Dancers explore Fault Lines
University of Chichesterbased Lîla Dance head to the Brighton Festival with their show Fault Lines for performances in The Dance Space on Tuesday, May 14 at 6pm and Wednesday, May 15 at 7pm.
Artistic directors Abi Mortimer and Carrie Whitaker, whoarelecturersatchichester University, are offering a piece which “pulls at the tension in our relationship with nature.”
The piece argues that our constant pursuit of progress increasing the speed of life has leftusoutofsyncwiththenaturalworld.itfeaturesascorched earth. From the rubble and the ruin, the survivors emerge. A new world, a second chance. Within changing landscapes created from digital illustrations and music, the survivors navigate the world, racing towards an unknown future. Fault Lines explores the environmental damage we’ve inflicted but asks what happens when we stand together with hope? What will that take?
Producer Lou Rogers said: “The show is inspired by the climate emergency. That's how we started but we wanted to make it a show that was personal to everyone. We found that there is a huge amount of overwhelm when it comes to the climate emergency. People just don't know what to do or where to start so we wanted to make a show about the small changes that people can make. It's a hopeful show. It's a show thatbelievesthatthingscanimprove. We did a lot of research andwehadalotofcommunication with the Green Party and Greenpeace and with various environmental scientists to look at how we might be able to try to reverse the damage that we've done, and the hope is that we can. There is optimism as long as we do do something about it but also governments in the wider picture and also thelargercorporatecompanies have to make changes as well.”
But the point is that we can make small changes – for instance carrying around a water bottle rather than buying water bottles; carrying round a cup rather than using disposable cups; and trying to travel by public transport: “Dance is a goodwaytoexpressallthis.our shows are very accessible and there is also spoken word. The showdoesn'thaveaset.wehave two digital projectors which means that we can go everywhere by public transport. All our costumes are recycled or second hand. Everything we do in the show is embedded in that ethos.”