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Research & Development
Dash Arts is constantly on the move - packing our suitcases to discover how performers live and work elsewhere. This ongoing research into the traditions, practice and conditions of performance throughout the world is essential to the evolution of Dash Arts: our understanding, our work and our eventual ambition- to create projects and nurture artists in collaboration with colleagues in all five continents.
India: 2005
Over the course of 2005, commissioned by the British Council, we made several visits to Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Trichur, Cochin, Bangalore and Ahmedabad. We researched, observed, met and worked with artists of theatre, music and dance who revealed to us something of the immense wealth and ancient roots of Indian performance. This trip radically changed our horizons and led to the production of A Midsummer Nights’ Dream that we created in India in 2006 and that toured widely through to the end of 2008.
China: July 2007
Supported by the Roundhouse, London we visited groups and theatres in Shanghai, Beijing, Chengdu, Kunming, Zhengzou and Xian. We saw the work of leading circus troupes; the kung-fu training of the young Shoalin monks; the great artists of the Peking and Sichuan Opera, variety and puppetry traditions; classical and contemporary dance and new theatre.
South and Central America: December 2007
Once more supported by the Roundhouse, London we traveled to Buenos Aries in Argentina; Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo and Salvador in Brazil; and Havana in Cuba, meeting and working with performers of all kinds. We focused especially on the explosive scene of new physical performance in Argentina; circus artists in Sao Paulo; the theatre of the favela in Rio de Janeiro; the capoeira artists in Salvador and the remarkable realistic actors of Cuba- as well, of course, as the ubiquitous music and dance.
India: August 2009
Supported by The National Theatre, London, we visited the rural areas of West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Mangalore. We researched the great folk-theatre traditions of Chhau, Kattaikuttu, Therukoothu and Yakshagana and sought out the unique practice of all-night performances of The Mahabahrata.
Europe, North Africa and the Middle East: November 2009
We spent time in France, Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Palestine in the Autumn of 2009, visiting musicians towards our new music commissions for the Arabic Series. We encountered the real diversity of musical production in the Region: meeting hiphop artists in studios and women’s classical orchestras in Beirut, singers in the Cairo National Opera House, a new music label in Jordan, jazz festival producers in Syria and an independent music performance space in Cairo. Some of the artists we met and played music with will join us for the Lyrical Alliance and Oum Kalsoum projects and all our experiences influenced their development.
North Africa, the Middle East and the Gulf: May 2009 to November 2010
Commissioned by Luminato, Toronto Festival of Arts, Culture and Creativity, we have traveled extensively to Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Egypt, Lebanon, Syriah, Palestine, Jordan, the UAE, Oman, Bahrain, Kuwait, Yemen and Iraq in the research, casting and development of One Thousand and One Nights. We have been meeting and talking to theatre artists and working with performers and musicians in workshops wherever we go. The production will be created in collaboration with the artists we have met along the way and rehearsals will be over three months in the spring of 2011 in Egypt or Syria. The show premieres in Toronto in June and will tour internationally thereafter. It will come to the UK subsequently as part of our Arabic Series.
