Signdance Collective, a culturally diverse touring performance company with a team of experienced deaf and disabled artists at the helm, returned to Wycombe Arts Centre for their In Between Spaces project.
In Between Spaces is a live show which combines image, music, dance-theatre and spoken word poetry to create a unique experience for an audience. The story follows a journey of two souls perambulating in a world outside of time. Are they the first humans on Earth? Are they the last? Are they even human or just echoes of a digital mind?
The In Between Spaces project took place in 2020 with production rehearsals and workshops with Social Link, as well as an open afternoon preview and community performance collaboration with Social Link Wycombe.
An open rehearsal took place on February 28th with an evening premier on February 29th.
“I feel like I watched a feature film and now I’d like to see it all over again!”
— Audience member at Wycombe Arts Centre
In Between Spaces centres on four characters who perambulate in a world outside of time. A meeting between a man, a woman, time and an Oracle takes place in between the space of the digital world and reality. Nobody is sure if they’re human or digital echoes electronically seared into our minds.
The story investigates identity in the age of transient digital glitches. Real-life experiences become tangled within digital interactions. Among hopes of sunny days, memories of bus trips and alleyways, their paths mirror one another as they criss-cross between the screen and real-time. The work explores whether humans can exist and communicate in two spaces at once and at what price.”
Cast and Collaborators
David Bower – Artistic Director SDC/Performer (Wales, UK) // Isolte Avila – International Collaborations Director/Performer (Cuba/UK) // Angelina Schwammerlin – Composer/Performer (Austria) // Richard Gunstone – Composer (UK) // Rob Corcoran – Performer (Wales, UK) // Pedro De Senna Dramaturg (Brazil/UK) // Kate Lawrence – Choreographer (Wales, UK) // Ozan Gokmen – Director (Turkey) // Lionel Macauley – Spoken Word Artist/Poet/Performer (USA)
The project was developped with the following partners: Transmitter Performance Austria with composer Angelina Schwammerlin // 73Degree Film and Media Wales with film-maker Robert Corcoran // Wycombe Arts Centre and composer Richard Gunstone // Lionel Macauley/LMM Productions New Jersey with director Ozan Gokmen // Bornova Municipal Theatre Turkey Dramaturg Pedro De Senna // Middlesex University London and choreographer Kate Lawrence // Vertical Dance Wales
About Signdance Collective
In 1987, Signdance Collective company directors Cuban Dancer Isolte Avila and well-known deaf actor David Bower (Four Weddings and a Funeral) pioneered “signdance theatre”, a fusion of sign theatre, dance and live original music. The company has toured extensively throughout the UK and across the world initiating national and international collaborations and working alongside innovative artists, theatre philosophers, festivals and performance companies to develop the genre of signdance theatre. SDC is known for mixing art forms to create “innovative and creatively brilliant performances” (Diversity Awards, BBC).
The company champions signdance theatre through ensemble work, creating both small works and large community ensemble international pieces of signdance.
SDC embraces working across a wide theatrical ecology, from traditional theatre and studios to large scale staged arenas, outdoor festivals and street theatres. Since its origins, diversity has been at the heart of the company’s work and with an accessible and cosmopolitan nature, SDC forges real engagement with a range of diverse artists involved in the creation of the work.
Signdance Collective
Signdance Collective (SDC) is a touring performance company based at Wycombe Arts Centre. SDC was established in 2001. The core of the company is culturally diverse with a team of experienced deaf and disabled artists at the helm.
Between 1987 and 2000, the company directors pioneered “signdance theatre”, a fusion of sign theatre, dance and live original music. Since 2001, Signdance Collective has continued to evolve signdance theatre by initiating national and international collaborations and working alongside innovative artists, theatre philosophers and performance companies across the world.
Signdance Collective has worked with hundreds of people of all ages throughout the UK and internationally, delivering workshops and producing new work. The company is one of the first in the world to introduce the concept of inclusive practice with a specific focus on diverse disability deaf-led teamwork. The company is made up of artists with Caribbean, European, African, and British backgrounds who are deaf, physically disabled, and blind, sighted, hearing and non-disabled.
The work is in demand internationally and nationally. Between 2018 and 2019, SDC collaborated with several established organizations as well as emerging companies and artists across the world such as Ana Monro Slovenia, Kate Lawrence’s Vertical Dance UK and FormidAbiliity UK. The company has strong and developing partnerships, both nationally and further afield.
SDC is known for mixing art forms to create “innovative and creatively brilliant performances” (Diversity Awards, BBC). The company develops the art form of signdance theatre through ensemble work, creating both small works and large community ensemble international pieces of signdance. SDC embraces working across a wide theatrical ecology, from traditional theatre, studios to large-scale staged arenas, at outdoor festivals and as street theatre. Since its origins, diversity has been at the heart of the company’s work and with an accessible and cosmopolitan nature, SDC forges real engagement with a range of diverse artists involved in the creation of the work.
In Between Spaces: www.projektzplatform.com
”What are these in-between spaces now? Technology allows us to seem to be in more than one place at once, air travel moves us across continents and oceans, so we can experience different cultures almost at the push of a button. These innovations should make us empathize so much more with each other as humans as we get to know and understand our differences, and yet brutal wars and injustice persist. How we navigate this fast-changing world and really connect to each other is the stuff of this new work.” – Kate Lawrence, Movement Director
