Star Cells 2022
The Concept
Star Cells 2022 built on the success of the 2021 project by Combination Dance. A flashmob performance at the Great Exhibition Road Festival and inspired by neurophysiology research taking place at Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU) and Imperial College. TODDCS and Scott David Photography were there to document the day.
Stars Cells includes dance investigation, education, workshops, performance and audience participation.
The Execution
Biochemical
Anne-Marie Smalldon (Artistic Director) and Matt Walker (choreographer) worked with professional dancers from Combination, Ombrascura and students from Rambert School to create an abstract dance inspired by the science of how the body moves. Set by music created by Heather Sterland from www.interstellarduo.com
Convergent
Choreographed by Chloe Mead and students from St Angela’s Ursuline School in Forest Gate. They looked at the fibres, nerves and cells that make up our muscles and how they work to make our bodies move. But what happens when these break down? How do we support ourselves and each other? Music Spiegel im Spiegel by Arvo Part (Excerpt) performed by Martin Roscoe and Tasmin Little
I Think Science Will Find A Way
Featuring professional dancers Chloe Mead, Tilly Woodford and Owen McHugh and choreographed by Anne-Marie Smalldon and the dancers. Set to “Breeze” composed by inspirational neuroscientist Phillip Smethurst. The dance also includes movement derived from a moving patient survey conducted in 2015 where MND patients told us about their hopes for the future.
DANCE!!!
Choreographed by Jeffrey Felicissimo. These two uplifting dance routines are literally a celebration of the joy of movement and dance. The choreography is inspired by the powerful and inspirational lead female scientist Emma Hodson-Tole and Lucy Lintott. The formations are taken from the study of the patterns that muscles make in our bodies. The first section includes vocational dance students from Richmond upon Thames College and the second section features students from Richmond Park Academy in West London.
The Impact
The choreography uses dance to inform and illustrate the science of how the body moves and reacts, the project conveys the impact of neuromuscular diseases in a powerful visual medium that raises awareness of these conditions. These performances were in support of the MND Association and played out two days before global MND Day 2022.
The follow-up to this project is to answer questions such as - can an art form like dance educate as well as entertain an audience? Will people walk away from the performance having learned something about a debilitating disease like Motor Neurone Disease? Will they take the time to find out more or even hopefully donate to the Motor Neurone Disease Association?
The MND Association have over many years funded the research that has led to the science that you have watched being depicted in the Starcells performances.
Starcells engaged young creative people on a deeper level and inspired them to use an art form like dance to communicate hard-hitting science-based subjects in the future. The beneficiaries of this project are pupils from St. Angela & Ursuline School, Forest Gate; Richmond Park Academy, Sheen; Richmond upon Thames College, Twickenham; and vocational students from Rambert School working alongside established professional dancers from Combination Dance and Ombrascura Dance Company.
The digital content that TODDCS created was used as promotional material and to archive the event. It will help generate future funding to extend this project to a larger audience in the future.
