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Adventure across the Channel

Working with La Compagnie No 8

Thursday 6 October 2011 , by Etudiants de Winchester 2011

During our time here in Brest we worked with La Compagnie No 8, workshopping parts of the piece Homosapiens Burocraticus which we then performed in front of the staff from Le Fourneau, members of the ZEPA network, students of Brest University and the actual artists from Compagnie No 8.

We only had eight hours of contact time with the artistic director of the company, Alexandre Pavlata and the choreographer Philippe Ménard. However this did not seem to hinder us, and we successfully presented a 10 minute sample of the performance.

The focus for performance was driven from the pelvis allowing us the free mobility to move, this could also be described as the ’neutral stance’. The segments of performance moved seemlessly through one movement or scene to another.

Coming to Brest has been a challenge for us all, and I would say for the better. When we arrived in France, we knew little or no French, but being emersed in the culture has helped us to realise the importance of the forgeing relations between the United Kindom and France and how we, the future generation, have a chance to change the world through street arts learning together and from each other.

We have had to adopt to new ways of thinking, bringing our experience from training in England and learning new techniques and practices whilst also building on just some of the foundations and individual practices we have, such as dance, comedy/clown, and physical theatre.

This opportunity was given to us by the Arts Council, the partnership between the Universities of Winchester and Brest (UBO) and the Zepa network.

Dan Stotesbury & Chaz Neale

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