Hear from Yasmin about her favourite memories from our community show Frippery, from creative process to the exciting performance.
Performance photo of Frippery. A group of young community performers, dressed in colourful tops and trousers, are standing in a row facing the camera, joyfully cheering at something in front of them. Some are throwing their arms forward and one of them is kicking their leg high. Behind them, two male Stopgap dancers carry two of their female colleagues on their shoulders. They are cheering and smiling as well. Photo by Mary Doggett.
The Frippery performance took place at the Norfolk & Norwich Arts Festival 2019. We performed right in the middle of Norwich’s town centre, which was a great setting for a community performance piece, we definitely weren’t short on space!
For me, there is something really exciting about performing outside in public spaces, although it does come with its challenges. Such as potential uncertain weather changes (although we were pretty lucky when It came to that), or maybe a wandering member of the public that hasn’t realised a performance is taking place in the very spot they happen to be standing in! So, remaining engaged with the audience and not taking this too personally goes a long way.
You could say there are a few more obstacles to consider when performing outdoors in comparison to a traditional theatre setting, especially if you have been practising indoors. However, we were fortunate enough to warm up and have a dress rehearsal earlier on that day and pretty much had a full audience supporting us, which was rather fun.
With all of those added obstacles to think about, it’s good to step back and reflect on how smoothly the day went and the hard work that went into it from all sides involved in making the weekend such a fun performance and experience throughout.
So rewinding back over the past six months… Planning and organising for the performance was well underway in the Stopgap office, ideas and creative workshops had begun within the professional company and Sg2 apprentice company.
Of course, not forgetting the amazing teachers that came from many different schools and groups in the Norwich and Ipswich area who met with some of the Stopgap team to get creative, dance and explore. I was lucky enough to be part of the many workshops going on.
It was so great to meet and work with many new faces. Their enthusiasm and love for dance was really inspiring and created quite the buzz. The workshops specifically looked at different and interesting ways to make contact, as this would be a theme that would feed into the Frippery choreography, as well as looking at a choreographic score that the teachers would then go and create within their groups.
I have been saving the best until last, and that was having the opportunity to meet and work with all the dancers in the community groups. We first met at a rehearsal altogether in Norwich and Ipswich. It was a very busy day and for the first time we managed to put the piece together! The room was full of duets, trios and groups all rehearsing their different parts. I was able to get to know some new faces as we played grandmothers footsteps, and then we helped each other remember the choreography. We met again at the dress rehearsal, which was filled with bright and colourful clothing and I could really see the piece coming together and everyone’s different characters truly coming alive.
Later on that week, it was time for the performance, how had it come around so quickly? I could sense the excitement in the group as we prepared to perform our piece for the final time.
Thinking back as I sit here writing this, I can’t help but smile and think about how much fun I had! I’m left holding onto a real sense of achievement from the whole group and everyone involved. I hope there are more projects like this in the future!
Frippery was funded by Spirit of 2012