It’s not just in the city centre that exciting arts events are happening. This week in Yardley a school group will be promoting their local community centre in what could be the start of an interesting new arts/community space.
Children from Oasis Academy Hobmoor have joined with Coventry-based digital-dance company Mercurial Arts to create a new dance performance for their community. Working collaboratively since May, sixty Year 5 pupils have worked on the project, inspired by and exploring neuroscience.
As well as the dance performance, half of the children have been working on a ‘Digital Play Space’ to compliment the work featuring insights into the brain, interactive projections, film footage and sound using new technologies.
As a starting point, the children visited the University of Birmingham’s Medical School for in-depth investigations into the workings of the brain, and looked into complex questions such as, ‘Where do ideas and movements come from in the body?’
Mercurial Arts’ Artistic Director Oliver Scott said:
One of the exciting things about this project is we can set the children complex and real challenges. Not only will they become a fully-fledged dance company making their own new work, they will share it with the general public. It is an ambitious task that develops physical, personal and social skills that will stand them in good stead in many contexts.
Chaotic Liquid Network is part of an exploration into the brain Mercurial Arts have been undertaking over the last year, and first investigated during their project The Seed, performed at the Coventry Mysteries festival in 2013.
The public performance of Chaotic Liquid Network will take place at 11.45am this Friday (4 July) at Oasis Hobmoor Community Centre, Yardley. Capacity is limited. Book via the school. The Digital Play Space will be open as a drop-in, from 11am-3pm on Saturday 5 and Sunday 6 July 2014.
Find out more about local Arts fora and the Arts Champions scheme here.