Northern Ireland: Connections
Connections will engage all communities in Northern Ireland in sport and arts, will encourage excellence, and will promote closer working between the two sectors.
The £1.78 million programme will leave a lasting legacy in Northern Ireland through building long lasting relationships between sports and arts organisations, and through increasing the delivery capacity of all organisations involved in the projects.
Shane Lynch and Louis Walsh take part in ImagineAction
Connections is made up of six strands of project activity.
Into Contact
The Echo Echo Theatre Company will create a long-lasting engagement between dance, culture, sport, education and wellbeing and the Company launched its Into Contact programme in April 2010. Echo Echo’s first Legacy Trust UK project, The Chess Piece, will take place in June 2010 in the historic Guildhall in the Walled City of Derry, and has been awarded a prestigious Inspire Mark, awarded to projects which capture the spirit of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
The Chess Piece is a spectacular dance theatre production based on a classic chess game and performed on a giant chessboard. The ambitious participative show will feature 32 performers each representing well-known characters from chess. Professional dancers will be joined by local performers drawn from a wide range of skill level, age, and social backgrounds. Development workshops are taking place during April and May in advance of an intensive final rehearsal period throughout June. For more info visit www.echoechodance.com
ImagineAction
ImagineAction is a childrens theatre and sport project which aims to marry the disciplines of art and sports through a series of drama workshops and performances. The project is supported by Shane Lynch (Boyzone) and Tommy Bowe (Irish Rugby/Lions star) and to date the young people involved have enjoyed masterclasses with Britain's Got Talent winner George Sampson, actor Conor Grimes and Shane Lynch, and they have performed for X Factor judge Louis Walsh.
Phase Two of ImagineAction is now underway with Theatre Champions - a festival of performances of musical theatre at the new purpose built Torrent Complex sports and arts centre in Donaghmore, County Tyrone. The project will culminate in a finale musical theatre production written with the young people involved.
ImagineAction film
Now and Then
Northern Ireland Screen will deliver a project centred around “Now and Then – Our Journey”. Aimed at children and young people it will offer them an opportunity to keep video diaries from 2009 until the opening of the Games in 2012 with special screenings and broadcasts of the diaries. In addition, a country-wide programme of specialist screenings of sports related films in cinemas and schools will take place as will screenings of the Olympics in cinemas across the country.
Film of the Now and Then launch at Queens University in 2009
Luminous Soul
The Luminous Soul Dance Project is being delivered by Open Arts a leading arts and disability organisation in Northern Ireland. Through this project disabled people are encouraged to try out contemporary dance and to consider the possibility that with training, they could become professional.
To date, Luminous Soul has held three Dance Development Days, in Belfast, Derry and Omagh and has worked with nearly 50 disabled people who have an interest in dance.
During the events the participants worked under the expert guidance of celebrated integrated dance companies from around the UK such as the award winning Candoco Dance Company and The Blue Eyed Soul Dance Company. These tutor teams have then selected participants to go forward to the next stage in the project – the residential phase where the participants will work intensively with the same expert team.
Luminous Soul is nurturing talent to help participants become professional disabled dancers, which is a first for Northern Ireland, and will be developing this talent across the country in the coming years.
The Beat Initiative
The Beat Initiative will run a programme of street theatre incorporating carnival arts and gymnastics. It will form new partnerships with drama and gymnastics organisations and engage large numbers of community participants in creative activity and public performances throughout the programme. There are also hopes of staging a large scale performance right before the Olympics in 2012.
Film of the Fly Butterfly event to celebrate the re-opening of Belfast City Hall
Comment-8
The Verbal Arts Centre will run a commissioning programme of music and literature, inspired by the theme of sports commentating.
The project will commission a series of original artworks, collaboratively developed and co-designed by selected local writers, composers and members of sporting groups. The commission theme will be based on the potential of great sporting commentary to inspire the creation of new work. Literary genres will include poetry, prose, theatre, essay, and storytelling. Musical genres will include traditional, electronic, classical, and choral. Where possible, the composers will work with local musicians.
Each new commission will be premiered on a rolling basis in a non arts/music venue and will be accompanied by a high profile digital media engagement programme for children and young people. This programme will include a series of training workshops in creative writing, audio production and editing as well as master class events.
