Dances for a Lost Traveller: Listen/Here/The Words/Travelling - T01371409738Dances For A Lost Traveler represents an intense departure for Signdance away from the biographical framework of recent work and into something personal and from the heart. Drawing on collaborations with Sardinian director Ornella Dagostino from Carovana SMI, Primoz Bayzak from Slovenia's Batontac Dance plus a range of musicians, film and dance artists. Listen (23 minutes) Based on David Bower's experience of Tinnitus, this piece uses disability as a creative tool to inform the performance work. It is the most hard-hitting of the four pieces - giving the audience an intense visual and auditory experience. The stage is cast with a backdrop of high-pitched tones, which are translated through sound software to create a landscape suggestive of high tower blocks and flowers. Doves fly through this setting, immersing the audience. Against this cloth of sound and image, David moves rapidly and intently. It is as if he is enclosed, trying desperately to escape. He runs, paces sings and dances through a box-like structure conveying ideas about the connection between language and the inner landscape of tinnitus.nchoreography : Isolte Avila direction and music : Luke Barlow film : Sarana Mehra Here (25 minutes) is lyrical - the movement consisting of a carefully dramatised piece of dance made up of signed dialogue. The performance takes place on the floor, with a live projection of David Bower and Isolte Avila onto the wall, telling the story of a relationship in flux. The detail is in the signing, but beyond that Here describes an emotional landscape - one that is again contained within a box. choreography : Primoz Bayzak music : Mark Holub & Frognal film : Caglar Kimyoncu. The Words (20 minutes), locates the movement in written and spoken language. Using a series of responses to architecture.. A random bucket of sentences is played and spilled like rain on the performers heads. They are pulled arbitrarily in front of a live camera and are signed furtively. The energy builds to a crescendo, describing the confusion, frustration and ultimately the beauty of language in its relationship to disability and deafness. direction : Carla Onni music : Alex Ward Travelling (35 minutes) tells the story of how it is to live a life of constantly crossing boundaries - geographical and physical boundaries as well as existential boundaries relating to disability and deafness. Isolte offers the audience a chance to go to 'the Happy Place'. She takes on the role of a travel agent offering holidays in the sun. But how does the movement of peoples' around the world, as tourists, migrants, or as artists, affect indigenous communities? How does political conflict affect the traveller? What does it feel like to live the nomadic lifestyle of the artist? The piece unravels with a series of journeys through film, dance and song. David Bower takes on a comic role inspired by his experience of officials at customs. He acts out the often-bizarre demands made of the traveller, who is forced to dance through hoops on in order to get permission to cross a border. Isolte plays out the dichotomies she has faced, having lived with a dual identity of being Cuban and Puerto Rican American. 'Ultimately the piece leaves its audience with a powerful image of travelling through the palm of the hand. At the core of Signdance's work is the beauty of using sign language as a form of dance and of expression. I hope Dances For A Lost Traveler gets taken on by venues across the UK' Colin Hambrook DAOChoreographer Isolte Avila (Listen). Director Luke Barlow (Listen). Music Luke Barlow (Listen). Other Sarana Mehra (film - Listen). Choreographer Isolte Avila (Here). Music Mark Holub (Here). Music Frognal (Here). Other Caglar Kimyoncu (Here - film). Director Carla Onni (The Words). Music Alex Ward (The Words). Director Ornella Dagostino Carovana SMI (Travelling). Music Liran Donin (Travelling). Other David Bower (Travelling). | |
| 19 Jun 09 to 12 Jul 09 | Warehouse Theatre, Outer London :: V304 listing details L01181909859 |
T1934198825An international showcase of inclusive arts performance. Performances, exhibitions and workshops will take place in the Town Hall and in Wycombe town centre, with groups from Slovenia, Italy and Holland as well as the region's most exciting new work from the disability arts sector. | |
| 18 Sep 08 to 20 Sep 08 | Wycombe Swan, High Wycombe :: V749 listing details L1248504264 |
But Beautiful - T1723571006Performer Isolte Avila. Performer David Bower. | |
| 24 Oct 07 | The Hawth, Crawley :: V720 listing details L1836957842 |
| 1 Nov 06 | Wycombe Swan, High Wycombe :: V749 listing details L0588692655 |
Spenno's Dance - T01332247762Company tO BE fRAnk...Arts Company. Author Charlie Kay. Producer Charlie Kay. | |
| 6 Oct 07 | Ammanford Miners' Theatre, Ammanford :: V1007551889 listing details L02090323711 |
Fractured Fairytales/Big Space Islander/Fragmented Hero - T0364486197Fractured Fairytales - a highly entertaining and slightly sinister devised piece based on Grimm's Fairy Tales. The piece, begun during their 2003 residency at Ucheldre, features the tales told with live camera and sign story, before evolving into full sign dance, clowning, and song. This is followed by a performance of Big Space Islander, a piece created during this week's workshop. The evening ends with a world premiere of Fragmented Hero by Ornella D'Agostino, artistic director of the renowned Sardinian dance company, Carovana. Ornella explores in dance the origin and essence of myth and how it affects her Mediterranean history and sense of being. Weather permitting, part of tonight's programme will be outside, so come prepared!Performer Isolte Avila. Performer David Bower. Performer Jan Krol. | |
| 23 Jul 04 | Canolfan Ucheldre Centre, Holyhead :: V068529436 listing details L1925726514 |
Aisha Rising/Named Space - T993942192Aisha Rising - An exciting charabanc ride through the sights and sounds of Southern India, both ancient and modern. The telling of an age old love story blended with a heady mix of eastern spices. Deliciously inventive, funny and sexy. Named Space - In scenes from death row [Sign Dance Collective] presents a powerfully evocative take on a contemporary tragedy. This piece of startling dance-theatre by the internationally acclaimed ensemble declares a relentlessly compelling yet clearly uplifting message about the futility of capital punishment. Not fiction. Not guilty. Not to be missed. | |
| 8 Oct 02 | The Playhouse, Weston-super-Mare :: V865 listing details L1185105255 |
| 24 Apr 02 | Arena Theatre, Wolverhampton :: V160 listing details L1171868107 |
Other listings | |
| 7 Sep 96 | The Wightman, Shrewsbury :: V106 listing details L01470604775 |
