NEWS
ON/OFF
24th and 25th of September
Show times: 12pm, 1pm, 4pm, 5pm
Turners of Medway
off Higgins Lane
Medway Street ME4 4HA
Book tickets:
This event is free.
ON/OFF is a dance festival where physical energy – pedal power -
is transformed into light and sound for a programme of performances and
an open platform featuring amateur and professional dancers. It all takes
place in disused car showroom called “Turners of Medway”,
off the High Street in Chatham.
For one weekend in September this space will become a beehive of activity
that welcomes all to get involved - to watch the moves, participate in
performances and hangout. The performances involve amateur Kent based
dancers, from all generations and backgrounds alongside a participating
audience who will have to pedal bikes to see the show – power created
from the bikes will power the show lighting and sound systems.
A range of dance styles and their encounter with each other and the audience
will form the base of the choreography. The participants will inspire
the show and be at the heart of the event. The work aims to encourage
us all to think about our individual physicality, consumption and reliance
on energy and our collective ability to affect change.
ON/OFF is a collaboration between h2dance and What
if: projects working with composer Sylvia
Hallett. ON/OFF is part of Encounter: a programme of six temporary
artistic commissions taking place in urban spaces across North Kent produced
by NKLA and funded by Kent County Council, Arts Council England and NKLAAP.
For more information about the project please contact co artistic director
Heidi Rustgaard on: heidi@h2dance.com
blog:
www.h2dance-saysomething.blogspot.com
Review of SAY SOMETHING by The Wire journalist Clive Bell:
“I loved this piece, I found it exhilarating and rather scary. Right
from the start there's a creepy menace in the over-solicitous safety announcements
and repeated requests for us to give feedback on the show. The invitations
to "express yourselves" and take part are exaggerated, so you
begin to feel you are in a cult meeting, or a participatory New Age gospel
event. The performers blanket the audience with comforting song and "love
vibrations" (as described on mic by an audience member), but also
herd us about like police kettling protesters. Then things start to turn
a little nasty, people are rebelling, an audience member questions whether
this is really freedom, and everything gets delightfully wonky. And still
we are relentlessly begged for feedback, to "describe the show so
far in three words", and other inane requests. All the audience responses
on mic seem pathetic ("it's relaxing", "amazing"),
but the trick is that there is no correct response because the questions
are fake. I love the way the show deals with (and satirises) so many aspects
of contemporary life, with such a light touch, and the way the atmosphere
stays ambivalent right to the end. Every time I laughed I felt guilty.
Not many performances can get you feeling so good and so uncomfortable
at the same time.”
SAY SOMETHING is now available for touring.
Please contact departs ltd (Philip Hargreaves) for more information:
T: +44 (0) 113 234 6911