31st March 2016
Dance students from Barking & Dagenham College have performed their new Shakespeare-inspired piece on stage at the Barbican recently as part of this year?s Barbican Box Theatre 2016.
Their performance was inspired by objects collected by the Barbican from renowned theatre artists and companies across the globe, including Benedict Cumberbatch (who chose the death warrant from Hamlet as his object) and the Royal Shakespeare Company. Schools and colleges from across East London were invited to use the box’s contents as the creative inspiration for new work.
Lauren Monaghan-Pisano from the Barbican explained
“This year marks the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death and we want students to have the same license and creative freedom to creatively experiment with these materials – to boldly and inventively make their own new theatre work inspired by Shakespeare that feels relevant, necessary and personal to them today.”
Becki Spindloe, Lecturer in Performing Arts at the College added,
"Barbican Box has been a fantastic opportunity for students to explore their creativity, work together as a real theatre company, and work with industry professionals from the Barbican. The students have been working hard over the past 10 weeks in response to the objects in the box and have made an interesting physical theatre piece based around themes of identity, self-expression and control.”
Dance student Ayo Sodeinde, 18 from Chadwell Heath, added,
“I chose a red fragment of glass as my inspiration from the Barbican Box. It’s been an exciting experience and I’ve tried to make the dance very personal, so I hope the audience will find it interesting to watch. My goal is to work on Broadway one day, so to perform on stage at the Barbican is a great start.”
