Lunchtime talk write-up
Posted on Fri 6 Apr 2018
Neon Dance presents Puzzle Creature
Five Things I Learned:1. Adrienne Hart is the artistic director for Neon Dance, a dance company that acts as a vehicle for collaboration with artists working in different disciplines. Adrienne is classically trained as a dancer and choreographer, but is more interested in cross-disciplinary work. At…
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Adrienne Hart
Adrienne Hart works internationally as a choreographer and as Artistic Director of Neon Dance. Collaboration is at the heart of every Neon Dance production with the company creating work designed for a diverse range of spaces; from intimate theatre venues to large-scale festivals. Neon Dance is currently in house company at Swindon Dance and Adrienne is a selected artist on the Sadler’s Wells Summer University programme (2015 – 2018). Outside of the UK, Adrienne has worked in Russia, Norway, Germany, Kosovo and most recently Japan.Five Things I Learned:
1. Adrienne Hart is the artistic director for Neon Dance, a dance company that acts as a vehicle for collaboration with artists working in different disciplines. Adrienne is classically trained as a dancer and choreographer, but is more interested in cross-disciplinary work. At the moment Adrienne is working on Puzzle Creature, an experimental dance performance that can be experienced in traditional and untraditional spaces.
2. The Reversible Destiny Lofts created by artists Arakawa and Madeline Gins is a huge influence for Puzzle Creature. The building meets installation is colourful, weirdly arranged with uneven bumps and raised patterns on the floor. The artists wanted to create a space based on the body of Helen Keller, who was both deaf and blind. When Adrienne stayed there she became very aware of her presence in the space and wanted to emulate this awareness in her own work.
3. Previously Adrienne developed dance performance Empathy which was an amalgamation of movement, light and sound. Adrienne worked with Professor Simon Barron Cohen, the author of Zero Degrees of Empathy whose work is around autism, it’s origins and how it affects us. Professor Barron Cohen documented an autistic kid’s experience of being in the lofts and found that it helped calmed him down and had a profound effect on him. Adrienne is interested in what happens to the body when looking at art.
4. Physical artefacts will be created during the performance and Adrienne is collaborating with a fashion artist to make it happen. They thought about how they could challenge a dancer’s perception of their own body and disrupt their usual way of moving. During the performance, they will be draping a wet mesh that dries quickly over the dancers to force them to be creative with how they move with their remaining free body parts. There is also a potential invitation for audience members to interact with the remaining ‘puzzle artefacts’.
5. Adrienne doesn’t want people to sit on chairs in the audience, passively viewing the performance. Rather they need to be part of the performance. Taking inspiration from the bumpy floor and textures of The Reversible Destiny Lofts, the audience will be on inflatable floor, with a surround sound score. Adrienne is currently working with visually impaired group Brizzle Connect to develop the idea.
Puzzle Creature premieres in Rural Japan September this year.