Item 9.13 - Attachment 3

Proposal from WSDA

(In) Visible Dancing

Project Outline

A unique concept in outdoor dance theatre

Created by Luca Silverstrini –Protein Dance Company UK

Originally commissioned by International Dance Festival Birmingham

Project Proposal

Western Sydney Dance Action (WSDA) is a key dance organisation, that champions innovation within the performing arts and provides opportunities for practicing professional and emerging dance artists and companies developing work in Western and metropolitan Sydney.

In 2010, WSDA formed a partnership with the United Kingdom’s International Dance Festival Birmingham (IDFB) to discuss possible commissioning of their bespoke outdoor dance theatre concept (In) Visible Dancing-a unique collaboration between IDFB and Protein Dance Company, choreographed and conceived by Luca Silverstrini and IDFB Creative Producer David Massingham.

(In) Visible Dancing is a new concept in outdoor dance theatre which has been performed to much acclaim to audiences in the United Kingdom. Best described as location based guerrilla performance intervention, the event takes the form of quirky contemporary dance/physical theatre, 30 minutes in length and can be performed twice a day during peak times (morning or afternoon rush hour and lunch time) over a 10 day period.

The dance intervention seemingly grows out of everyday life, developing from what looks like ‘incidental’ strange behaviour on the streets, through to a fully fledged dance experience that engages with the architecture of the location. (In) Visible dancing then becomes Visible Dancing, a finale, engaging 70+ community performers from a diverse cross section of art form practice and skill level, placing them in a high profile performance on the final day of this durational project.

How does the work evolve over the week? Audience engagement.

(In) Visible dancing evolves from being invisible to visible in two ways. The performance itself begins as a subtle shift in activity on the street, causing bystanders and passers-by to stop and wonder what is happening. Several physical theatre performers commence a street theatre dialogue meanwhile several ‘buskers’ play independently a few metres away. Neither group of artists are considered related until much further in the performance when the audience realises that they are all part of the one act.

As the audience start to watch the unexpected goings on, others begin to join them, creating a growing crowd and conversations. Over the course of 30 minutes, the performance becomes a dance intervention that is playing out, inspired by real life situations. Actions made by the public are imitated and used as stimulus for the performers- for example, a line of people queuing at an automatic teller, becomes a line of 20 people interacting and moving the work takes on the street’s live architecture –offering scores of activity and performance based on what happens in the space. As the piece develops so too does the number of performers. Over the duration of the event, the work builds in numbers per performance with the street scenes becoming more exaggerated and interactive with the crowds. As the event gains momentum, dance workshops held on the street after the daily performance, will encourage further audience participation.

The second way the project becomes visible is through the development of the scale of the work which by the last day, has expanded to include both the professional and volunteer performers- cast of 90 plus performers. The work always starts the same way with just a few artists working interactively in the space, gradually growing to incorporate up to 20 dance artists and 5 musicians throughout the first week, extending and growing extensively by the last day of the second week, to incorporate a mass interactive flash mob style performance piece that encompasses all of the professional and volunteer performers along with many members of the audience. The performers are dressed in a way that does not set them apart from everyday life. Artistic Director Luca Silverstrini will examine the space during his pre-production period in October and observe the community of people that inhabit the chosen site. From office workers, students, families, council workers, builders, young people, older people, cyclists and couriers. The objective is to costume the artists so that they appear as though they are commuting through the space and not part of any performance event.

The music for (In) Visible dancing works best when the music is seemingly incidental to the performance at the beginning of each show. Musicians first appear as though they are busking and gradually shift to a different performance mode as the work progresses. Musical accompaniment grows from several single players (the rhythm section) to a small to medium ensemble of brass, string and percussion players. The score will grow in sound and instrumentation as the ensemble increases over the week-with one key musical theme and arrangement driving the work.

Projected crowd numbers are estimated at over 15 000 -total number of spectators for the 10 day duration of the event.