Blue Elephant Theatre, Camberwell

SIGNS is a 30-minute dance piece, fusing contemporary dance with British Sign Language. Performed by two female dancers, this exciting and intricate duet takes inspiration from Colin Thompson's poem If I told you I was deaf would you turn away.

Accompanied by an originally composed music score, it is a highly physical performance that explores the importance of body language in British Sign Language, and the barriers of a deaf person trying to communicate in a hearing world.

SIGNS is presented as a work-in-progress performance and will be followed by a post-show discussion where we welcome the audience’s feedback.

Speed dating
noun
an organised social activity in which people
seeking romantic relationships have a series of
short conversations with potential partners in
order to determine whether there is mutual
interest.

SpeedDating explores the concept of organised social activity and interaction between people in a series of short conversations. Informed by social observation this live composition work incorporates movement and sound, exposing the choreographer’s choice in real-time.

Choreographer Shelley Owen is a dance artist who has predominantly worked in The Netherlands. Researching instant composition and task-based choreography, Shelley explores performer choice and works with original sound scores, often performed live. Recently completed projects include site-specific dance/sound work Hare Hill Project: Resolution supported by The National Trust (Cheshire UK) and Some Kind of Hell, by body painting artist Vilija Vitkute (Amsterdam NL)

Inter Pares Project is a duet between international dance artists Agnese Lanza and Julie Havelund-Willett.

This piece forms part of an ongoing choreographic research project, which was launched in 2013 as part of a residency at S P A C E @ Clarence Mews. The research is embedded in the performances, and the performances feed directly back into the research, focusing on presence and the act of attending to detail. This performance weaves in and out of set and spontaneous movement, drawing direct inspiration from the architecture and audience of Blue Elephant Theatre.

Hawk Dance Theatre is an exciting, emerging company based in the North West and presenting their first double-bill of new work.

(we)SINK (mentored by Gary Clarke)
(we)SINK is a dance performance exploring climate change and human psychology. Inspired by psychological mechanisms that make humans disengage from climate change challenges, this new work, choreographed by Josh Hawkins, explores feelings of distance, doom, dissonance, denial and identity in response to our changing climate. Performed by Emmie Coxey and Freya Thomas, this captivating duet questions whether these defence barriers can be broken and if we will ever truly connect to this topical issue.

Fish Tank
Fish Tank draws similarities and compares the life of a goldfish in its tank to the denials we face when dealing with change. Fish Tank explores different feelings linked to change, and imagines every human has their own ‘fish tank’ full of questions, responsibilities and problems. Fish Tank is a conversation between live spoken word, text, music and dance.