A Festival of Emergent Arts

2008 marks the third edition of the “Festival of Emergent Arts”. What started in 2006 as the outcomes of post graduate research activity at the School has turned into captive moments of exposition, diverse dialogues, processes of experimentation and exploratory practice by over twenty artists throughout the summer weeks between July and September 2008. Events will take place in multiple sites at the School's premises from Monday 15th to Saturday 27th September.

On Saturday 20th September we invite you to join us for a research day into Circus and Clown Performance: Silent Objects/Speaking Subjects. Curated by artists John-Paul Zaccarini and Jon Davison, the various events throughout the day will bring together an ensemble of reknown international circus and clown artists to look into processes by which the artists are able to uncover, who they are and the intricacies of who they become ‘in performance’. Beneath the sparkling costumes, the distracting fusions or applications of mime, theatre and dance, the superfluous narratives laid over the event of circus and clown, there is a very real reason why ‘I’ do circus and clown in the first place, that can articulate itself only in the language spoken by the artist.

All events are free but spaces are limited so book in advance to avoid disappointment. You can reserve places by emailing infofea@cssd.ac.uk or by phone 020 7599 3999.

Lady M

Devised and Performed by Mandy Fenton

New Studio, Monday 15th, 7.00pm & Tuesday 16th September, 6.00pm

Does the theatrical presentation of a solo piece create a shift in the relationship of character to this dramatic construction? Within this context I have extracted Lady Macbeth’s text from Shakespeare’s Macbeth to explore her character and journey. In the words of artist Paul Klee, I will “take a line for a walk” to discover Lady Macbeth as she plays with the lives of others and ultimately her own. As Lady M would say, “Come, come, come, come, give me your hand”.

Figaro Festivo

Director: Ohki Kindaichi
Performer: Ohki Kindaichi, Makiko Hiratsuka and ensemble
Performance Space 1, 16th September 7:30, 17th September 5:00 and 7:00,

Figaro Festivo is a Japanese festival take on Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro (The Marriage of Figaro). I ‘marry’ Mozart’s classical opera with Japanese festival dance rhythms of Bon-Odori and Awa-Odori. The marriage is witnessed by the audience who are then invited to dance along with the performers in a circle. So let’s welcome each other and Mozart who will come down from the heaven with his music and dance with him. He would love it.

Orpheus

SOLD OUT
Director and Scenographer: Mahela Rostek
Movement Direction: Karin Fisher-Potisk
Costume Designer: Mahela Rostek
Costume ConstructionAnita Kwasniewski
Dramaturge: Cyrine Amor
Lighting Designer: Valentina Tamiolaki
Orpheus: Joseph Mercier
Eurydice: Moss Beynon Juckes
Eurydice: Paloma Valdivia
Eurydice: Bronwen Sharp

Site Specific Performance
Tuesday 16th September 2008, 6.30pm, 8.30pm, Wednesday 17th, 6.30pm, 8.30pm, Thursday 18th, 3pm, 4pm, Friday 19th, 4pm, 5pm, 8pm

Based on the Greek myth of Orpheus & Eurydice, this promenade performance follows Orpheus’s descent into the underworld in search of his beloved Eurydice and leads us on an exploration of what Wahrnehmung becomes when death parts lovers and perception transcends reality. This site-specific interdisciplinary piece merges the space between performers and perceivers and playfully mixes the languages of dance, sound and light to recreate the stages of Orpheus’s imaginary journey.




Short film Orpheus (approx. 20min): Studio 1, Monday 22nd to Wednesday 24th September 2008 (as part of The Centre for Dangerology events). A cinematic exploration of the performance and the boundaries of fiction that will be screened as work in progress.

Skin Deep

Conceived and Performed by Carly Halse
New Studio, 17th September at 7:30pm, 18th September at 5:00pm and 6:30pm

Skin Deep is a semi-autobiographical journey constructed by an inconsistent narrator, a flickering schizophrenic, an unusual host. Influenced by the larger-than-life world of burlesque and the idea of the ‘truth’ of the persona, the work unveils the ‘self’ in the make-believe. Focusing on and around the concept of the self as a performative construct, the work skims the skin of who we are and who we pretend to be, trying to move past the red lipstick and thick gold glitter whilst revelling in its rainbow of colour.

Please note: content of the performance not suitable for under 18s.

When's Theatre

Director: Lee-Wen Chang
Performers: Lucy Dear, Fay Hennell, Lee-Wen Chang
Rehearsal Room 1 & 2: 17th September 7.00pm, 18th September 2.00pm, 7.00pm

When’s Theatre is a collaborative performance that used as it point of departure workshops as a particular mode of theatre making in order to question the contexts of theatre (the process of becoming and play with expectations. The end result is a workshop theatre that aims to challenge audience expectations of what theatre should be.

The Centre for Dangerology

Broderick Chow and Thom Glen
Studio 1
On going events from Tuesday 16th September
Gallery open 12 PM for viewing. A different social encounter, game or workshop takes place at 4 PM each weekday – see dangerology.wordpress.com for full details.
Eschewing spectatorship for participation, and the “finished” work of art for ongoing, collaborative production, the games, workshops, encounters, and cabaret performances in The Centre challenge the visitor to take risks, speak up, discuss, and invite danger in. There will be a bar, a library, and spaces to make things, spaces to relax. Come learn a language from a stranger, learn to make onigiri and maki, confess secrets anonymously, create a personal map of your London, and much more.

What is Dangerology?
Dangerology is “social Parkour” (Parkour, n. Fr. par-KOOR, or ‘l’art du déplacement’ [eng. “the art of displacement”]: an activity with the aim of moving from one point to another as efficiently and quickly as possible, principally using the abilities of the human body).How might we navigate new lines, new relationships, new encounters – using social obstacles and architecture to our advantage? Dangerology is not a school of thought. It’s not a process of recognition. It’s not a dogma. It’s a series of encounters. Do we search for truth in our art? Not exactly.

“... from jontxu ... to be ...” (solo) and “Fusing clown, clown, clown and clown” (group work)

Jon Davison, AHRC Creative Fellow
Embassy Studio,
Thursday 18th, SOLD OUT
Friday 19th at 7.30 SOLD OUT
Saturday 20th September, 7.00pm (SOLD OUT)

Numerous ideologies have fed off clown: mask, play, authenticity, health, etc. But what are we left with when we remove these parasites? If clown is anything in itself, then surely it can be performed, taught and defined on its own terms?If clown isn’t mask, isn’t playing games, isn’t improvisation, isn’t circus, isn’t text theatre, isn’t physical theatre, isn’t fiction, isn’t reality, isn’t normality, isn’t abnormality, then ... What is clown?

Cuerda Lucida -- Circus Act as Melancholia for the unnameable

John Paul Zaccarini

Dramaturgy: Flick Ferdinando (Company F.Z)
Video Imagery: Mark Morreau
Composer: Peter Coyte
Embassy Studio,

Thursday 18th, SOLD OUT

Friday 19th at 7.30 SOLD OUT

Saturday 20th September, 7.00pm (SOLD OUT)

Can we replace the nostalgic circus with the melancholic?

Can we remind circus of the primary loss that instigates and motivates it?

Sisyphus Like A Stone

Jens Engman, Visiting Artist, Department of NyCirkus, Danshogskolan, Stockholm
Devised and performed by Jens Engman
Embassy Studio,
Thursday 18th, (SOLD OUT)
Friday 19th at 7.30 (SOLD OUT)
Saturday 20th September, 7.00pm (SOLD OUT)




A contemporary circus act, about struggle, flow and balance.

Psyccess

Marie Louise Masreliez

Visiting Artist, Department of NyCircus, Danshogskolan, Sweden

Jukka Juntti, Rope
Danny Westlund, Acrobatics
Anja Duchov Zuber, Handstand
Composer & Sound: Jonatan Liljedahl (Deparment of Composition and Conducting, Royal College of Music, Stockholm)
Lightdesign & Scenography: Elisabeth K Nilsson
Costumes: Linda-Emily Al Ghussein,
In collaboration with: Ruby-Rose Union
Embassy Studio,

Thursday 18th, SOLD OUT Friday 19th at 7.30 SOLD OUT

Saturday 20th September, 7.00pm (SOLD OUT)

The artist – the relationship with the director- the piece – constructed from, about -circus as expression- the result
Psyccess reveals the secrets and the passion of circus. Behind lies profound research into the relations between the artist and the discipline, the intercollaboration between the artists, the significance of the space in an attempt to understand presense of the artist in front of a mature audience.

A Life's Work

Devised, performed and directed by Mark McCullum

Performance Space 1
Friday 19th September 6.30pm, Saturday 20th September 3.00pm, 5.00pm

"Here is someone in whose mind no place becomes inured, and who does not suddenly feels his soul on the left where his heart is. Here is some onefor whom life is a point, and for whom the sould has no edges and the mind no beginnings". Antonin Artaud

Please note: raw meat is used during the piece

Small Acts of Pure Reason

Vassiliki Mouteveli
Performers : Elpida Orfanidou, Mahela Rostek, Vassiliki Mouteveli
Lighting and sound design: Vassiliki Mouteveli

Performance Space 1, Monday 22 September, 7.00pm, Tuesday 23 September 6.00pm and 7.30 pm

Small acts of pure reason
There are conventions, but there are not laws.
There is performance, but it is not made up.
There are secrets, but they are revealed.
There is comedy, but there is not laughing.
There is tragedy, but there is not sympathy.
There is a new event, but there are expectations.
There is movement, but will not be moved.
There is a solo, but it is not alone.

The Failure Project

Director: Amanda Castro
Performers: Darren Campbell, Sarah Jane Cramond, Amanda Hansen, Hayley Kasperczyk
Lighting: Chris Clow
Text: Jefferson Toal and Amanda Castro, in collaboration with the cast
Performance Space 1: 22 September 8.30pm, 23 September 4.30pm, 24 September 2.00pm

The exposed body // The enduring body // The displaced body // The restricted body
The Failure Project is a collaborative, semi-improvisational performance piece examining notions of failure within the performing body – in what ways can failure manifest itself through the performing body, how can the presence or threat of failure be dealt with by performers, and what dynamics and qualities can it bring to physical performance?

For more information visit: http://failure-project.blogspot.com

At the theatre

Elpida Orfanidou

Embassy Studio
Tuesday 23 September at 5.00 p.m. & Wednesday 24 September at 7.00 p.m, 8.30 p.m.

I struggle to find a balance between the conceptual and the emotional, artistic responsibilities and desires. I am interested in the challenge of working in the space in between, where emotions within a theatrical situation blend with critical issues of what theatre offers to an audience; how to construct, deconstruct and reconstruct the “magic of the theatre”? What about the utopian attempt to escape from the associative charge of the theatrical space-time? My vision focused on a performance that oscillates between different uses of the conventions of the theatre apparatus and proposes a flexible view of what theatre is and how theatre works.

The Transitional Box

Directed by Vera Erenbourg
Movement Director P.J. Maske
Lighting Designer Fridthjofur Thorsteinsson
Costume consultant Mahela Rostek
Performed by Amanda Castro, Hayley Kasperczyk, Vera Erenbourg
Embassy Studio, 23rd September 7.00 p.m., 8.30 p.m., 24th September 5.00 p.m.

The concept of transition presupposes a process of change from a form or state, style, place to another. I aim to test the transitional potential of performance. As a dimension of time and space detached from the rules and limitations of the everyday life, it provides an environment full of possibilities. I am interested in the collectivity of the performers, the chorus, as a source of creativity and a platform of human and artistic exchange. The Embassy Studio is a multidimensional space, a definite choice. It brings to the exploration the idea of chora, a first space. Its octagonal structure suggests different spatial configurations, movements, perspectives and directions to engage with. Inthis context do the audience become a chorus as well mirroring the ensemble then engaging with the transitional experience?

Missing 2

Jane Munro
Embassy Studio, Thursday 25th September, installation on-going 5.30-8.30pm, Friday 26th September, installation on-going 5.30-8.30pm

Missing 2 investigates the effects of time on set tasks, and unpicks the territory between ritual and performance. In Missing 2 spectators are invited to commemorate a loss. Participants may mark the demise of a relative, a lover, a lost object or maybe the passing of their own youth. The performance allows for relief and delight in losses too. By pouring salt over their memories participants both fall into and preserve a passing. Four dancers invite spectators to join their fall into salt memorials.

Evangelist

Young -Seok Yoo,

Film screening+ talk
Evangelist: a film and discussion of Wittgensteinian Narrative Space in Buddhist Metafictive Homologizing

New Studio, Thursday 25 September 6.00-7.30pm, Friday 26 th September 5.30-7.00pm

This event has been cancelled due to unforeseen circumstances.

Urashima Taro

SOLD OUT
Performer: Aya Nakamura
Director: Paul Piris
Scenographer: Nathalie Maury
Photograph: Monika Kita
Performance Space 1, Thursday 25th September, 8.00pm

Urashima Taro is a metaphor for the human condition. It is a poetic tale about the quest of love and immortality, based on a Japanese legend from the earliest Japanese history book called Nihon-Shoki. This solo piece combines traditional Japanese puppetry: Bunraku and kamishibai (a traditional Japanese Toy Theatre) with acting, storytelling and mask work. The piece interrogates the subject-object relationship inherent to puppetry in order to examine the dynamics of the binary performer-puppet. The dual presence on stage of the puppet, defined by Bensky as an unreal being, and of the performer, the real being, creates a perpetual oscillation between perception and imagination. Their confrontation highlights the fundamental opposition of nature of their body and gaze. From this opposition, emerges on stage different levels of reality which blur the characteristics of the subject and of the object.

The piece has been developed at Shunt Lounge and at Camden’s People Theatre with the support of the Puppet Centre Trust. Urashima Taro has been funded by the Great-Britain Sasakawa Foundation. Produced by Rouge28 Theatre – www.rouge28theatre.co.uk

Meanwhile, Garden

Meanwhile, Garden- Performed by Amanda Castro, Vera Erenbourg, Carly Halse and Hayley Kasperczyk
Experiment Assistants and contributors: Mark McCullum, PJ Maske, Rose Turner, Joanna Burrows and Joe Fry

Studio 2- Friday 26th September at 7.30pm and
Saturday 27th at 4.30pm. (SOLD OUT)
On Friday from 4-7.30pm and Saturday from 1-4.30pm there will be 'experiments' in the space. Please note that the 'experiments' are not part of the performance but you are welcome to have a look around the space before the performance starts.

Meanwhile, Garden is a site-conditioned interactive container, merging live performance, film and sound to create an unexpected, ectopic, and yet strangely familiar hyper-landscape. Playing on the idea of the poetics of surrealist narrative, the piece echoes typical discourse in storytelling and uses parallel storylines (mnemonics) to create an experience entirely non-linear and multi-constructed. Where traditional narratives might switch between character plots to build suspense or create intrigue through synchronicity and coincidence, Meanwhile, Garden acknowledges the general overarching rhetoric of multiple interpretations of events (looking particularly at memory) - diverse narratives occurring simultaneously, and the ways in which people may interpret the installation differently.
Rejecting the submissive obedience expected of conventional audiences this piece will allow ‘participants’ to take a sensory and visually stimulating journey through the Meanwhile, Garden, exploring disjointed spatial universes of adventure and oddity.

Holds No Memory

Ana Sánchez-Colberg,

Theatre enCorps,
Performance Space 1,

Friday 26th September 7.30pm (SOLD OUT)

Saturday 27th September 7.30pm

Performer: Ana Sánchez-Colberg
Choreographer: Efva Lilja
Composer: Tommy Zwedberg

Between August 2005 and November 2006, choreographer/dancer Ana Sánchez-Colberg, artistic director of Theatre enCorps and choreographer Efva Lilja, director of ELD developed an on-going dialogue about dance through dance: about the role of memory inscribed in the body, about dance artists’ attitude towards her memory/body, and the socio-cultural parameters that circumscribe age/movement/expression within society generally and dance culture specifically. Holds no memory is the result of that dialogue, a poetic solo that draws a personal portrait in movement of a now ‘older’ dancer wanting to forget in order to be able to move on.

The project has been possible with the support of The Place Choreodrome, University College of Dance, E.L.D. Forum for New Choreographic Work for the Stage, Swedish Research Council, the Jerwood Space and Arts Council England (London).