Men & Girls Dance
A response to dominant media and social discourses around intergenerational relationships, in which men’s relationships with children are depicted as overwhelmingly negative, Men & Girls Dance reclaims the rights of adults and children to be together, to play together and to dance together.
At the heart of the project is a semi-choreographed, semi-improvised performance, which is recreated in each place the project is presented, with a company of nine local girls aged 8 – 11 joining five male professional dancers to remake and perform the work.
Accompanying these performances, a programme of conversations, meetings, post-show discussions, online and social media activity, collectively called The Talking Place, along with a project newspaper, create opportunities for people in the places where performances happen to come together and talk about the research and themes of the project.
The project also proposes an innovative approach to touring, by advocating new kinds of collaboration between touring companies, venue partners and audiences, promoting greater integration of artistic, participation and audience development activities.
As such, the project’s research questions fall into two strands, one concerned with the politics and representations of the relationship at the heart of the work; one which addresses these new approaches to touring.
David Harradine (The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama)
An Infinite Line
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