Projects
Audacity
Audacity is our big project in the run up to the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
We are developing a number of works together that combine digital arts and live performance under the umbrella of “Audacity of Resistance”. The individual elements can stand alone or form part of a larger performance. The idea is to create works that are inspired by and reflect Olympian and Paralympian values of excellence, friendship and respect. We already have an Inspire Mark for some of our dances.
The Freewheelers have been transformed in recent years - growing out of an independent living foundation into a separate flourishing community interest company. 2012 provides us with a fresh opportunity to take a major step in our development and to create a legacy for disability and inclusive arts through our work.
Why audacity?
Audacity is about being bold, surprising and making people say “wow”. The Freewheelers have always aimed to take people on unexpected imaginative journeys. We want to collaborate with leading choreographers, projection companies, dancers, performers to weave stories that inspire and defy expectation. We don’t want disability arts to be safe – we’re ready to be audacious.
Why resistance?
There has been undeniable progress in attitudes towards deaf and disabled people in this country. Many people are now aware of how society can disable others, but there is still much ignorance and lack of understanding leading to prejudice and perhaps worst of all to pity. The consequent lack of confidence on the part of disabled people adds to the problem.,. This is all a form of “resistance”, as are the physical barriers. Many disabled people in other cultures and countries face a greater challenge in terms of segregation and access.
We are looking to explore the idea of resistance – through dance, movement, projection, live theatre… Using wind and other elements as a force that can run against us, but that we can also harness and use to take people in new directions.
We are meeting Paralympians in training, visiting iconic landmarks, experimenting with dance and film-making techniques as we creatively explore these themes.
Two Large Scale Events
Within the Audacity of Resistance we are developing two community events…
* Ascent
* Digital Dance Pinewood
Ascent
Ascent is a piece that combines digital arts, live theatre and the inspiring landscape of East Kent.
Working in collaboration with writer Rachel Barnett, we are devising a piece that uses projection onto the cliffs at Samphire Hoe. The work will tell stories of challenge, triumph and collaboration as cast members “ascend” the cliff.
Our initial discussions with Eurotunnel about staging the work have led to the idea of a collaboration with companies from overseas, and a larger scale event that draws in other community arts and sports organisations.
Although still in its early stages there is the potential to develop an inclusive arts festival that celebrates the work of disabled and non- disabled artists alike.
Digital Dance Pinewood
Digital Dance Pinewood is an ambitious piece of work developed interactively by different disabled and non-disabled people’s responses to the theme of resistance.
We are contacting inclusive dance companies around the world, and opening up a dialogue with individual disabled dancers who want to collaborate on a global project centering on an event in 2011/2012.
We are visiting paralympians, exploring different elemental forces and developing a web resource on which we’ll post videos of movement and dance pieces created by people around the world. We want to create an organic evolving dance piece that will involve the recording of a performance by between 500 and 1,000 dancers at Pinewood. We will then take this film to various "live sites" with big screens across the South East.
Partners: We are currently talking about developing our Pinewood project as part of an international collaborative event with English Touring Opera, Creative Bucks, Screen South, and English National Ballet