HOMECOMING

Mixed Reality Performance x Interactive Experience

by Choreographer Georgia Tegou & Visual Artist Kristina Pulejkova

What happens when your world falls apart? You descend into the underworld and reclaim your ruins, pick up your wrinkled thoughts. And then...

HOMECOMING follows the ghost of Lena Arbori, trapped in a liminal space between life and death. Guided by the eternal Watcher, she retraces fragmented memories of her past, reliving her relationships with first love Emma, her husband Franco, their son Marco and her friend Anna. Moving through moments of love and heartbreak in her ghostly form, Lena confronts her losses in a desperate search to reclaim her body and sense of self.

At its heart HOMECOMING is a meditation on identity, loss, and self-discovery. The work draws from the evocative imagery of Louise Bourgeois, whose Femme Maison series explores the entanglement of female identity with the domestic space, containment, and fragmentation, and Caravaggio’s striking chiaroscuro technique, where light and shadow carve out moments of revelation and emotional intensity. Born from the question “Can we reverse entropy?”, the piece reimagines the myth of Eurydice, asking what could have happened if she decided to return from the underworld herself.

Live Performance Duration: 60 minutes
Immersive Intallation Duration: 50 minutes

Concept, Direction, Choreography, Visual Design
GEORGIA TEGOU & KRISTINA PULEJKOVA

Music Composition & Sound Design
VINCENT CAVANAGH / THE RADICANT

Costume Designer
JUSTIN SMITH / JSMITH ESQUIRE

Lead Creative Coders and Visual Artists for the VR experience
UNCHARTED LIMBO COLLECTIVE

Lighting Designer
JACKIE SHEMESH

Associate Lighting Designer
JOE HORNSBY

Performers in the Live Theatre Performance
SYNNE LUNDESGAARD as Lena Arbori, KIMBERLEY HARVEY as The Watcher, XAN DYE as Emma,
JOSHUA JAMES SMITH as Franco, ARRAN GREEN as Marco, ANNA SMITH as Anna

Performers in the VR Experience
SYNNE LUNDESGAARD as Lena Arbori, XAN DYE as Emma,
AKSHAY SHARMA as Franco, EDD ARNOLD as Marco, ANNA SMITH as Anna

HOLOGRAM PERFORMERS
SYNNE LUNDESGAARD as Lena Arbori, KIMBERLEY HARVEY as The Watcher (Motion Capture)

Rehearsal Director & Performance Coach
SARAH WALTON

Production Manager
MICHAEL PICKNETT

LX Programmer
ROS CHASE

360 Videography
SIVANI HASSARD

Holograms & Trailers Videography
JACKIE READ

VR Animation
DAVE NORTON / LIMBOTECH

VR Consultant and Interact Machine Learning Researcher and Developer
CLARICE HILTON

Bread Sculpture
CHRISTIANA SOLINAS

Audio Visual Specialists
KITMAPPER

Creative Producer
LINDA PĒTERKOPA

Producing Consultant
LIA PRENTAKI

Assistant Creative Producer
MARITA ANASTASI

About the directors

Choreographer and stage director, Georgia Tegou’s work approaches 'Dance-as-design', intertwining choreography with design to create immersive visual environments. Drawing inspiration from architecture, sculpture, visual arts, science and philosophy, she explores the symbiotic relationship between dance and spatial arts, seeking to encapsulate nuances of the human condition. The performances and installations are created through collaborative processes resulting in experiences that blend contemporary dance, visual physical theatre and performance art. Her work has been presented by organisations such as Dance Umbrella International Festival, Sadler’s Wells, the Royal Opera House, the Venice Biennale of Architecture, Onassis Stegi, the Greek National Opera, The Place, ZfinMalta National Dance Company, Southbank Centre, The Whitechapel Gallery among others. It has received acclaim and has been described as 'Visually evocative' (Eckhard Thiemann - The Lowry) ‘Dreamlike (The Times), 'Tremendously clever’, ‘Admirably Strong’ (Sanjoy Roy), ‘work that’s shifting and challenging dance and its intersectionality to broaden access to wider communities’ (Dance Umbrella). She has choreographed two official music videos for dance-pop cult favorite Róisín Murphy and she has directed fashion editorials. She is a Higher Education Academy Fellow, she was recognized with an ‘Excellence in Teaching Award’ by the University of Roehampton and she guest lectures globally. She is currently an artist in residence at Somerset House Exchange, a programme supporting extraordinary interdisciplinary practitioners.

Kristina Pulejkova is a visual artist based in London, UK. Her interdisciplinary practice is informed by science and technology. Kristina’s work explores how the use of technology might lead to greater forms of sustainability in human-nature relationships.Working across moving image, sound and installation, she aims to build subjective narratives based on scientific data and principles. In her work, she tends to imagine voices from creatures, objects and even atoms to inhabit non-human perspectives. Through the use of immersive technology, her works often deal with environmental issues, telling personal stories that place audiences at the centre of the scene, allowing for a protagonist’s perspective and a different way of seeing. Kristina holds a Magisterium Degree (BA + MA) in Painting and Animation from the University for Applied Arts, Vienna, Austria (2012) and an MA Degree in Art and Science from Central Saint Martins, London, UK (2014). She is the recipient of the inaugural FLAMIN Fellowship by Film London (2017). Kristina’s works have been exhibited/screened at the Ars Electronica Festival, Linz, AT; National Gallery, Skopje, NMK; MoCA, Skopje NMK; The Science Museum, London, UK; MAN Museum, Sardinia, IT; The V&A, London, UK; MAK, Vienna, AT; Project Space Kunsthalle, Vienna, AT; Het Glaspaviljoen, Eindhoven, NL; Upstream Gallery, Amsterdam, NL; Art COP21 Paris, FR; Whitechapel Gallery, London, UK; Art Licks Festival, London UK; Lewisham Art House, London, UK; and Royal College of Arts, London, UK amongst others.

Georgia and Kristina are working as a duo within the Resident 6 artists programme at Studio Wayne McGregor pushing boundaries of dance, movement and physical intelligence. Georgia and Kristina have collaborated since 2017, creating interdisciplinary work that merges dance, holographic imagery, and virtual environments. have been working together since 2017 creating interdisciplinary work that uses dance, holographic imagery, live projection mapping, immersive 360 video, and most recently VR and XR.

Creative team

Music composition & Sound design: The Radicant, aka Vincent Cavanagh, collaborates internationally on AI/VR projects (BBC, London Session Orchestra, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Bulgarian National Philarmonic Orchestra, Sonar Barcelona, NADA Miami). Formerly Anathema's frontman released 11 studio albums, toured globally and earned several awards like Anthem of the Year & Album of the Year (Progressive Music Awards). Focusing on cutting-edge collaborations, he continues to push boundaries in music, technology & art.

Costume Designer Justin Smith, graduated with distinction from the Royal College of Art, shaping his label JSmith Esquire. His handcrafted millinery and costume designs have adorned celebrities and featured in collaborations with Angelina Jolie, Emma Thompson, Robert Downey Jr, Star Wars and Stella McCartney. Justin's innovative approach has earned accolades, with his work displayed in international galleries and permanent collections at institutions like London’s V&A and New York’s FIT.

Creative Technologists: Uncharted Limbo Collective, an award-winning collective of Creative Coders and New Media Artists, crafting computational magic at the intersection of Science, Technology & Performing Arts. Inspired by natural phenomena, biological systems and the dynamics of the Human Body in motion, they harness the latest advances in Computer Graphics, Visual Effects and Software Engineering to weave immersive worlds where digital matter and artificial life-forms interact with humans. Their craft is marked by their deep belief in the meaning encapsulated in the greek word 'Technē': Powerful art cannot exist without exquisite technique. They are the makers of their algorithmic and visual tools, which shape their ideas as much as their artistic vision pushes the boundaries of their technology. Fusing their individual expertise in the fields of Computational Design, Game Development, VFX, Film & Architecture, they founded the Collective to work in ways far greater than the sum of their parts. Collaborations include Alexander Whitley Dance Company, MET, Nike.

Lighting Designer: Jackie Shemesh designs lighting for dance, theatre and visual art. He has collaborated with Ben Duke and Lost Dog for more then a decade, designing most of their works. He has worked with many dance organisations such as the Batsheva Ensemble, Rambert, Ballet Boys, Scottish Dance Theatre, Dorky Park (Berlin), National Welsh Dance, Candoco Dance and Protein Dance. Other choreographers include Stephanie Schober, Jamila Johnson-Small, Eva Recacha, Nigel Charnock, Hetain Patel, Arthur Pita, Alexander Whitley and more. Theatre credits: ‘Ramayana’ for the Lyric Hammersmith, The Hound of the Baskervilles for Peepolykus and Neal Street Productions, Vanya and Mary Stuart (Rob Icke) for Almeida Theatre.

Associate Lighting Designer: Joe Hornsby is a lighting designer of theatre, dance, immersive productions, music and events. His recent credits include productions with Polka Theatre, Theatre Rites, 20-Stories High, Deafinitely Theatre, Belgrade Theatre Coventry, James Cousins Company, Strictly Arts Theatre Company, Marc Brew Company and Pell Ensemble. Joe was associate designer on the 2018 West End transfer of hit musical Caroline, Or Change. Joe is passionate about creating unique and unexpected designs and enjoys collaborations incorporating light into props and staging.

Performers

Kimberley Harvey is a freelance contemporary dance artist. She performs, choreographs and teaches. Kimberley has been associated with Candoco Dance Company for over 20 years, working in a variety of roles. She has also worked as a Visiting Artist at Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital as part of the GOSH Arts programme. Kimberley leads her own inclusive contemporary dance company, Subtle Kraft Co. Their work centres on relationships in their various forms, primarily working between live performance and film.

Synne Lundesgaard is a dance artist and performer originally from Norway. After graduating from London Contemporary Dance School, she has worked extensively both in Norway and the UK, creatingand contributing to work for stage screen and gallery spaces. She has an interdisciplinary approach to her work, also working within costume design, film and creative production.

Joshua Smith is a London-based dancer and creator working across live and media-based projects. With a dynamic approach to movement and storytelling, Joshua merges contemporary dance, physical theatre, and multimedia elements to create an immersive and thought-provoking performance. He has performed internationally with companies Akram Khan Company, Jasmin Vardimon, Arthur Pita.

Xan Dye (they/them) is an independent artist whose practice emerged during a time when they were learning about their neurodivergence and beginning to explore what a movement practice could offer in relation to this. Challenging fixed and rigid binaries, Xan explores how they embody neurodivergent and queer ways of being and thinking. Working from pleasure and permission, they create spaces for sensing and sensitive ways of being in our bodies and about others.

Arran Green is a London-born performer, director, and dance educator whose work bridges movement, culture, and community. With roots in Capoeira and Hip Hop, he developed a personal style grounded in connection, creativity, and growth. A former member of the National Youth Dance Company under Akram Khan, Arran trained at London Contemporary Dance School, becoming a versatile contemporary artist fluent in multiple movement languages.His practice spans performance, choreography, mentorship, and teaching, with collaborations across music, fashion, and education. He lectures at Rambert School and LCDS and sits on the board of Sadler’s Wells, honouring the cultures that shaped his path.

Anna Smith trained at the Rambert School of Ballet and Contemporary Dance where she worked with choreographers such as Richard Alston, Darren Ellis and Alleyne Dance. Since graduating she has performed at the Royal Opera House in operas choreographed by Kate Flatt and Michael Keegan Dolan. Movement directed for the Royal College of Music Opera Love, Conflict and Renaissance. Co choreographed the short film Change of Chimes in collaboration with English Heritage, National Youth Ballet. As part of creative duo alongside Harry Wilson she has produced work for Brighton Fringe at South East Dance, The Place’s Resolution Festival London and Exeter Northcott Barnfield Theatre.

Akshay Sharma is a performer and choreographer, born in India and now based in London. He trained at the Northern School of Contemporary Dance in Leeds and has been performing, collaborating and creating work within the sector over the past seven years. His work draws on western contemporary forms and integrates principles from non-European traditions, combining unique movement vocabulary, writing, and his practice of Indian classical (vocal) music. He has worked with Scottish Dance Theatre, Vidya Patel and others.

Edd Arnold is an independent contemporary dance artist working in choreography, performance and education. He performed both nationally and internationally with Balletboyz, performing works by Russell Maliphant, Javier de Frutos, Ivan Perez, Craig Revel Hallwood, Liam Scarlett, Christopher Wheeldon and Pontus Lidberg, Russell Maliphant Dance Company. Edd has joined the Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch Ensemble from 2025 on.

Commissioned by The Place

Supported by The Lowry, FACT Liverpool, Dance East, London South Bank University,
South East Dance, Studio Wayne McGregor and Russell Maliphant Studio
Supported using public funding by the Arts Council England
Accessibility Partners: Candoco Dance Company

Initial research supported by
Choreodrome Residency at The Place and Light Moves Festival of Screendance - Studio Light Moves