Dance, Performance and Medicine

Thurs 19th May 2011
1-2pm
Venue: Bishop Otter Campus: Room LO6 (tbc)
Free admission

When I set out to start my research on ‘dance manias’, I thought I was looking at a transhistorical, transnational phenomenon: people banding together to dance, ecstatically, collectively, from India and ancient Greece to the raves of the 1990s. I eventually realised I was mistaken, and the ‘dance manias’ were a myth. What I discovered was that much of my literature was from medical sources, and most from the nineteenth century. This troubled me, until I realised that the real object of my research was nineteenth-century medical discourse, and the ‘invention’ of this epidemic disease. But what was the story I was to tell now? A philosophical one? A dance history? What if this wasn’t dance?

Please note: free tickets for this production should be booked through the Chichester Festival Theatre Box Office on 01243 781312.

Installation

Thurs 27th Jan 2011
12-1pm
Venue: Bishop Otter Campus: Room LO6 (tbc)
Free admission

In live performance both audience and performers experience a common pull of gravity creating a universal sense of “down” both on and off stage. Post-modern art however has frequently sought to question assumed stabilities through a shifting of the viewer’s perception. Nic Sandiland will talk about the research and production leading towards Gravity Shift, an installation which presents human movement where the pull of gravity has been dynamically distorted.

Please note: free tickets for this production should be booked through the Chichester Festival Theatre Box Office on 01243 781312.

Photo credit: Nic Sandiland

Dance and Choreography

Thurs 3rd Feb 2011
12-1pm
Venue: Bishop Otter Campus: Room LO6 (tbc)
Free admission

Yael will discuss her on-going MPhil/PhD research encompassing three internationally touring productions of live work as well as interactive installations presented in Galleries and public spaces. In this presentation she will focus on the live works Shrink’d (2005-06), Doing, Done & Undone (2007-08) and her most recent work The Living Room (2009-11) looking at the ways in which these works point to, disrupt and traverse the theatrical frame engendering an informal and intimate mode of performance that asks the audience to consider the everyday.

Please note: free tickets for this production should be booked through the Chichester Festival Theatre Box Office on 01243 781312.

Photo credit: Chris Nash

The Last Romance Club [ever]

Thu 20 Jan 2011
7.30pm
£3
Age: 14+

We are hopeful. We are looking for love. We want to get lucky. We want to serenade you outside your window at night. We want to give you our last rolo. We can’t sing but, for you, we’ll try.

The Last Romance Club (ever) is an exploration of romance and loneliness and the ways in which the two are implicitly bound up in each other. It is about lonely hearts and late night radio stations, iconic film scenes and clichés and chance encounters: it is about nostalgia and the romance we imagine we might have lost, or never had, and it is about trying to be honest, which is always harder than we expect.

Tinned Fingers are a group of artists with backgrounds in writing, theatre and visual arts who work collaboratively to create experimental live performance and interactive events.

www.tinnedfingers.co.uk.
Photo credit: Chris Collier

Others

Thu 17 Mar 2011
7.30pm
Full £10 / Conc £6 / Schools & Colleges £5
Age: 12+

Paper, pens and envelopes offer peepholes into strangers’ worlds, where secrets, self portraits and confessions are shared though a series of armchair interrogations. Based on a six-month exchange of letters and emails with an Iranian artist, a prisoner and a celebrity; The Paper Birds offer a visual and political exploration of ‘Other’ women, deconstructing the stories and voices of women from east and west, from different sides of the television screen and different sides of the law.

Through live music, movement, verbatim text The Paper Birds attempt to represent three absent women and question if it is possible to better understand ‘Other’ women or indeed ourselves.

‘Others’ has been funded by the Arts Council England and supported by The Junction; Ustinov Studio Theatre; Camden People’s Theatre; Sheffield Theatres and The ShowRoom.

“The Paper Birds continue to be physically ingenious, fresh-faced, thoughtful and funny”
TOTAL THEATRE

www.thepaperbirds.com

Photo credit: Elle Moreton

Beach Head

Thu 17 Feb 2011
7.30pm
Full £10 / Conc £6 / Schools & Colleges £5
Age: 14+

It’s been a month since Stephen jumped.

Amy collects her husband’s effects, the things he had with him gathered in a single box. There was no sign – no warning. As fractured memories of their last night together rewind, replay and unravel, she is desperate to find out why.

Joe and Matt are making a documentary. Whilst reviewing their footage they make a startling discovery that will take their film in an unexpected direction – the blurred image of a man jumping from the cliffs.

Beachy Head is a powerful look at the ripple effects of one man’s decision to take his life. Mixing text, 3D animation and a dynamic physicality, Beachy Head is the follow up to the award-winning Mile End from “visionary young company” Analogue (Metro).

“A quietly splendid production, magically well staged: it lingers long.”
Observer

Commissioned and originally co-produced by New Wolsey Theatre. Co-commissioned by Farnham Maltings.

www.analogueproductions.co.uk

Photo credit: Geraint Lewis (Analogue 1.jpg) and Mike Kwasinak (Analogue 2.jpg)

EDge 2011

Thu 7 Apr 2011
7.30pm
Full £10 / Conc £6 / Schools & Colleges £5
Age: 12+

Each year a new generation of the most promising contemporary dancers come together as EDge to perform commissions by some of Europe’s most exciting and critically acclaimed young choreographers. Led by celebrated new Artistic Director Jeanne Yasko, EDge’s 2011 tour showcases performances by a strong and diverse ensemble of five men and seven women, all trained at the world’s most notable dance conservatoires.

The programme features new full length pieces by leading international artists Ben Duke (UK), Jorge Crecis (Spain) and Martin Forsberg (Sweden) alongside other works including Jeremy James’ My Big Pants . Each choreographer brings their own unique approach to create contemporary dance filled with high-level energy and technical excellence that pushes the performers to their limits and leaves you on the edge of your seat.

“fresh and exciting to watch”
Dance Expression

www.lcds.ac.uk

Photo credit: Nuno Santos