Output details
35 - Music, Drama, Dance and Performing Arts
University of Leeds : B - Performance and the Cultural industries
The Heavenly Court of Madame Fantaisiste
This practice based submission relates to a new performance work entitled ‘The Heavenly Court of Madame Fantaisiste’ that was developed during the research project ‘Environments for Encounter’. This £112K project was funded by the AHRC as part of the Beyond Text strategic programme and involved formal collaboration with an industrial partner, Urban Angels Circus, an aerial performance company based in Leeds. The project developed out of the AHRC funded Research Network ‘Festival Performance as a State of Encounter’ (£21K).
The practice investigates how changes in environment affect the ways in which performative encounters operate within festival sites. It deals specifically with an interrogation of relational performance and how members of the festival-going public choose to engage with these encounters in a range of different festival contexts. Using practice as the primary method of enquiry and investigation, the three key phases of making, performing and responding to relational performance were interrogated during two studio based rehearsal phases and then in performance across three separate festivals in the UK and Belgium.
The portfolio evidences the research process and its performed outcomes through video documentation and still imagery and offers a theoretical consideration of the research problems through two complementary articles. Public engagement was a key feature of the research throughout, both in terms of audience involvement and industry liaison.
Insights gained during the course of the research i) made transparent the processes of devising relational performance; ii) helped deepen understandings of conducting practice based research in challenging and unpredictable sites; iii) elucidated theories relating to the effect of site and audience on relational performance practice.
Outputs
3 durational performances at Kendal Calling (July 2010), Bestival (September 2010) and Cactus Festival, Belgium (2011). 1 conference paper. 2 related journal articles. 1 documentary film. 1 research seminar. 1 public dissemination event.
