Art & About Sydney’s leading kids event, SPILL, is an outdoor dance performance and workshop that uses the playground as a performance space.
No piece of equipment is forgotten as swings, seesaws, roundabouts, slides, swinging tyres, flying foxes, and spring seats are all used to facilitate an energetic and explorative mix of contemporary dance.
‘The work features four outstanding performers (Joshua Thomson, Lewis Rankin, Eden Petrovski and Antek Marciniec) who drive the physical narrative through forms such as break, locking, popping, acrobatics, contemporary and parkour. One of the performers utilises his parkour and free-running skills quite incredibly … as he climbs three metre climbing bars and leaps and twists across the architecture!’ said SPILL Artistic Director and Choreographer Shaun Parker.
‘There are also highly physical dance sequences on the playing surfaces, most of which are that “spongey” playground floor material – so the dancers really go for it!’
SPILL was originally commissioned by DanceXchange and the International Dance Festival of Birmingham as part of the Cultural Olympiad. Since then the dance performance has toured over 40 playgrounds in the UK and has even been broadcast as part of a 10-part series on the BBC television’s SPACE channel.
The work observes four characters as they interact within a playground. While there is a strong playful quality to SPILL, it also touches upon some serious themes such as bullying, loneliness and social acceptance.
The presence of these themes linger long enough for children to identify with them, yet according to Parker, ‘these modes flip quite quickly in the work, as a new adventure keeps driving the performers.’
An novel component of the work is the interactive workshop at the end of the show.
‘When we were rehearsing on site in Birmingham, many families and children would come and watch us rehearse, and we soon noticed kids copying our choreography, and even trying some of their own “moves”,’ said Parker.
The group decided to take advantage of this interest by teaching some specific dance steps to kids after the performance, as well as showing them how to add their own creativity into the mix.
The choice of playground as performance space may seem unusual, but as an active advocate of community cultural development, Shaun Parker saw this setting as a way of giving families who may not be able to afford the cost of a major theatre production access to a free and high quality dance performance.
‘It really is a work for the community, for the families and for the children,’ said Parker.
Play the video below for a sneak peak at SPILL, and visit the Shaun Parker & Company website for further information on recent and upcoming dance works.
Art & About Sydney will run from 20 September to 20 October. For information about installations and events visit the Art & About Sydney website.
(Pictured: ‘Spill’ [cropped])
