TACT (2002 — 2003)

Six dancers, three visually impaired and three sighted, with two live musicians, create a rich spectacle involving strong individual and personal moments along with a sense of group interaction that is intimate and persuasive. Touchdown strive to challenge the art form, Dance, to stretch your perceptions and held assumptions and to celebrate the creative potential of integrated practice.

The piece is a series of impressions, filmed images, stories, memories and textures conveyed through spoken monologues, movement, light and sound. Tact explores issues of touch, as both the “primitive” sense as well as the basis to many cultural differences. Live musicians provide a vibrant and impressive score of music and percussion, which guides much of the movement.

The result is a fusion between dance, film, story and music, which interact to provide a total sensory theatre experience.

This was the first professional dance company production with projection and live music. It introduced us to the idea of choreographed dance theatre work. The piece was developed for touring North West England.

Credits

• Directed and choreographed: Katy Dymoke and Julyen Hamilton
• Dancers: Jovair Longo, Patrick Beelaert, Alan Foster, Holly Thomas, Janee Hall, Katy Dymoke
• Musicians: Barnaby Rourke, Jim Parris, Scott Smith
• Video Projection: Katy Dymoke, Becky Edmunds and Nick Fry.
• Music: Scott Smith, Jim Parris, and Barnaby O’Rorke at the Royal Festival Hall

“The bright filmic images together with the music and dancers’ monologues, in which they describe colors, sunlight, smells and sound create a rich palette of shades and textures…” (Josephine Leaske, Dance Insider, 2002)