LUME: Dance Theatre Workshop

The context of the workshop was to share the starting point for This Side of Paradise by exploring the theme of physical manipulation. Dudendance have created a movement technique where the body is "moved" and manipulated like a life size puppet. Inspired by the silent movies of Buster Keaton, who is moved by elements outside of himself (the wind, rocks, water, machine) what develops is a physical struggle - a movement created by invisible forces. The group for This Side of Paradise used this in developing their noir influenced characters that are metaphorically locked in a struggle with their own fate.  During the workshop ties are attached to the body allowing the person to be moulded into “simple” tasks such as sitting, standing, walking, getting dressed etc. This passive state is slowly replaced by an increased motivation to break away resulting in a playful fight between the performer and the manipulators. Once the ties are removed the performers repeat the whole process alone, recalling the “sense memory” of the task.