Deciphers

An international collaboration created by Naishi Wang and Jean Abreu, Deciphers toured Canada in 2024, visiting four venues and presenting 13 performances between 26 January and 23 February.

Following its Canadian tour, Deciphers toured the UK in Autumn 2025, with performances at The Coronet Theatre in London, Dance City in Newcastle, Patrick Studio at Birmingham Hippodrome, and Brighton Dome’s Corn Exchange.

Deciphers is a compelling physical performance bringing together elements of Chinese Folk Dance, Brazilian dance styles, spoken word, breath, and ink on paper to explore translation. The various mediums create and question complexities of communication through the lens of understanding and misunderstanding

Co-performers and choreographers, Naishi Wang and Jean Abreu, use the stage as their blank canvas highlighting the body as a primal source for communication and carrier of meaning. Deciphers addresses translation as a linguistic phenomenon centering the immigrant experience.

The 2025 UK tour is kindly supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England and Canada Council for the Arts, Ontario Arts Council and the Government of Ontario, The Beaverbrook Canadian Foundation and the High Commission of Canada in the United Kingdom as well as the Brazilian Embassy in the United Kingdom, The Coronet Theatre, FABRIC, Dance City and Brighton Dome.

The development and 2024 Canada tour include partners MAI Montréal, Arts interculturels (Montréal), the National Arts Centre (Ottawa), Harbourfront Centre (Toronto), Citadel+Company (Toronto), PuSh Festival (Vancouver), the CanDance Network (Toronto), and the High Commission of Canada in the United Kingdom. Deciphers is supported by the National Arts Centre (NAC) visiting dance artist programme, the CanDance Network small-scale creation fund, the Canada Council for the Arts, the Technical Residency programme at Harbourfront Centre, and the PuSh walk special podcast.