| Description |
One way to see the arrangement we make in a theatre is like this: the people on the stage in the light are working, and the people sitting on the seats in the dark are not.
In Recreation something else is happening. The show is an invitation to come nearer to one another, to be both working and not-working whether on stage or off. In various ways, the performance invites you to work hard and to relax, to blur the distinction between being active and being receptive, between expecting something of yourself or someone else and not expecting anything, sort of pottering around in your experience.
The performers and spectators of Recreation are doing different things. Each person's work and non-work are different. Even each performers’ work is different, not least because the cast comprises three performers who always do it and two local guests, who have been integrated over a couple of days. In both sets there are experienced perform- ers and fresher movers in all sorts of ways. You might be able to guess who is who but probably not and I invite you not to care too much. In the same spirit, I hope that Recreation is a way to not quite know who is working for whom, and, maybe, to let go of such values in favour of something more joyous, mysterious, and pleasurable.
Programme notes are available to view here:
http://balticplus.uk/gillie-kleiman-recreation-program-notes-c31637/
Credits
Choreographer: Gillie Kleiman
Performers: Amanda Drago, Victoria Guy, Kit Haigh, Jenn Harper, Chris Searle Designer: Emer Tumilty
Lighting Designer & Production Manager: George Leigh
Artistic Advisor (dramaturgy): Roberta Jean
Artistic Advisor (sound): Nicola Singh
Producer: Beckie Darlington
Commissioned by ARC Stockton, Shoreditch Town Hall, and Yorkshire Dance. Originally supported by Arts Council England, Rajni Shah Projects, Dance4, and via South East Dance and Jerwood Charitable Foundation Dramaturg in Residence programme. With special thanks to Dance City and Northumbria University.
Performed by professional, not-quite-professional and non-professional dancers – including guest performers local to BALTIC - Recreation is a lamentation for leisure, a choreographed question of labour, a danced demand for seeing our value beyond our work.
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