Local artists will be helping to make this year’s Fuse Festival a great success. ‘Home-grown’ outdoor performers who are the best in their field have been chosen to give the programme an extra special edge this year.
Fuse is committed to the development of new work and supporting local artists and so award a special commission - SPARK – to promising local, Medway, artists. The commission provides an opportunity to explore new ways of working and to develop best practice. This year, Spark commissions have been awarded to Big Bubble, Moogie Wonderland and Loop Dance.
Loop Dance from Chatham has gained a national reputation for ambitious and imaginative work and will be performing Promenade Dance to the Riverside during Chatham Street Arts Day on 18 June. Created specially for Fuse thanks to the SPARK commission, dancers will take audiences on an exciting sensory journey along the riverside.
Moogie Wonderland, with artist Matt Ashdown from Rochester, were awarded a special SPARK Commission by Fuse to develop Greyscale World, which will transform Medway’s architecture, industrial sites and public areas using varying symphonies of grey.
Another SPARK Commission was awarded to new local company Big Bubble. Former University of Kent students Liz O’Byrne from Rochester and Emily Owen from Maidstone are presenting Smile, their very first professional ‘performance’ as a company, during Lighting the Fuse on Friday 16th and over the weekend. Smile is based on the idea of the fantastic effect of sharing a smile with a stranger and it combines audience participation and performance.
And as well as the special commissions, Fuse look to local artists to help provide a Festival that’s second to none. Contemporary Circus company Dizzy O’Dare Presents…. also from Chatham, will be appearing at this year’s Fuse with UK’s leading female tightwire walker Alana Jones from Hoo and her Tiny Travelling Tightwire Show. They will also be bringing an aerial rig for people to try their hand at aerial circus skills – both at Chatham Street Arts Day on 18th and The Big Tea Party in Rochester on Sunday 19th.
Mike Roberts and his renowned pyrotechnic company The World Famous, based in Hadlow, is previewing aspects of his brand new piece of work, All Hands at the Castle Moat during Saturday night’s Castle Spectacular. The piece will combine pyrotechnics, music, performance and lighting to create a fabulous show.
Rochester’s very own jesters – Acrojou will be roaming Chatham’s High Street on Saturday, dressed in hand-stitched antique leather and crushed velvet, jingling silver bells and polished bones.
And from slightly further afield - Ramsgate’s What’s Coming Out of the Box will be reviving the tradition of the seaside snapshot through puppetry, live art, photography and new technologies in Taking the Pose on Sunday.
Says Festival Director Lélia Gréci; ‘It’s very important for us to nurture and showcase local talent – we have such a wonderful array of high quality performers living and working on our doorstep. Fuse is all about bringing people together – but also about celebrating all that’s good about Medway – and that includes our ‘home-grown’ artists!.’
Fuse Medway Festival is a vibrant and free street arts festival funded by Medway Council with support from Arts Council England. For more information, go to the website at www.fusefestival.org.uk, or join them on Facebook or Twitter.
