Boundless and Their Heroes’ Journeys
In the first few months of 2023, we were invited to work with Boundless, the 55+ Dance Company at Dance City, to create a new piece of work with them. We worked over 12 weeks exploring voice, movement, and storytelling, to create ‘The Hero’s Journey’, which Boundless performed at community venues across Newcastle, and as part of The Late Shows at Dance City.
We had a wonderful time working with this brilliant group, below are some of their thoughts on the process…
Working with Pelican Theatre is always a pleasure. This time it was like making a three dimensional jigsaw without a picture. Working on different segments it was difficult to see how it would ever fit together. However, it all clicked into place and has proved to be readily adaptable to take into account different venues and cast sizes.
Liz
As a new member of the Boundless company I had limited expectations as to what it would involve but was very confident that I would love it.
Working with Pelican Theatre was a great first experience of performance and the whole process leading up to it. Pagan and Ellie provided the support, experience and energy to guide us through the process and development of 'The Hero's journey'.They were understanding and injected fun into the sessions and performances. I could never have imagined that at 65 years old I'd be part of a dance company of my peers but working with Pelican Theatre professional dance company has enhanced the joy, friendship and special community that dancing with others brings. It was a great first experience and brought a new focus to my life.
Thank you
Barbara
Boundless, Dance City’s resident 55+ dance company for older dancers, were assigned to work with Ellie and Pagan of Pelican Theatre to further develop our interest and experiences of dance.
Ellie and Pagan’s brief was for us to work on a creative piece drawing from our life experiences, which would culminate in a performance. Initially , there was lots of talking, improvisation and making use of our voices. It all seemed a bit strange. When are we going to learn some steps? I thought.
I realised later, there were to be no steps. Ellie and Pagan were guiding us through a creative process, which brought together our thoughts and visualisation into movement. The main theme was based on the natural world so we were asked to bring in a short piece of writing about an experience we had in nature. These ended up being pretty diverse and included: a story about nature; jumping into waterfalls; hiding from black bears on a hiking trip in America; trekking through dark underground caves; getting lost in the mountains on a family holiday and even a misunderstanding about looking for shells (of the explosive kind) on a beach in the South of England.
Undeterred by this disparity of ideas Ellie and Pagan enthusiastically worked on a plan, capturing the moments, as if by magic, into dance. Their creative thinking and visualisation guided us all in the following weeks to produce a quirky and abstract piece ready for performance.
It was a real pleasure to work with Ellie and Pagan, they are delightful and talented young dancers, who were patient and encouraging to us all. We all started at Zero and became a hero. Thanks to Pelican Theatre for our Hero’s Journey.
Lynda Blakey
This contemporary dance piece, choreographed by Pelican Theatre, was last performed by Dance City’s Boundless 55+ dance company as part of The Late Show held at Dance City, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, on Friday, 21 July 2023.
The Hero’s Journey is traditionally an archetypal story of initiation and self-discovery; of a man or woman, hero or heroine, travelling in unknown terrain, facing new experiences, overcoming fears, culminating in the realisation of what they are truly capable of achieving.
At the start of the Spring Term 2023, in preparation for this work, the choreographers from Pelican Theatre (Ellie and Pagan), rather than beginning with a specific theme, wished to work with the Boundless members to uncover a theme, or themes, collectively. The then fourteen individual members of the Boundless group were asked to share their stories, by submitting a few short lines, either written or orally, about an adventure or trip in nature, from their past (or a fictional story from a book, poem or film which resonated with them in some way), where they had faced a challenge, incredible difficulty, or act of courage.
The creative process then began, incorporating movement, roleplay, the use of the voice, sounds, text, music, and humour, using and refining the performers own stories and life experience to shape a surreal narrative. It was very much an experimental approach, to open up a new way of working, to create a piece that, in the words of the two choreographers, “truly reflects the Boundless Company.”
In practice this was an initiation into a new way of working with dance, the initial classes exploring the sounds of our own voices, and how gradations of sound and different words, allow us to explore many new movements and textures of movement. In the open, non-judgemental space, the choreography evolved naturally through the stories. It was at times confusing as to what the final destination might be, but educative in the true meaning of the word – ‘to draw out’, and at the same time quite fun; albeit the level of personal exposure challenging for some.
The fear of facing an audience for the first time was the first spoken story, which led into an adventure hike up Mount Snowden, walking in different styles and marching to the music. This led into a story about black bears and grizzly bears and what to do if at risk of attack. Hands in the air, chattering wildly, or diving to the floor we hid our heads under imagined rucksacks. But what to do on encountering a moose? The cast immediately morphed into the safety of a bus which re-morphed into a cave. While the music encouraged the movement of the dancers through the cave, bodies closely entwined, baby bears played in the foreground. A couple more scary short stories and the cast acted out frozen with fear. Next a trip to the beach to meet a man about shells (missiles!) which mutated into a surreal jazz dance number ……. all ending with hugs, more stories, and a lyrical number to close. It was different, it was scary, it was fun; life experiences there for everyone to identify with.
Two performances at the end of the Spring Term led to an invitation to perform in the Late Show. Only six of the group were available to take part, and had to double-up to play the parts of fourteen people. That the audience still smiled, and laughed in all the right places, that achievement alone could be said to qualify all those who took part as “heroes.”
Susie
Pelican Theatre introduced me to silly noises and movements that were out of my comfort zone with such an open, playful enthusiasm that I found a childish delight in the exploration. The weaving together of many individual tales of overcoming a difficult or fearful occasion to produce a complete performance was beyond my vision, but Pagan and Ellie picked movements, both serene and quirky, from our improvisations that melded together to form a fantasy journey that I thoroughly enjoyed performing.
Cathy
A lot of life is experienced on the way to age 55+ and it was some of the perilous, strange and moving moments of the group’s life journeys that became the basis of the imaginative piece choreographed by Pelican Theatre for Boundless. The improvisation sessions were playful and creative, giving the group an opportunity to express their individual narratives. From the many different ideas and ways of moving, the ‘Hero’s Journey’ emerged. The weaving of the random stories into an entertaining and enjoyable whole by the members of Pelican Theatre was in itself an amazing and somewhat heroic act.
Marian
