Martinez, Jonny Vieco, Chaldon Wil- liams
Set design - Lyndon Ogbourne at LSD Studio and PentHouss
Light design - Joshua Harriette and PentHouss
Still photography - Daniel Jackont



Video footage captured and shared by eaudience members during their visit -