Site specific discussion part 2
London Bubble- Me
Artichoke- Amber
Emergency Exit Arts- Luke
Will Dorner- Jaydee
The site specific company I researched is London Bubble who
work within the community to share theatre with the young and old. They travel
around, performing at many different locations including car homes for the
elderly to bring ten up their day and nurseries for toddlers, to educate them
through art and visual learning. The way they travel around the community tells
us they are very much social and community based, they are having a fantastic
impact on London as they are able to reach out to a wide range of audiences
with their work. Their mission is- “To provide the artistic direction, skills,
environment and resources to create an inclusive, involving theatre, which
shares stories that animate the space of the city and the spirits of its
citizens.”
One of their projects is called ‘Speech Bubbles’. They take
this round nursery and primary schools with the aim to educate children using
language and through theatre. An interview with on of then school’s teachers
revealed that the company were not only helping the children's language
development through speech, it was helping their writing, socialising and also
confidence levels in the classroom, playground and at home. This is just one
example of a project that London Bubble create. They are a community based
company.
Emergency Exit Arts are a company which create large events
in the streets, using music, visuals, pyrotechnics and puppetry. They mainly
focus on taking old ideas and making them into something completely fresh and
modernised. They create parade style performances, similar to those you would
see at a holiday park. They use recycled objects to create their spectacles.
They have a large team behind the company, with people working on the design
and construction to the events managers.
Will Dorner is an Austrian choreographer who specialises in
site specific performance. He is highly trained and has toured around the
world, performing and taking his works with him. One of this most recent worlds
is ‘Bodies in Urban Spaces.’ This first premiered in Paris. It is a moving
trail, choreographed for a group of dancers who lead the audience round through
public spaces. The dancers ultimately blend into the street as it were. They
lay on benches and hide in small holes, as if part of the street. This is
fascinating for audiences to watch as it is out of the ordinary however the
dancers act as if it is perfectly normal.
The company Artichoke are a U.K. based organisation. It is a
charity which works with companies and put on large scale events, which attract
thousands of people. They strongly believe that art should not be restricted to
only theatres and galleries. One of their most famous events was that they
created a life like replicate of a young girl out of mechanical materials. This
was on a huge scale and was so fascinating as audiences were in ore of the art.
All of the above companies perform in site specific venues
and make full use of their surroundings to impact on their audiences. Emergency
Exit Arts, Bodies in Urban Spaces and Artichoke all fully utilise the outdoor
environment they perform in which is the streets, making their art more
adventurous and professional. Differing slightly, London Bubble do not
specifically use the streets to perform in. They go to locations such as
community centres, hospitals and nurseries as all of their work has a specific
target audience which determines which location they visit with which piece of
theatre. This differs from the other three companies as they do not necessarily
have a target audience; there audience will be however wants to stop their day
and appreciate the art out in from of them.
Artichoke work with charities with their work and London
Bubble are very community based. These two companies are quite similar as they
give something back to the community they are involved in. The other two
companies, Bodies in Urban Spaces and Emergency Exit Arts are not charity
based, they just showcase their work purely as they love what they do. This is
where the companies differ again, however they all have in common a love for
the arts.
The final comparison I will make is the scale of the
companies. Emergency Exit Arts and Artichoke have many people behind the
company as they create large scale performances. This means they need crew to
create the art work, publicise it and manage the events. Differing, Bodies in
Urban Spaces has one single choreographer behind the work, Dorner. This differs
to Emergency Exit Arts who have numerous members of crew on board to design and
bring to life their creations as there is a lot more to think about than just
the dancers. The larger the scale of the company and events they showcase, the
more of a team will be working behind the scenes.
The most surprising thing I have found whilst doing my research
into these fantastic companies, comes from London Bubble. I am pleasantly
surprised that they have such an affect on their target audiences. They help
young children develop in confidence at the same time as educating them with
language and developing their writing skills. I was not fully aware of how much
of a positive impact a theatre company could have on their target audience.
This has taught me that site specific companies not only entertain their
audiences, but are able to educate them, in this case help with the key stages
of development and socialisation which are such important stages in a child's
life.
I am most drawn to Bodies in Urban Spaces. This is because I
love dancing myself and also always love to watch live dance performances, no matter
the genre. I feel as though this company really break boundaries as the
performance is mostly still images of the dancers blending into the street,
which gives the audience a chance to take in the surroundings and what the
dancers have created in the naturalistic space. I would like to see this site
specific performance live the most as I feel it would be such an interesting
journey to follow the dancers around a city and appreciating how they make use
of the space, with such a brilliant art form.
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