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Company number: 3724349
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Past programme
Showcases an eclectic range of fresh and interesting contemporary work, largely by emerging artists
Purged
"There’s a special kind of comfort in thinking it could all end in silence."
You are now twenty nine. A few weeks ago, you attempted to stay twenty nine forever. You failed. Now words fail you.
But you have to attempt to explain anyway.
Catharsis in association with Underfoot present a heady, physical account of euphoria, redemption, and extremity.
This is a story about the fragments of time that hide between words. The things on the fringes of your consciousness. The scenes that happen out of the corner of your eye.
A compelling tale without an ending told to whoever’s around to hear it.
Things We Should Have Said Today (Rehearsed Reading)
Betty is having a bad day. She’s overheating, her mother is demented, her son is coming out, her daughter is getting divorced, the farm is losing money and her husband is hiding away from it all under the tractor. Or is he just dead?
Rehearsed reading of the winning entry of the Blue Elephant's 2015 play writing competition.
This event is FREE but must be booked in advance to guarantee availability. Please click here to book.
Escape
Escape explores the emotional journey of a refugee through struggle, despair and the search for freedom. Fusing aerial performance and dance theatre, Escape explores the impact of a new environment on a refugee, who must face social, political and psychological challenges in order to integrate into a new society.
Joanna Puchala has created choreography that combines contemporary dance with aerial techniques using aerial slings. Elaborate wrapping and falling create movements that heighten the intensity of the scenes and capture the full attention of the audience.
LCP returns to the Blue Elephant following the sell-out success of I Am in 2015 (“Offered something extraordinary” ★★★★ Female Arts). LCP Dance Theatre draws awareness to human rights violations through dance and the company’s past work has been nominated several times for the Amnesty International Freedom of Expression Award.
Reviews
Blue Cloud Scratch
Blue Cloud Scratch is an exciting new dance scratch night, showcasing works in progress from a diverse range of choreographers, and is curated by Blue Elephant Theatre and Cloud Dance Festival. Blue Cloud Scratch aims to encourage and provide emerging dance artists with opportunities to present their works in progress and receive feedback from audiences and peers.
This is the third Blue Cloud Scratch following our other successful nights in March and May.
For more about the Blue Cloud Scratch and Cloud Dance Festival, click here.
Indefinite Article Dance Theatre - Momentum
Indefinite Article Dance Theatre a collective of three dance artists - Fern Maia, Belinda Grantham and Craig Bennett - who are based in the North West. They specialise in devising and delivering high quality dance theatre that challenges, entertains and inspires audiences, by offering work that is both engaging and accessible.
Momentum plays with the in-between moments in daily life. Those microseconds where automatic impulse takes over and subsequent shifts occur in the direction of our being. Can we dwell in the precarious space that exists right before we submiss to those driving forces? The work will ultimately aim to question our inherent desire to succumb to what is considered facile and safe. How much of our behaviors is pre determined in our subconscious mind, and can we change the course of our physical and verbal dialogue in those tiny moments before impulse takes over?
Dickson Mbi - ShowTime
Dickson Mbi is a leading hip hop dancer whose own work fuses popping and contemporary dance in a unique way, and he has toured globally as a member of Russell Maliphant Company, also appearing in TV commercials choreographed by Russell Maliphant. He's also part of Just Us Dance Theatre, directed by Joseph Toonga, and is a co-founder of Fiya House which mentors, teaches and supports young hip hop dance artists.
Choreographed & performed by Dickson Mbi.
Lewys Holt - Phrases
Lewys Holt is an interdisciplinary dance artist based in the UK. His practice, while focusing on dance, spans comedy, visual arts and devised theatre.
He has worked with prominent international artists including Tino Sehgal, Frank Willens, Rosemary Lee and Florence Peake, and Lewys was shortlisted for a Jerwood Choreographic Grant (2013) for his collaborative work with Katherine Hall Subject To Change.
In 2015 he was supported by Dance4 and Yorkshire Dance to successfully secure Arts Council funding to make a solo show titled Of, Or At A Fairly Low Temperature. Lewys is also a founding member of the ACE funded Leicester-based contemporary performance collective Tetrad.
Phrases is an exploration of structured dance improvisations alongside spoken and projected text and projected photographs. Themes present in the work so far include confusion, sublime, dysfunction, non-sequiter, stream-of-consciousness and a resistance to representation and formal order.
Choreographed & performed by Lewys Holt.
Point(e) Taken Dance Theatre - Dual Deviation
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Dual Deviation is a series of vignettes inspired by the music of Ezio Bosso and choreographed by Ian Parsons, exploring how different choices and paths that people take affect their lives.
Ian is a experienced dancer and choreographer, training originally at Canada's National Ballet School. He has danced in Les Miserables directed by Tom Hooper and in the West End revival of Cabaret. He also has held many different teaching posts at schools in the UK, and heads back to Canada to continue teaching there this year.
Choreographed by Ian Parsons
Performed by David Beer, Nami Furukawa, Corinne Swallow and Natasha Richardson
Alice Weber - Pomodoro
Pomodoro is a work that compares the physical fragility of human life to that of a tomato. The work is self-aware of its own absurdity and looks to explore our human experience with lightheartedness and joy.
Alice Weber received her early dance training in her native Sydney, Australia. She trained full-time at Academy Ballet, Sydney, using intensive classical training to foster a unique contemporary style. Alice's work is inspired by idiosyncracy, psychology, anatomical quirks and temporal dynamics. She works primarily in self-choreography but also teaches in West London.
Choreographed by Alice Weber
Performed by Rachel Elderkin
Autin Dance Theatre - A Positive Life
A Positive Life is an immersive dance theatre experience. Currently in it's early phases of research and development, this will be a 15 minute extract of a 1 hour long piece, aimed at young people aged 14-24 years old. Themes of sexual health, sex education, and well being are explored and delivered through 5 performers, of dance theatre and spoken word artists.
Johnny Autin graduated from the National Conservatoire of Music and Dance (France) in Contemporary Dance and Ballet. Based in the UK for over 9 years and now living in Birmingham, Johnny has worked with several organisations mainly as a performer and physical theatre practitioner. He is the Creative Director of the professional company Autin Dance Theatre and the Artistic Director of Man Made Youth Company, Birmingham's first independent all-male youth company.
Choreographed by Johnny Autin
Performed by Becca Thomas, Jerome Wilks, Katie Albon, Michael Kelland, Jasmine Gardosi (tbc)
Cairo, mon amour
Get a taste of the vibrant dance scene in modern Cairo through this selection of work by Zosia Jo and Aly Khamees.
Khamees will perform his solo extract from Jo’s Ancient Modernity prior to a screening of the full work.
Supported by
Never Going to Beat You
It’s 1995 and Moira Le Bas has been swept off her feet by the charming Patrick Murphy who has come back to the area after several years away.
Within a year Moira has left school and is starting a new life as Patrick’s wife. She is having the time of her life but her cousin Bridy has some deep concerns about Patrick.
Twenty years later, it seems that Bridy was right. Moira wonders if she should’ve realised what Patrick was like when he promised "I’m never going to beat you."
Based on stories of domestic violence experienced by Gypsy and Traveller women as told to Jennie Buckman (Giants Theatre Company), Never Going to Beat You is a raw and personal piece of community drama. With a cast formed of Gypsy and Traveller women alongside actor Paul McGuinness, the play is an authentic look at the realities of domestic violence within these communities.“
Tickets are FREE but must be booked in advance to guarantee a place. Please click here to book.
Performance times:
14.30 Friday 22nd
19.30 Saturday 23rd
Fall Out
See the sound. Feel the Movement.
Uncover the conversations between music and emotion through choreography and improvisation. Old Kent Road’s unique collaboration combining tap dance with live music creates an exceptional, stirring performance.
In the space of a few years, choreographer Avalon Rathgeb has quickly become one of the UK’s leading forces in Tap dance. Creating her company in September 2014, a glimpse of Old Kent Road’s Fall Out was first performed as part of Resolution! 2015.
Now for the first time at Blue Elephant Theatre, you are invited to experience the premiere of a 50 minute show which brings together some of the UK's finest professional tap dancers, alongside jazz musicians.
Reviews
Les Musketieres Du Trois
These men might be heroes, clowns, simpletons or rogues. What is certain is that there are three of them…or four…(or five) and they are all very French.
These are harsh times: paupers will do anything for a bite to eat, while the gluttonous King Louis will consume anything he can get his grubby hands on. In order to rise from the gutter, one young man must fight for King, Queen and the love of his life to prove his worth. To succeed he’ll need new friends, but with friends like these…
Rats With Wings Theatre adopt a very physical form of storytelling, drawing inspiration from clowning, commedia, Lecoq and slapstick comedy to present a journey of bumbling sword fights, wailing peasants pompous courtiers and ridiculous romances. This series of hilarious scenarios is performed in a nonsensical faux-French, using half mask.
This new stage version of Alexandre Dumas’ classic novel The Three Musketeers aims to explore the comedic speech of the body beyond words.
Reviews
Daughter of the Forest
The yolk of the sun is yet to start melting down the horizon over the Sundarbans - the dense mangrove forest that spreads from the southern shores of Bangladesh to the easternmost corner of West Bengal. A ship, an oil tanker, appears on the river, breaking through the wisps of fog. The ship is slowly sinking.
Thick, dark-gilded liquid seeps from the hulk, approaching the Sundarbans like the jaws of a dragon to swallow it. It will claim everything, choking trees and animals alike in its sticky coils. Enraged by the dark tide, vengeful demons awake in the souls of the Sundarbans tigers, and they begin to feast on humans who venture into the forest. Who will save them?
This is the tale of Bonbibi, a girl left in the Sundarbans as a child and raised by the creatures of the forest. Trouble looms when the greed of humans threatens nature, and conflict between man and beast becomes inevitable. She must embark on a quest to restore the balance between the two, and save the forest.
Daughter of the Forest is an exciting and colourful adventure for all ages. Komola’s new family theatre piece creates the magical world of Bonbibi through puppetry, physical theatre and contemporary storytelling, with music by acclaimed British-Bengali band Khiyo.
Recommended for ages 6+
Supported by
Keith Gretton at Blue Elephant Theatre
Keith’s first exhibition after leaving art school was of landscapes (1958). He moved to London as a member of the Free Painters and briefly produced abstracts before exploring the visual relationships between maps and landscape. He was a printmaker in the 1990s before moving on to make figurative ceramic sculptures and showing them with the London Potters. He moved to Camberwell in 2013 to a house with a studio, while still making ceramics, but struggled for direction.
Keith turned 81 in December 2015, and looking at his children’s drawings, became inspired by their particular perceptive nature and in 2016 the creative surge has resulted in over 50 paintings and prints. This exhibition is a representative selection, as part of the 2016 Camberwell Arts Festival.
It is open pre and post show and by appointment during the week. Please call us on 02077010100 if you would like to call in to see it.
The Countess (Rehearsed Readings)
In March 2010 Marianne Jonson was found guilty of 23 counts of fraud at Harrow crown court and was sentenced to four and a half years in prison.
Told through first-hand interviews, court transcripts and extensive research, this verbatim play documents the story of a woman who led an extraordinary double life, conning the council out of a whopping £197,000 in fraudulent benefit claims.
Tickets are free but should be reserved in advance by emailing boxoffice@blueelephanttheatre.co.uk
In The Gut
A funny, tragic and ridiculous show about pregnancy, parenting and growing up.
Meet an array of charming and grotesque characters from chefs with birthing recipes to smug mothers, barmy historians and more. Les Femmes Ridicule play with their audience from beginning to end, walking a fine line between comedy and tragedy as they explore many themes of potential parenthood, including miscarriage, infertility and grief. The company's ultimate goal is to have fun with the audiences whilst tackling some of life’s paranoia in a light and unsettling way.
"Slapstick explains childbirth”, "Madness, Genius, Moving” (Audience feedback)
"I was crying with laughter… so good!” (Audience Feedback)
Hump Day Treat! All full-price tickets are reduced to £8.50 on Wednesday 15th June!
There will be a post-show discussion on Thursday 16th June.
Reviews
Supported by
Beyond the Mask and Other Stories
Séverine A. Raynaud (1985, France) is a Fine Art portrait photographer.
With a conceptual and symbolic approach, she asks question about the artist's place in the modern society, and challenges the viewer to think about his own.
Influenced by folklore (Celtic, Native American, Asian) and movies (Tim Burton, Hayao Miyazaki) she places her lonely characters (often masked) in enchanted surreal backgrounds and situations. Despite looking dark and moody her artworks are talking about hope, and how finding light in darkness.
"Storytellers transported me as a child into dangerous and enchanted worlds, I remember how I was wondering about how often a nobody could become a hero. There were my favorite stories. I would like to establish the same kind of connection with the viewers through my photography."
Séverine A. Raynaud is currently working and living in London.
The exhibition is open is open to the public before and after our shows and by appointment Mondays to Fridays.
Blue Cloud Scratch
Blue Cloud Scratch is an exciting new dance scratch night curated by Blue Elephant Theatre and Cloud Dance Festival. Blue Cloud Scratch aims to encourage and provide emerging dance artists with opportunities to present their works in progress and receive feedback from audiences and peers.
This is the second Blue Cloud Scratch following our first successful night in March.
For more about the Blue Cloud Scratch and Cloud Dance Festival, click here.
The running time of Blue Cloud Scratch is approxiamtely 2 hours, including an interval and Q&As with the choreographers.
Oom-pah Oom-pah
Oom-pah oom-pah is a duet born out of experimentation with two dance genres; contemporary and Argentine tango. The two have very different, quite opposite concepts of femininity: tango with its idiosyncratic idea of sensuality, and contemporary dance with its unisex, androgynous approach to movement. Sometimes these concepts or norms get taken to extremes and become cliched. Masha Gurina and Savina Casarin were curious to see what happens if you relax certain rules present in both genres and let go of our own idea of how we (the performers) should come across.
Choreographer: Masha Gurina
Performers: Savina Casarin and Masha Gurina
With thanks to Debora Di Centa and Chloe Aliyanni
CON-TACTO
CON-TACTO is a work in progress investigating the intimacy of touch. This is a conversation of movement between two performers, who listen, respond and propose through the perception of the others touch. This relationship starts from tentative beginnings, but finds organic flow, weight and rhythm for a true dialogue to emerge. The touch is longed for yet feared at the same time, creating moments of tension and release.
Choreographer: Piedad Albarracin Seiquer
Performers: Piedad Albarracin Seiquer and Thomas Hands
Composer: Felipe Escalada
Piedad is a Contemporary Dance Artist and through her many years of training and performance, she is now focusing on her own practice. Influenced by her time working with such artists as Jose Adugdo, Estela Merlos and Saorin, Piedad has a articulate and highly energetic vocabulary. Her Spanish playful rhythms are entwined with grounded floor work and Risk taking partner work. Piedad’s non- narrative stories, from the work of poet Julio Cortazar, shows an insight into human connections, with strong imagery colouring the process
LonDOoM
LonDOoM is a manifesto for Generation Rent. It is a gripping comedy about housing conditions in the biggest European city. This performance describes the biggest nightmare of every Londoner - hunting for property to rent.
is a manifesto of the ‘generation rent’. It is a gripping comedy about housing condition in the largest European city. This performance describes the biggest nightmare of every Londoner – hunting for property to rent.
In this piece, the audience assists the heroine in her journey. She is a newcomer to the city, and she believes that London will make her dreams come true. All she needs to do to make the world her oyster is to find the room to rent. Nothing could be easier, right?
Bee Dance Company is the collective of artists created in 2015 by Zuzanna Pilat. Our main motivation is to create works that make people wonder. Our aim is to produce interdisciplinary art pieces that brings contemporary dance to a new realm.
Dancer - Inês Zinho Pinheiro
Choreographer/ Dancer – Zuzanna Pilat
Voice Actress – Susan Hoffman
Sisyphus's Wife
Sisyphus's Wife premiered on 29.01.2016 at The Place as part of Resolution 2016.
Maria Ines Sousa and Adrian Look perform a duet telling a story of despair, purpose, choice and acceptance of fate; inspired by the 19th century Rückert poems about "Weltschmerz" and "The Myth of Sisyphus" by Albert Camus.
Dancers: Maria Ines Sousa and Adrian Look
Choreographer Adrian Look is a freelance dance artist and lecturer for Tanztheater. He is also the artistic director and choreographer of London based T a n z t h e a t e r Adrian Look, founded in 2014.
Immovable - Gleich Dances
Moving towards weight, the dance is engaged with taking up space and posturing, with building up and taking down. Dancers are angles and directions, masculine and feminine versions of themselves. Rough hewn geometries contrast with precise intersections of pointed feet and elbows. This dance for 3 women on pointe is approximately 10 minutes with soundscape including the voice of Donald Trump. It queries some of our ideas about what it means to make ballet.
Choreographer: Julia K Gleich
Dancers: Michelle Buckley, Eloise Hymas, Karianne Andreasson
Costumes: Manrutt Wongkaew
What it was when it happened
This is a work in progress which explores the ways in which dance can convey moments of forgetting or absence. We have been working with a sound artist who pieced together eight monologues focusing on the moments of confusion and non-expression, where the individuals were struggling to find the right words to explain their exact feelings at a moment of change in their lives. The dancers follow the rhythm of the words, creating an irregular pattern, moving between repetition, confusion and perhaps moments of clarity, thus embodying the experience of forgetting.
Dancers and choreographers: Camille Jetzer and Fran Mangiacasale
Sound artist: Gemma Riggs
DisConnect is a start-up contemporary dance group which currently explores the concept of forgetting through movement, as well as the ways in which dance can bridge the gap between different art forms and means of communication in order to convey that which is absent or forgotten.
Reviews
Tempest in a Teacup
An enchanted island in the middle of the ocean and the storm to end all storms, The Tempest in a Teacup re-imagines Shakespeare’s fantastical play for a young audience. We open Prospero’s spell book and out fly the most marvellous creatures. This is a story where fairies are conjured from thin air and books fly like butterflies around the room. Follow the play’s magical characters as they explore the island and find out what happens when strangers are washed onto their land.
This is a playful and interactive adventure using puppetry and storytelling, transporting the audience to this magical island in the middle of the ocean where wondrous things can happen.
Perfect for ages 5+