First up I did some online digging, my first impression of IJAD from their website is that this is a dance company not afraid to push boundaries particularly through the use of new technology and social media, who want to engage audiences through contemporary dance and particularly focus on secrets. The theme of secrets stems from the Artistic Director and Choreographer Joumana Mourad, “Her pieces are full of secrets, visceral sensuality, the role of the voyeur, inner and outer life and an intensity of emotion that is sustained more than it is explosively expressed.” I’m already intrigued.
More information about this project is available here
IJAD’s focus on secrets was explored in their performance In-Finite which premiered on the 8th March at Rich Mix. They asked members of the public to send in their secrets which were then incorporated into the choreography and performance. Social media seems to be playing an ever-significant part in performance art as it becomes more ingrained in our day-to-day lives. I can’t remember the last day I was not on Facebook or Twitter, which although a slightly sad fact, I’m sure I’m not alone! Another work that drew specifically on social media was the play Purge by Brian Lobel, this interactive show saw Lobel bravely, or foolishly, asking the audience which of his Facebook friends to keep or delete, resulting in many an angry message from a deleted friend! I will be interested to see how social media plays a part in IJAD’s future performances.
IJAD’s focus on secrets was explored in their performance In-Finite which premiered on the 8th March at Rich Mix. They asked members of the public to send in their secrets which were then incorporated into the choreography and performance. Social media seems to be playing an ever-significant part in performance art as it becomes more ingrained in our day-to-day lives. I can’t remember the last day I was not on Facebook or Twitter, which although a slightly sad fact, I’m sure I’m not alone! Another work that drew specifically on social media was the play Purge by Brian Lobel, this interactive show saw Lobel bravely, or foolishly, asking the audience which of his Facebook friends to keep or delete, resulting in many an angry message from a deleted friend! I will be interested to see how social media plays a part in IJAD’s future performances.
Their next performance will take place at the Science Museum, entitled In-Finite Space promising the opportunity to “Experience space architecture through IJAD Dance Company’s ‘lens of the unseen’”. An intriguing idea to say the least! It is stated as a “choreographic two-way mirror located between the Science Museum and the twittersphere”. I am very curious to see how the world of science and dance can be fused together but mainly to see how tweets can create a performance. People are encouraged to add ideas to the “constellation of the event”, constellation as the structure, “space architecture” although for me 'constellation' brings up ideas of fate and star signs so who knows what they will produce. Another angle to this performance is taking inspiration from the Science Museum's Middle Eastern astronomy collection, suggesting yet another layer to the performance.
IJAD are asking Twitter a variety of questions to provoke answers which I'm assuming will be used to create the choreography.
Any responses may be used as part of their Science Museum performance, and so my intrigue grows, these aren’t exactly yes no answers. The kind of questions that make my brain ache, so I can’t wait to see how peoples answers will be used to inspire the choreography for the event!
Thanks to Camilla and IJAD for inviting me in, I look forward to discovering more about the performance and the process for using Twitter to inspire a performance, especially one tackling such a mind boggling subject as the Universe and Space.
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