BEYONDBORDERS
BEYOND BORDERS 2020
‘Beyond Borders’ is a cross-cultural arts project, supported by Arts Council England, aimed at creating a cross-cultural dialogue between 12 students from East London Science School and 12 students from St Thomas Senior Secondary in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. Students from both countries will engage in digital dialogue and receive photography and poetry workshops to create their own work.
MAP invited the East London Science School (ELSS) to collaborate on an exchange programme between 12 students at ELSS and 12 students from St Thomas Senior Secondary in Port Elizabeth, SA. Two photographers, from UK and SA, will deliver photography workshops to the students in their respective countries while Poet LyricL Nkechi (UK) will lead online poetry workshops where students will create poetry in response to the photographs they have taken. To encourage cultural dialogue, the students from the UK will create poems based on the photographs taken by the students in SA and vice versa. All students will take part in joint online workshops. The results of the workshops will lead to a free exhibition at The House Mill London.
A dance performance entitled, TRAPPED, based on photographs taken by Karl Schoemaker and poems by LyricL Nkechi, will also be created and performed 4 nights during exhibition LATES. The aim of creating a professional performance alongside the students' work is to provide them with an inspiring template demonstrating how the art forms that they have learnt can inspire others; in this case, dance. LATES will also include a performance by poet LyricL Nkechi and music performance by Louise Lansdowne, presenting short works on Viola created in response to the same poetry and photographs.
OBJECTIVES OF THE PROJECT
• Mentor, inspire and empower the students through art, across race and socio- economic backgrounds
• Provide them with a new perspective on young people’s lives in a different culture
• Allow them to develop artistic skills and curate their work for the public • Present them with a new career path
• Teach them how different art forms interrelate and work together
#DANCEADAY | #BEYONDBORDERS
MAP started a #mapdanceaday series to stay active and inspire our dance students and supporters during the APRIL/MAY/JUNE lockdown period. We posted a dance video everyday until the end of lockdown and invite people to share their home-dance films with us during this time. All of the films were edited together to create one final film #BEYONDBORDERS as a symbol of celebration at the end of the lockdown.
We have received an overwhelmingly great response from our friends around the world who sent us their dance films. Our Artistic Director, Dane Hurst created short-dance videos on a daily basis and shared these on our MAP Facebook and Instagram pages. We've received and shared dance videos from Kigali - Rwanda, Austria, Cape Town, Port Elizabeth, Johannesburg and Durban - South Africa, England, Ireland - United Kingdom, Singapore, France, Turkey, New Zealand, Congo, Spain and India. All of these individual short videos can be seen on our Facebook. https://www.facebook.com/movingassemblyproject/ | #mapdanceaday #danceaday #staysafe #beyondborders
The final film, BEYONDBORDERS was an amalgamation of all the videos we received and edited by Jean Du Toit in South Africa. We are incredibly proud of the film as it stands as a celebration of all of us positively coming together during a time of global lockdown and pandemic. We thank everyone who participated, without their trust and support we would not have been able to create the film. We hope you enjoy!
TRAPPED
Trapped #01 is a series of films conceived by Dane Hurst and inspired by the stories of people that were captured and trapped on the inside of prison, holding cells in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. The images were originally part of the Moving Assembly Project, 'Freedom of Expression' exhibition at the Oxo Tower. The images were captured by photographer Karl Schoemaker, the poetry written in response by LyricL Nkechi and choreography created by Dane Hurst. The films will be part of a series that will be screened at the BEYONDBORDERS exhibition and will feature live poetry, music and dance performances inspired by the photographs. These films are intended to show how the capturing of important moments in time through photography can inspire creative and collaborative responses in poetry, film and dance.
Filmed and edited by Pierre Tappon. Performed by Jordan Ajadi.
Poetry
MAP have teamed up with Spoken Word Artist, LyricL Nkechi to lead poetry workshops and masterclasses as part of the Beyond Borders exhibition and project. We spent an afternoon with LyricL ahead of our proposed workshops and look forward to her working with young students who are interested in developing their writing and spoken word performance skills. The interview and was filmed and edited by MAP contributing artist, Pierre Tappon.