One project that is close to our hearts and has caught people’s imagination is Extraordinary Bodies. Born from a collaboration with Diverse City to launch the Olympic and Paralympic Sailing and Windsurfing events at the London2012 Olympics, from the beginning the underpinning tenet was to make circus for every body.
In the years that have followed, Billy Alwen and Diverse City co-Artistic Director Claire Hodgson have pioneered developing circus with integrated casts. They have brought D/deaf, disabled and non-disabled companies of artists, crew, and producers together to create accessible performance. Different bodies, making different, beautiful circus together, that appeals to a wide range of people. It’s been so much more than that too. Diverse communities across the country becoming part of our community casts and the development of creative access – like integrated audio description, touch tours and BSL.
ParalympicsGB Homecoming
One thing we’ve always been clear about is that we wanted to make this kind of work mainstream. This September, TBi media invited us to create a spectacular aerial piece for the National Lottery’s ParalympicsGB Homecoming show.
Performed for a live audience at Birmingham’s Utilita Arena, and broadcast a few days later on Channel 4, this was a huge opportunity for us to make some real rock n’ roll work with some brilliant performers and be part of fantastic celebration to welcome home the Paralympic team.
We invited Jonny Leitch, an incredible performer (and musician) who we’ve worked with for many years. When Jonny’s usual aerial partner Tilly was unavailable he suggested Charlotte Evans, a brilliant and creative aerialist who has been training with Extraordinary Bodies but not yet been cast in our shows. After some creative meetings with the artists, Billy and TBi, we settled on music, themes and costume brief.
The pair followed Craig David on the schedule. And what a performance it was! The piece perfectly demonstrated the skills of the two artists, including solo and duet moments.
To be on such a visible platform, performing to millions of viewers, celebrating the ParalympicsGB team, is a moment in Extraordinary Bodies’ history that none of us will forget.
I can honestly say I’ve never felt like such a badass and empowered as a disabled artist. Still feel like a dream that this even happened?! Getting to work alongside such experienced incredible artists was beyond an honour, so proud of our little team and the magic we created.
Charlotte Evans
Photo credit: John Phillips/Getty Images and Eamonn M. McCormack/Getty Images for The National Lottery