Backstage with Corali
Mon 11 Mar 2019
This week we're in for a real treat as integrated dance company Corali bring us an entertaining afternoon of ambitious playful dance inspired by Hollywood classics!
The company have been inspiring for 30 years and we're delighted to be hosting them in Dorset as part of many special events to celebrate this fantastic milestone.
We caught up with Corali ahead of their performance to find out all about their history, their touring show, and their next exciting chapter!
Images by Jon C Archdeacon
Tell us a bit about how Corali was first formed?
Set up in 1989, Corali is a leader in dance created by artists with a learning disability.
Our practice is made through a process of artistic collaboration and we explore the relationship between performers with and without a learning disability, between dance and other art forms, and between professional and participatory artwork. Corali dancers are at the heart of all our artistic activity, and our authenticity comes from their understanding of the world, creativity and talent.
From our early beginnings in a day centre, to our professional performance work today, our artists have continued to inspire audience and collaborators alike for the last three decades.
You’re celebrating 30 years this year which is a fantastic achievement! What’s been one of your highlights during the last 30 years?
Some performance highlights over the years, have included working in a disused warehouse where the audience travelled to us via river boat, creating a performance in the customer services lift of the Southbank Centre and performing outside Tate Modern in 2000 as part of the gallery opening events.
We’re delighted to have achieved the milestone of 30 years and proud that recent highlights include a few ‘firsts’ for us, such as joining Arts Council England, National Portfolio in 2018, beginning a new relationship with The Place Theatre, and of course, being selected for the Rural Touring Dance Initiative!
We look forward to sharing our work and celebrating these achievements with new audiences in Dorset.
What inspired you to create Technicolour Everyday?
We wanted to make a performance that used music as a starting point. In early research workshops we explored the favourite music of each performer and Fred Astaire and Frank Sinatra featured quite a lot. This led us to look at films of the same era and Judy Garland musicals entered the rehearsal room too. Alongside the brilliance and optimism conjured up in the films, we started to play with our own version of imaginative escapism, and the ideas for Technicolour Everyday were born.
Did you design the show with rural touring in mind?
All Corali shows are suited to a close audience relationship. We are really excited about how well our work is suited to rural touring, and look forward to how it will inform and develop our work.
What can we expect from the performance?
We promise a joyful, at times absurd yet ever poetic audience experience.
What do you love most about rural touring?
We are so excited to be taking our show out far and wide and cannot wait to meet our rural audiences!
What’s the unusual venue you’ve ever performed in?
We built our own customised performance shed that we toured around the country, performing inside it in both outdoor and indoor venues!
What’s next for Corali?
Later this April we have been commissioned by Tate to create a film about how to use art work to create movement. In the summer we will be entering making mode again with a collaboration with dance duo Thick and Tight.
Catch Corali's Technicolour Everyday in Cranborne Cecil Memorial Hall this Wednesday 13 March at 2pm. Book your tickets here!