For those of you that follow Highly Sprung on social media, you’ll be aware that Sarah, Emily and I have been away working in Hanoi, Vietnam. Gratitude does not come close to the emotions we feel when asked to travel across the globe to teach children and young people in our style and way of performance making. It really is an honour!
The chance to soak up another culture, experience performance in its many variations, as well as seeing a different part of the world is all great, however, the one thing that really sticks in our minds is the chance to work with children and young people from across the world, to try and inspire them as much as they inspire us.
This was probably one of our most daring projects to date, as we worked alongside students from 6 schools located across Asia to create one performance in just 2 days. On the first day, the cohort of 60 students from around the world but currently in schools based in Hong Kong, China, The Philippines , South Korea and Vietnam piled into the black-box drama studio that would be my rehearsal room for the duration of the project. Many of the students were strangers to each other, some were trying to communicate with each other in their second or third language, unaware that they were on the verge of discovering a new language, a Highly Sprung way of communicating .
Typically within a Highly Sprung workshop, the participants weren’t waiting around for long as they were soon squashing, stretching and squeezing into shapes previously unthought of. Before long the young people were lifting each other up and throwing each other around, working collaboratively to support each other as well as tell stories with the bodies. I recall taking a step back from the action and being amazed at the commitment and dedication every student had to try their best, the way they revelled in challenging themselves to do what was previously thought of as impossible… to use an old Highly Sprung quote; “they were the sponge” soaking everything up.
We were asked by the organisers of the event to create a piece inspired by Que Mai’s poem ‘Earth Home’, where planet earth speaks of what it has become, as a result of humanities actions. Well, needless to say we were inspired. We were all reminded of a performance I wrote a few years ago called; The Stranger. Set in a bunker deep underground a group of world leaders argue over the future of the world until they unanimously decide to ‘push the button’ and start again, but this time they wouldn’t make the same mistakes. As they go to push the button, a stranger knocks on the door, they show them that it not the world that needs to be changed, but humanities relationship with the planet.
As we started working of the piece of performance it was claer that the premise and storyline of ‘The Stranger’ had really resonated with the young people. Sessions were intense, break times were used as a chance to discover the other sections the two groups in other spaces were working on and even lines given out on the first day were learnt OVER NIGHT… that’s right, OVER NIGHT!
I remember thinking at the time;
‘I wonder why these young people are so engaged with the piece?’
Foolishly, I think I just put it down to the students just being great kids. But on reflection, I think it’s more than that. Having been lucky enough to visit many countries around the world I have been struck by the effects humanity has on the landscape. I have seen the most incredible backdrops littered with plastics, I have witnessed children playing in streets that were caked in litter, I have walked through cities unable to breathe without a mask on because of pollution, I have been unable to see the tops of building because of the smog and more recently met communities who have had their livelihoods devastated by floods caused by climate change.
As I reflect now on the project as the dust has settles, I realise that actually the reason why these young people cared so much is because they are living it every day. They experience what we in the west don’t. They understand that there is no ‘away’ when we throw something away- it has to go somewhere. They understand the pollutants in the air because they breathe them in daily, they understand the devastating impact humanity is having on the planet far more than 3 artists from Coventry…. BUT excitingly, and the one thing that was really clear was, that they want to do something about it!
As the students prepared for their final performance I told them of a quote from the singer, Nina Simone;
“I CHOOSE to reflect the times and situations in which I find myself. That, to me, is my duty. And at this crucial time in our lives, when everything is so desperate, when everyday is a matter of survival, I don’t think you can help but be involved… I don’t think you have a choice. How can you be an artist and NOT reflect the times? That to me is the definition of an artist.”
.. as those young people took to the stage to perform in front of an audience filled with fellow teenagers, a few family members, friends and teachers each and everyone of them became an artist. They reflected the desperate times we are living in and they used the greatest things they possess, their voice, their bodies and their artistry in a newly learnt language, a physical language where movement speaks!