Without Walls announce the artists and companies joining the Blueprint programme for 2023. Blueprint is a unique research and development opportunity to support the creation of bold and innovative new work. As the UK’s most highly regarded outdoor arts and performance specialists, Without Walls is committed to making vital and accessible work for public space in 2023 and the Blueprint programme is integral to developing this work.
With arts spaces disappearing across the country, the Without Walls Blueprint programme is designed to enable artists to experiment with new ideas, collaborations and approaches to creating work. Since 2018, Without Walls has supported the development of over 100 research and development projects. Many of these have gone on to full creation, some with the support of Without Walls.
2023 sees six recipients of the Blueprint programme announced with a mixture of established and new companies developing new approaches to making work. The artists and companies selected this year are:
Anemoia Circus, co-founded by Coral Dawson and Tilly Lee-Kronick, which will launch a contemporary circus show Anchored in Air, a new innovative inclusive aerial show which explores the push and pull between all of us in the world, what weighs us down, and what empowers us. The show combines circus, movement, live drumming and a completely original score. Anchored in Air will see an integrated cast of disabled and non-disabled circus performers using unique aerial setups to explore how we hinder and uplift each other and ourselves.
Autin Dance Theatre uses its unique blend of contemporary storytelling, striking physicality and innovative large designs to transport audiences along a carefully choreographed procession.
Parade -The Giant Wheel is an ambitious and scalable street performance that has inclusivity and accessibility at its heart. The performers are high above the streets, spun around ferociously, turning their worlds upside down, at times giving them momentum and speed, and at others rocking them gently back and forth imitating the laborious and repetitive cycle of life.
Award-winning multidisciplinary arts platform Initiative.dkf aims to create an accessible audio-visual experience in an ode to our matriarchs and mothers, celebrating mothers and matriarchs through a larger-than-life Gélé, the ceremony of a crowning head tie worn by many women across West Africa. Pieced together through poetry, proverbs and fabric; this structure will play back to the company’s Edinburgh Fringe short film, exploring black joy through the majesty of a mother composing her fabric crown before a night out.
From an award-winning contemporary circus company Ockham’s Razor, and Oily Cart who create highly crafted sensory shows, is JOYRIDE, a large-scale, sensory, kinetic performance made for and with disabled young people and their peers. Through the show, the young audience members ride with their adult, sibling or friend in specially-made, fantastical vehicles, which are powered and animated by contemporary circus performers. The specially trained performers will tailor the experience to each audience member’s needs and preferences.
Artist Sadiq Ali will use his experience of contemporary circus and movement work to beautifully explore a narrative around HIV and overcoming stigma. Through the use of Chinese poles and acrobatics, the piece will explore the power of group dynamics and community in breaking down
barriers to intimacy, touch and human connection.
To complete the programme London-based mover and maker Shyam Dattani has been selected to develop Garbh, a South Asian outdoor dance piece performed by six British-Asian dancers in an authentic Indian Village celebration. The show will transport audiences to the deserts of Kutch, in Gujarat, through colourful costumes, an innovative set and beautiful movement. It is accessible to everyone regardless of gender, faith, caste or sexuality.
David Morgan, Programme Manager of Without Walls, comments, ‘Without Walls’ Blueprint programme provides the opportunity for artists to find the time, space and resources to develop their practice and to fully explore new ideas. The importance of Blueprint has been underlined by the strength and success of many of the projects that have emerged from the programme in the last five years.’
