CASE STUDY
street performance
MCAC ART ACTION TOOLBOX: CASE STUDY Street Performance
Mayfield Community Arts Centre, Cork, Ireland July 7th - 10th 2009
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Theme: A Bright Summer Evening
background GlobalFest 2009 is a project coordinated by Mayfield Community Arts Centre that brings together young artists from Ireland, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Colombia, Sweden and Hungary. The young people participated in a variety of workshops during a period of 2 weeks: music, dance, theatre, pyrography, muralism, recycle art and costumes. Some of the work accomplished in these workshops led to public performances during GlobalFest on Saturday 18th July 2009. This was the case for the African music and dance, the Colombian music and dance as well as the theatre performances, which all formed part of the Street Performance comparsa (parade). The costumes made were worn by the dancers and actors and the recycle art workshop created a 3D interactive boardgame which was played during GlobalFest. There was a launch on Wednesday 15th July at Mayfield Library for the mural (painted on two walls at Mayfield Library) and the pyrography work. The latter was exhibited that evening at the library. All of the workshops were facilitated by the following associations: Mayfield Community Arts Centre (Ireland), Mural Moral Group (Hungary), Kultur & Fritid (Sweden), Funarte (Nicaragua), La Cambalacha (Guatemala), Centro Colombo Americano and Corporación Renovación Cultural (Colombia).
Music: Facilitators: Siobhán Ross (Ireland) for African drumming Javier Quiroz Valencia (Colombia) for Colombian drumming Walter Cano Pelaez (Colombia) for Colombian drumming Dance: Facilitators: Siobhán Ross (Ireland) for African dance Viviana Quiroz Valencia (Colombia) for Colombian dance Natalia Giraldo Gómez (Colombia) for Colombian dance Volunteer: Orla Borreye (Ireland) Theatre: Facilitators: Patricia Peña Mazo (Colombia), Rickard Björk (Sweden) Volunteer: Laura Wade (Ireland) Costume: Facilitator Fredy Gutierrez (Colombia) Volunteer: Leah O’Brien (Ireland)
HOW DID WE DO IT? Day 1: Dance and Drumming After a warm-up exercise involving a game with names and movement, the group was divided into two, with the drummers practicing separately from the dancers. In the morning, they all learnt Colombian rhythms and in the afternoon the facilitator taught the drummers some African beats, while the dancers continued with Colombian dancing and learnt some samba, cumbia and mambo. Day 2: Dance and Music: Musicians and Dancers Merge Together In the morning Shiv taught the dancers the different steps for the African dance performance. The steps were learnt and practiced one by one first and gradually all linked together. In the afternoon the dancers and musicians all practiced what they had learnt together. Day 3 Practicing for the Comparsa For the morning the musicians and dancers rehearsed separately to prepare for the afternoon’s comparsa practice in
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Ennismore.
Costumes • First of all, designs were drawn onto paper. • Colourful tights were cut off at the feet and then glitter was glued onto them. They were then worn as sleeves by the dancers and actors in the comparsa. • Masks were cut out of ‘funky foam’ and made into different shapes; then glitter was added onto them in order to make them more colourful and festive. These were worn by the various performers in the comparsa. • Umbrellas were decorated with stars, hearts and ribbons and were used as props by the actors in the comparsa. • Stars were cut out of cardboard and painted; they were then glued onto the performers’ clothes. • Colourful hats were made out of cardboard, paper and ribbon and were worn by some of the actors in the comparsa.
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“Working in an international group was awesome.” Niamh (Ireland)
quotes from participants
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“It was great to be able to work with so many different people and share skills and knowledge.” Izabel (Guatemala)
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“The confidence building exercises were really good and it was enjoyable learning to experiment with movement.” John (Ireland)
GlobalFest 2009 was funded and supported by the European Youth in Action Programme and the Development Education Unit of Irish Aid.