Concensus

CONCENSUS in partnership with Dance United and Square Pit bring you MERGE. This is a dynamic and innovative large scale dance performance project that will include contemporary and urban street dancers, opera singers, a rap choir, BMX bikers, skate boarders and visual artists who will create a set in live time.

The performance space will be T13, a social enterprise which is Ireland’s largest urban playground.  It is a large warehouse in Belfast’s Titanic Quarter, where the park installations and steep ramps will become the frame work for the set. The project is designed as an exploration of what traditional, contemporary and urban street art forms have to offer one another.

The high energy performance promises to be exciting, expressive, theatrical and cutting edge, with strong appeal to a wide cross section of community.

If you are aged between 16 and 25 years of age and want to be part of the steering committee for this innovative and exciting project please contact Eileen Millar on 028 9096 1111. Activities will include recruiting participants, recruiting the audience, informing the performance, supporting programme provision and evaluation.

Venue: Belfast Unemployed Resource Centre, 45/47 Donegall Street, Belfast.

The steering group is supported by the EU’s PEACE III Programme, managed by the Special EU Programmes Body and works alongside local communities on community led programmes.

Merge: The Stages

Stage one: Preparation and planning. (June – July 2011)

Formation of the Steering Group, agreeing responsibilities and getting started!

2/3 hours a week commitment.

Stage two: Workshops & performance. (September – November 2011)

A six-week intensive workshop programme, which will lead to a large-scale performance in an urban skate park in the Titanic Quarter. The performance will be part of the Belfast Festival at Queens.

12-18 hours a week commitment.

Stage three: Dissemination & follow-on. (January – February 2012)

Stage three will see the completion of the evaluation, and the dissemination of the findings from such to stakeholders. An important element of stage three will be the identification of a small group of young people from the steering and participating group, who will go forward into the follow-on programme.  This shall be a small-scale workshop and performance tour in 2012/13.

Merge: Where

The project will be based in the greater Belfast area with participants coming from all areas of the city including north and west Belfast.

Workshops shall be on Donegall Street, City Centre Belfast.

The performance venue will be the Square Pit production, Urban Park Warehouse, T13, in the Titanic Quarter of Belfast.

Merge: The performance

The public performance of Merge will be multi faceted and large in scale. It will include contemporary and urban street dancers, opera singers, a rap choir, BMX bikers, skate boarders and visual artists who will create a set in live time. The performance, which will be part of the Belfast Festival at Queens, will take place in an Urban Park Warehouse in the Titanic Quarter of Belfast and the park installations and steep ramps will become the framework for the set. One end of the warehouse will be used to host a traditional seated performance, while the entrance and avenue to the seating will be used to create scenes and cameos of drama and action. The performance will be delivered to the highest professional standards by a team of highly experienced artists and will include a cast of 80 young people.

Public performance is a crucial part of the Merge project, providing a focus, a goal, and a recognisable and foreseeable achievement for the participants, that will serve as an affirmation of their work. The process allows the participants to become skilled and motivated members of a team whose aspirations and achievements emphatically surpass their own expectations.