During summer 2012 Luca Silvestrini’s Protein invited film-maker Dan Williams to document the process, production and performance of (In)visible Dancing, a ten day long street-based dance intervention by the company in Kingston upon Thames (my home town!). The result has recently been made available on Protein’s youtube channel. Click here to watch it. Download a pdf of the vox pops we transcribed.
Originally commissioned by International Dance Festival Birmingham as part of their 2010 festival, (In)visible Dancing gets the whole town dancing. It takes the form of a piece of contemporary dance/physical theatre about 30 minutes in length, specially created for a particular location by Luca Silvestrini. It is performed twice a day over a period of up to two weeks in the same place; typically a busy, outdoor pedestrianised shopping street or indoor shopping centre where there are lots of members of the public.
(In)visible Dancing seemingly grows out of everyday life, developing from what looks like ‘incidental’ strange behaviour on the street to a fully fledged dance experience that engages with the architecture of the location. (In)visible Dancing then becomes Visible Dancing,a big-splash finale event engaging 80+ local amateur/community performers in a high profile performance display on the final day of the project.
Made as a bespoke piece for each location it’s commissioned for, (In)visible Dancing can be experienced in a myriad of ways – as a passerby enjoying a brief event as street entertainment, an avid watcher following the action as it builds daily, a participant in the finale, or an Apprentice Dancer co-devising and performing the work from beginning to end.
Leave A Comment