Bongsu Park’s collaboration with Liam Francis is now available online on the BBC website and also on the Rambert Live site.
The live event is presented by Simone Damberg Würtz – Rambert dancer, choreographer and founder of The Playground – and involves artists and performers from all backgrounds who come together to use dance to explore, create and play. Yesterday’s event involved four projects which after about an hour’s rehearsal shared the results of their exploration.
The Park / Francis collaboration involved texts gathered in Bongsu Park’s Internal Library project, in which members of the public were invited anonymously to submit their secrets or private memories and which culminated in a performance of words and actions at the Print Room in Notting Hill.
As part of the Playground event, Liam Francis selected three of the secrets to accompany the performance by half a dozen dancers and a reader. Drawing on the idea of “secrets”, the dancers wore blindfolds made by the artist.
The project explored how a person can perform when deprived of a key bodily function; and how being deprived of sight can make you more open in terms of use of other senses – particularly touch. Dancing in pairs, each performer had to be in a position of complete trust with their partner, as they guided each other in their movements – the blind leading the blind, the dancers being “danced” rather than acting autonomously, feeling their way by touch.
The whole evening is worth watching, but if you only have time for the Park / Francis collaboration, on the BBC live stream they are featured at around 6’25” (the initial introduction of their project), 1:19’20” and 2:05’50” (work in progress) and 2:38’50” (the final “sharing”). On the Rambert live stream (embedded above, which covers the whole day) the timings are around 8:29’20”, 9:33’15”, 10:28’20” and 11:01’45”.
(photo credits to the livestream cameraman)