Hallowed Walls
Online-Live performance
If your walls had a voice ,what kind of story would they narrate? Book your front row seat & experience a lively performance from your home.New Online Live Performance arriving to your home! The Hallowed Walls online-live performance invites you to experience dance and poetry performance virtually , bringing to life over hundreds of stories from across the world, how people have experience the challenging year In the mist of a pandemic. Hallowed Walls is a tale that connects different practices into a single body of work, performed by two artists from two different countries Pirita Tuisku (FI/UK) and Thabo Mokolobate (SA).This work is supported by Creative Scotland, Dance Base and Citymoves.From Pirita and Thabo:"As performers we faced the challenge of working together and performing during the course of lockdown, how do we maintain existing international collaborations without traveling ?How possible is it to create the theatre experience for people in the comfort of their homes? Can our approach to opening up the topic assist the people in reflecting and understanding they are not alone? We asked ourselves plenty of questions , and believe we needed to bring the topic to life through the online platform. The project started in January 2021, and we are thrilled to present Hallowed walls from the comfort of your home. This is the perfect time to forget about everything else around you and dive into another world.The body of work is our second performance working together, irrespective of our different practices and cultural backgrounds our online presence continues to help us grow in our practices. The work takes us through many emotions and we hope you will experience it too. "-Pirita & Thabo
Where the work started:
When pandemic started, Pirita started to do her own social distance diary videos and started to talk more with Thabo about the whole experience as artist living in this crazy period. And also living in different countries, how it was in UK compared to SA. There started the idea can we open this topic more.
January 2021 Pirita was working with Thabo Mokolobate from South Africa on a research for a new work idea.This research was supported by Creative Scotland and Dance Base.
As Covid-19 pandemic is still affecting everyones lives , especially artists. Pirita and Thabo started looking now into a ways how to sustain their practices. And also looking into ways how we can engage with the audience through online platforms.
From this research Pirita has opened more in her blog.
Performances:
15.10.2021 Premier part of DanceLive
16.10-20-10.2021 Performances run by support from Creative Scotland
17.9.2022 Part of Stockholm Fringe Festival
The whole team:
Pirita Tuisku | Performer - Choreographer
Pirita Tuisku is a Finnish Dance artist living in Scotland and works as a Dancer, Choreographer and Teacher in Finland, Scotland, South Africa and Hong Kong. She is a versatile artist and already has over a decade of experience of working in dance across many different styles. Her passion is to create work that will engage an audience, explore different art forms and bring everyday topics to life on stage. She finds her inspiration from working in collaboration with others, and approaching this with a curiosity and an open mindset. Her own curiosity is in exploring how she can push her own boundaries as a mover, and in how the artforms of other cultures can affect her dancing.
"During lockdown I started to do these little Social distancing videos and it made me feel this topic needs to have a different voice. It has been long journey to get into this point of presenting the work now for the audience, but I´m excited to hear more how this will resonates to everyone else. As artist I hope it will sprang different emotions, taking you a different kind of journey that might have even surprises along the way, letting you sit back - relax - forgetting for that moment everything else around you."
Thabo Mokolobate | Performer - Writer
Thabo Mokolobate is South African lyricist passionate about the infinite power of Poetry .
The Sensei ,as he is widely known is a Writer ,Performer, and Spoken Word Artist, began
writing to his father who was in prison at that time as a way to reflect life on the outside world . Thabo writes about various subject matter, behaviour and belief through the lens of ordinary citizens, his prolific ability stretches back to the start of the mid millennium, and often steps out the idea of conventional poetry.
"I am eagerly looking forward to the premier , Hallowed Walls enabled the team to immerse themselves in virtual reality,
collaborating without any physical contact was a challenge, and we had to explore our approach beyond the surface .The project is ardent with empathy and passion, an absolute value for money."
Lucy Wilson | Online Stage manager - Under study for dance
Lucy May is a Dance Artist, Stage Manager and Poet based in Edinburgh.
Graduating from the Scottish School Of Contemporary Dance in 2012 with a 1st class Degree in Dance Performance, Lucy went on to work as a facilitator, performer and choreographer in the Scottish Dance field working for various arts organisations including The Edinburgh International Festival, Scottish Ballet and YDance Scotland. She last toured as a performer in Julia James-Griffiths’ performance of The Box in 2019. In 2018, Lucy trained in Stage Management at the Edinburgh Stage Management School. She went on to stage manage in various settings including Ironinc Dance’s performance “Yukon Ho!” at the Edinburgh Fringe 2019 and most recently was stage manger on tour for All or Nothing Aerial Dance Theatre’s outdoor performance “The Swings”.
“I am looking forward to working in the world of online stage management where I can hone the experience and skills in the technical elements required of an online stage manager. Not only this, but Hallowed Walls also allows me to be experience this unique performance from the dancer’s perspective as I will be understudying Pirita to understand the piece and also to step in should it be required.
If you spent any time in lockdown communicating with loved ones via zoom, any time in lockdown bored and restless, any time in lockdown inventing tasks or things to do, then Hallowed Walls is well worth a watch. When I first watched the rehearsal video before coming on board, I immediately felt a sense of relatability as though seen.”
