[mirandalaurence]

Hello everyone.
As a dance dramaturg, I am inspired by how people can be choreographed in moving through public spaces by art interventions.

Two things that I have been part of recently have been programmed by Reading : International, a three year commissioning project in Reading, UK. The first was a piece by Israeli company Public Movement, called Emergency Routine. It was a 20 minute performance, with one audience member and one performer. I was taken through a lecture about how security services are trained to deal with potential terrorist attacks. The piece moved around campus buildings of the University where I work. I was shown the kinds of movements that security forces might make; I was then physically guided to take the position of a soldier with a gun entering a building; I had to draw the layout of my own home and image soldiers entering it to clear it; finally I helped to ‘clear’ a room which had a ‘terrorist’ planted in it. A short experience that has provided a layer of meaning to the spaces I am in every day at work and at home.

Performance – PUBLIC MOVEMENT – Emergency Routine (2019)

Another commission by Reading : International was Nightwalks with Teenagers by Canadian company Mammalian Diving Reflex. The artists worked with a group of teenagers to create a ‘nightwalk’ in Reading town centre. We gathered in the cold and were taken on a walk by a group of teens; at various points we stopped and did things like playing the game ‘British Bulldog’ or learning some martial arts, or running a race. It was wild and joyous and a bit naked. For the most part, I went to spaces which I had not been to before in the town where I live, and where I have not often been again, but I note when I pass close by and so the experience has added a layer of understanding of the places I move in.

‘Nightwalks with Teenagers’ by Mammalian Diving Reflex

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