Showcase Day at The Gathering is a rare opportunity for promoters from across the Highlands & Islands and other rural areas around Scotland, to see excerpts of professional performances that are tour-ready and a variety of artforms, in a rural setting. We’re delighted to be welcoming some incredible performers this year, including these dance acts! Click through to read more.
BLEACH
Estlin Love
Bloodied sheets, scattered belongings. A body, crumpled amongst piles of trash. Armed with nothing but the discarded items she is found in, we follow one woman’s rageful reckoning with romance. A bold and challenging interrogation into violence and love, and grey areas in between, BLEACH seeks to hold a mirror up to the audience, and reveal to them the hypocrisies, complicity and power of their actions. Using a combination of dark clowning, irreverent humour and physical theatre, we follow one woman as she delves mercilessly into the normative values of romance, sex, and power, and ultimately shreds them. BLEACH is a new full length work made in collaboration with Al Seed. http://www.estlinlove.com/
Created individually but functioning as sister shows, these two new pieces of cutting edge theatre were performed in connection when they debuted at Assembly Roxy in Nov 2019.
Both BLEACH and SALT are solo 40 minute shows.
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SALT
Fiona Oliver-Larkin
In a place where the only food is salt and the only companions to be found are those that can be conjured from the objects around her, she hides under a table. Terrible rumblings can be heard above: of monsters; or something worse?… Employing physical theatre and object manipulation, SALT is a magic-realist fairytale intended for adults. SALT provides a glimpse into the life of a young person whose only friends are the ones she creates for herself out of the objects she finds around her. Her only voice and means of communication is through them. She is both a real, life-size person and a tiny creature who is afraid of the giant who lives upstairs; a metaphor for the power dynamics within an abusive home, and the lasting psychological effects that abuse can have. More than that, this piece aims to highlight and pay homage to the resilience and the remarkable tools – both physical and psychological – that human beings have for survival even in the bleakest places.
Nortear
Helena Salgueiro
SCOTTISH DANCE THEATRE
Scottish Dance Theatre dancers are known for being exceptionally talented, personable and approachable. The company is an international company based in Dundee, producing world class work with inclusivity, in all senses, at the fore front. The company has a committed following of Scottish Dance Theatre fans, and is always seeking to build on this audience through innovative audience development and educational work.
Scottish Dance Theatre produces high quality dance that is thought provoking and holds resonance in people’s lives. We believe dance can uplift, inspire, tune our sensibilities and enrich lives.
The company tours throughout Scotland and nationally across a range of venues – from Edinburgh Festival Theatre to Mull Theatre. The company has an increasing international reputation; recent tours including Mexico, Brazil, South Korea, China, and many European countries. The company is excited by the possibility of sharing artistic practice across cultures and by the impact that this creative exchange can have on sustaining a healthy international dance community.
Explore All our Showcase Performers here
About Showcase Day
Showcase Day is a rare opportunity for promoters from across the Highlands & Islands and other rural areas around Scotland, to see excerpts of professional performances that are tour-ready and a variety of artforms, in a rural setting.
*Most of the showcase performances presented at The Gathering are eligible for a Supported Programme bursary.
83% of the performers who showcased at the 2018 Gathering have since toured the region, and received guaranteed fees for those dates booked by Touring Network promoters.
About Supported Programme
Supported Programme is a bursary scheme for promoters on our Cairn membership package, providing them with financial assistance to programme excellent and experimental new work in venues across the Highlands & Islands. To find out more about The Touring Network, Supported Programme and the application process head here.
*The Touring Fund
Alongside those eligible for Supported Programme bursaries, we’re also presenting 2 showcase performers who are recipients of the Creative Scotland Touring Fund: Spike/Starcatchers and Though This Be Madness/Skye Loneragan.