about
How Long Is a Piece of String? is an interactive dance theatre work for children and families. Using midi controllers to allows audiences to contribute to the score live through touch. The work explores concepts of touch, friendship, and closeness. The two performers are costumed as String and Strong, characters who speak in a gibberish language and whose bodies (including faces and eyes) are covered in fringing. Only their hands, the place where they first connect to form their friendship, are recognizably human.
Credits
Choreography, concept and direction: Jennifer Essex
Performers: Rosie Macari, Alicia Meehan
Costumes, sets, and props: Emily Rose Spreadborough
Composer: Jovana Bakovic
Dramaturg and Creative Technologist: Harry Man
Lighting Design: Michael Morgan
Premiere: 22nd September 2021
Created with support from: Arts Council England, Dance City (Newcastle), The Royal Opera House, TIN Arts, Alnwick Playhouse, Hartlepool Town Hall
timeline
2019
Development of proposal for Dance City commissioning programme.
Proposed a performance for audiences aged 3+ that explored themes of isolation and shared experience and how emotions can be enhanced and shared.
Proposed the idea of sound and breath being an effective way to enhance connection between audience and performer. The performance would feature two performers covered from head to toes in long floppy “hair”.
2020
Awarded Dance City commission.
Awarded Arts Council England funding.
Recruited creative team of two performers, a sound designer, creative technologist, dramaturg, and costume and set designer.
Rehearsal and development at Dance City (Newcastle).
Awarded a commission from Festival Stoke to develop String and Strong’s Creative Olympics, a series of creative prompts for children and families to participate in from home, published online during the COVID-19 Pandemic.
Performance of work in progress at Dance City for Dance Edits (Newcastle).
2021
Paper presentation, ‘Building Opportunities for profound participation and playful co-operation in interactive dance theatre for diverse young audiences’ at International Theatre for Young Audiences Research Network panel: Inclusivity and TYA.
Full Stage commission from Dance City.
Development and touring support from Arts Council England.
Rehearsal and Development with TIN Arts and test sharings with children with profound and multiple learning disabilities (PMLD) (Durham).
Rehearsal and Development at Dance City (Sunderland) and test sharings with children and families.
Rehearsal and Development at Hartlepool Town Hall and test sharings with children and families.
Rehearsal and development at Alnwick Playhouse with workshops and sharings for children and families.
Development of walkabout performance for outdoor festivals String and Strong’s Great Big Gameathon to test interactions and relationships with audiences. Performances as part of Middlesbrough Mela, Wellbeing Festival (Barnard Castle), Hartlepool Waterfront Festival and The Full Shebang (Mansfield).
Performances at Saltburn Arts, Hartlepool Town Hall, Alnwick Playhouse, and Dance City.
2022
Reflection, rehearsal, and re-development at Dance City (Newcastle).
String and Strong’s Great Big Gameathon performances to research interaction at Tickhill Gala in Doncaster, Stockton International Riverside Festival, Rotherham Show and IncludFest (Durham).
2023
Re-rehearsal with developments informed by learning through String and Strong’s Great Big Gameathon performances, adaptation of score.
Performances at Hatch Beauchamp Village Hall, Ditcheat Village Hall, Speedwell Hall (Crewkerne), Theatre Hullabaloo (Darlington), Queen’s Hall Hexham and Priory Woods School for children with PMLD (Middlesbrough).
Commission from The Royal Opera House to re-develop the work for larger audiences (London).
Performances of a larger scale version of the work at The Royal Opera House, Gosforth Civic Theatre and The Pyramid Arts Centre (Warrington).
Method:
String and Strong and the story require a visual approach so drawings and sculptures of String and Strong were created to help communicate ideas. A written and illustrated score was developed that could be shared across the artistic team and understood by the dramaturg, performers, designer, and composer. A mood board allowed the sharing of images, videos and research for the creative team. Using ALBA Emoting (Beck, 2010) and Laban, the initial sketches of the characters were developed into a text and visual document which developed ideas for vocalizations and physical movements.
Online interactions were developed to include children and families in the design process during the COVID-19 pandemic. The online interaction helped to shape the development of String and Strong’s characters and the way interactions are structured in the production. A private Facebook group was developed where children and parents could feedback on costumes colours, movement ideas, and possible interactions as well as hearing from the creatives involved.
Modes of Interaction
Central to the development of the project is the idea that children would be invited to be involved in the work and would be integral to the story. In performance this works in six main ways:
1. Structured pre-show interaction occurs in the lobby. I meet the children and families to welcome them to the space and begin a light touch pre-show interaction. This softens the threshold of entering the building and then entering the darker theatre space.
2. Children are invited to contribute to the performance by recording their voices before entering the theatrical space. The children are introduced to the characters of String and Strong via an image and told that they are not getting along. They are then invited to help by recording their own instructions on how to give a hug.
3. Each seating area has a set of metallic stars that use midi controllers to play different sounds when they are touched by the children. The midi controllers require that a circuit be completed to play the sound. This can be done through one child placing a hand or each star (as at the beginning of the show) or by two children each placing a hand on one star and holding hands (as at the end of the show to illustrate the magic of friendship and touch).
4. Children are invited to interact one to one with String and Strong, playing a variety of games. They teach String and Strong to speak through telling them their names, help String sing a lullaby to take care of Strong when they are tired, and help them learn to play together through teaching them peek a boo.
5. The children are invited to dance with String and Strong in a large group including their family group at the end of the show.
6. Children are invited to continue to interact with the story world after the performance by using the sets and props in their own ways.
7. After the show, the children are invited to interact one to one by speaking informally with the creative team.