Two British performance companies – contemporary circus company NoFit State Circus and dance company Motionhouse – have joined forces to create new work, pushing boundaries of circus and dance to create a new art form. New show BLOCK was unveiled in May at the Norfolk and Norwich Festival Garden Party, and the show will now go on to be performed more than 70 times at festivals across the UK and Europe this summer.
Developing a research project run by NoFit State Circus in 2013 exploring the potential for a set of ‘blocks’ to provide the basis for a performance, BLOCK is directed by Kevin Finnan, Artistic Director of Motionhouse, with Circus Direction by NoFit State’s Paul Evans. The project has been created for public spaces echoing the two companies’ commitment to making work that is accessible, providing a platform for audience development whilst pushing at the boundaries of their art forms.
BLOCK therefore aims to create a new theatrical language that fuses circus and dance. It sees twenty oversized blocks resembling giant breeze blocks, doubling as both performance equipment and the set. Continually deconstructed and reformed, they create an infinite variety of shapes, structures and equipment for the performers to play on, move with and explore. This mirrors the changing landscapes of the environment and creates a platform on which bodies communicate change, barriers, obstacles, repetitions, failures and successes.
BLOCK is commissioned by Without Walls, Stockton International Riverside Festival, Norfolk & Norwich Festival and Out There International Festival of Circus & Street Arts. Without Walls, a consortium of 10 of the UK’s leading Outdoor Arts festivals and organisations, brings the best in new outdoor performance to diverse audiences all over the UK, providing opportunities for artists to develop bold new ideas, inclusive of all art forms and genres.