It’s not just at the West Yorkshire Playhouse where things are Transforming. Over at the Lawrence Batley Theatre in Huddersfield on Saturday 18th June, the whole building will be re-imagined in a celebration of dance, technology and performance, under the banner ‘Night of Extraordinary Moves’.
So what extraordinary things can you expect? There’ll be quirky theatre in an inflatable laboratory from Chol Theatre, performance by rising dance stars Company Chameleon, Silent Disco from Buffet and dance routines from the Bet Lynch Mob. You can relax in the Dance Lounge with a smoothie, watch dance on film, work with artists in residence and experiment with cutting edge motion capture technology. See yourself as you’ve never seen yourself before! You can also watch performances by local groups and create and perform a new piece of dance with Company Chameleon in a free workshop before the evening kicks off.
The evening is the latest event on an extraordinary journey for Chol Theatre, who are exploring the fascinating realms of performance enhancement, disability and where the heck science and technology may be taking us, through a new partnership with the Sports Science department at Sheffield Hallam University.
This area of science – which is intrinsically linked to elite athletics and 2012 – is constantly throwing up new ethical and moral dilemmas – just start thinking doping, genetic modification, human enhancement and elective surgery and you’ve immediately got fertile ground for artists to create new work that makes us rethink our assumptions and prejudices about disability and what we expect from our elite athletes. The technological advances in prosthetics for example, means that soon, disabled athletes will be able to run faster than non-disabled ones. The persuit for physical perfection in elite athletics must surely lead to genetic modification – and how will anti-doping bodies test for that?
But at its root, Extraordinary Moves is a rexamination of our physical bodies and the amazing things they are capable of, which makes it the perfect project within imove – Yorkshire’s cultural programme for 2012. The creative journey to Night of Extraordinary Moves began as a week-long residence for artists and sports people in the Motion Capture Lab at Sheffield Hallam, and you can see the video from that residency here.
Extraordinary Moves from Yorkshire Telly on Vimeo.
All in all though, the 18th June is a night for dancing – whether you fancy learning from the pro’s, or just love a cheesy disco.