Quite a lot of dance work in this cold and often unpleasant land, takes place not in the warm confines of the theatre but in the harsh outdoors. ‘ A Fool’s Journey’ created by Footwerk is one such piece of dance.
Created by dance maker Helen Parlor, alongside writer Sally Annette the work takes a long hard look at the Tarot cards for inspiration to create the movement and the small vignettes of the story. ‘A Fool’s Journey’ featured seven professional dancers and several dozen young folk to form a climatic flash mob at the end of the twenty minute work.
Despite freezing temperatures in the shopping mall in Milton Keynes, a city best known and rightly so for its multitude of roundabouts, the pros were, well, professional and the youngsters didn’t even flinch. The piece was part of the larger FringMK festival held in Milton Keynes that covers a wide range of art forms.
The company say this much about the work;
Annett has developed a circular dance narrative based on the historical representation of Alphabet and Archetype, based loosely on Petrach’s Triumphs, ideas of ‘Theatre du Memoir’ and the Renaissance game of ‘Tarrochi’ but contemporises these ideas by linking them into a’genetic alphabet’.
Footwerk will then choreograph the piece, working with professional international dancers and martial artists to produce simple, set pattern movements, which can then be distilled further and taught to groups of any level and ability. We will be working with community groups which will include regional dance groups, schools, martial arts clubs, senior citizens and women’s groups, attracting and encouraging a much wider demographic to not only watch, but participate.
At the time of writing there are no plans to perform the work again but check the company’s website for further details, because it may re-surface.
‘A Fool’s Journey’ is performed by Anette Meiltoft, Chris Bradley, Kate Mason, Sioda Martin, Dean Reeve, Adam Rutherford and Michael Naylor with music by Nathaniel Reed.