As a consortium member for Horizon, Fabric hosted Horizon residency artists in the Midlands to support the research and development of new works.
Horizon focused on building deep, sustainable relationships between artists creating performance in England and international partners.
The programme supported artists through residencies, bursaries, showcasing opportunities and onward touring, creating pathways for international collaboration and exchange.
Fabric was part of the Horizon consortium alongside Battersea Arts Centre, Fierce, GIFT, MAYK and Transform. Horizon was commissioned by Arts Council England.
For 2023 the artists were selected by the Horizon consortium (Battersea Arts Centre, Fabric, Fierce, GIFT, MAYK and Transform) to undertake research and development for new performance projects. Each consortium organisation hosted a Horizon residency.
Horizon hosted an in-person pitching event with the residency artists at Dancebase as part of the week-long Horizon Showcase at Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Informal 1 on 1 conversations with a representative from the consortium organisations allowed the artists to discuss their work with an international delegation of industry professionals.
Residency Pitching Event at Dancebase
Takeshi Matsumoto, Club Ninja
This residency was to develop Takeshi’s project, Club Ninja. It explored the figure of the ninja, reimagined through light and shadow play in a participatory dance performance for families with children under 5 years old.
A highly skilled agent trained in ancient Japanese martial arts, the ninja acts in stealth. Club Ninja aims to develop these ideas further, using the ninja as a metaphor and playing with references to the typical ninja aesthetics to engage audiences’ imagination and creativity. Takeshi explored a range of possibilities with shadow play, dance, and the body to create new visual and somatic experiences for family audiences.
This project contributed to the development of participatory practice within dance performance with/for children and their families as the company envisions to create a trilogy of participatory dance performances with themes of East Asian cultural heritage.
Credits
- Dance collaborator: Makiko Aoyama
- Musician: Robert Howat
- Shadow play specialist: Sutarath Sinnong
- Lighting design: Andy Finn
- Costume design: Giulia Scrimieri
Image by Raluca Maria
about Takeshi
Takeshi Matsumoto is a dance artist and a dance movement psychotherapist, working in the sector of Performance for Young Audiences (PYA) and contemporary dance. His practice in performance making places children’s participation and creativity at the heart of collaborative process, exploring possibilities of what dance performance for families with children under 5 years old can be.
His digital choreographic work includes a dance film making with stateless refugee children in Thailand as a way to embody the marginalized voices and tackle social injustice through dance. A short film entitled “We Belong” has been screened in various platforms and festivals in the UK, USA, Canada and Thailand.
Gareth Chambers, The Revenge of Popperface
This residency was to develop Gareth’s project, The Revenge of Popperface, which aims to investigate and frame the cult of masculinity in pop culture, Mixed Martial Arts (MMA), and the power of music to offer alternative realities.
Working-class masculinity is often demonised as destructive, toxic, lazy and violent. Gareth’s ambition is to embody and subvert this narrative, creating a character (Popperface) who is angry, power-hungry and ambitious. Supported by two henchmen/dancers, Popperface aims to demonstrate that working class-ness can be positive and empowering.
During the 2 week residency, Gareth worked with sound technician Jaxson Payne, experimenting and distorting pop music aiming to create a performance track unique to the show.
Dance artists Richard Pye and Black Haine also joined Gareth in the studio to explore the first initial stages of movement exploration around MMA and aggro contact. As an experienced MMA/Boxing practitioner he explored MMA within a contact improvisation setting.
about Gareth
After spending time in Cardiff and London, Gareth Chambers moved to Hull last year to be back home and re-connect to his cultural heritage. As a dance maker, he is interested in researching non-traditional dance methodologies to create choreography which is raw and real-time based.
Since graduating from Trinity Laban, Gareth has gained a reputation as an artist who’s unafraid to make work which engages with working-class culture and its influence on masculinity. In 2021 through funding from a DYCP Arts Council England grant Gareth travelled to Asia to receive intensive training in MMA /Boxing which influences how he creates choreographic material.
Gareth has had residencies nationally at DanceBase, Fabric (as part of the Horizon residency programme 2023) and Experimentica and internationally in Berlin and ImpulsTanz as a danceweb scholar 2017. Pre-pandemic Gareth showcased work in Australia, Germany and Israel and danced/choreographed for Marikiscrycrycry.
He has been funded by ACE, ACW, Jerwood and Absolutely Cultured and was Associate Director for The Welsh National Opera as their Jerwood Fellow.