Places Faces & Broken Hearts R&D




Interviews PFBH


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Photos and Film Reviews from the R&D Project Public Engagement & Company Development

Training Creation Evaluation



Based on the Places we live and the People in our lives, our Love and our Broken Hearts, The ''Places Faces & Broken Hearts R&D'' engaged Deaf, Disabled, and Diverse young people, their communities and SDC's Next Generation Artists in developing SDC's new touring project.
The process included participants learning skills in signdance theatre and creating and sharing their performances in participating communities. Stories told through different art forms are woven into a signdance theatre tapestry, creating the foundation for SDC's new work in the production phase.
PROJECT FILMS
The sound on the film above is purely for rehearsal purposes.

Thank you so much for the workshop today. I’ve always thought a lot of great things about your company. Today has made me think even more positively about your company! I hope that at some point I can work with you .
Student Middlesex University
SDC's work is necessary and valuable to communities and encourages participation and reach to audiences who don’t engage in theatre in buildings which can be off-putting, alien and even inaccessible to audiences. It’s so important to immerse folk in their everyday spaces. Your integrity, determination, generous spirit, and artistic qualities moved me.
Assessment Excerpt by Zoe Partington Funded by Arts Council England

SDC Next Generation
ACE and The Rothschild Foundation funded the "Next Generation" training and development module focused on public engagement and production-touring processes. The program centres on training six Deaf, Disabled, young and emerging artists to become the next generation of Signdance-Theatre practitioners. They learn about Signdance Theatre, inclusive practice and creating cultural impact. • Three of the "Next Generation'' artists have engaged in the "Places, Faces & Broken Hearts” R&D phase. Their involvement in national/international production is the next step toward increasing our public engagement capacity, continuing this accessible art form and securing SDC's legacy for the future.
Thank you so much for the workshop today. I’ve always thought a lot of great things about your company. Today has made me feel even more positive about your company! I hope that at some point, I can work with you.
Student Middlesex University
Awesome Workshop! Thank you
Leeds Deaf Theatre director- Katie Redstar

Together 2012 Review
We were delighted to be able to host five workshops with the Sign Dance Group at our monthly Dance on Screen Club, which as with all of our activities, now takes place online via Zoom. The company’s unique working methods and creative flexibility made it fully accessible to and inclusive of people with a range of impairments and access needs, including one participant who is deaf and only able to move their neck muscles independently.
The workshops also attracted two participants who attended Together! 2012 activities but not usually Dance on Screen, and generally, the retention held up very well from workshop to workshop although these took place over a seven-month period. Together! 2012 CIC is a Combined Arts organisation and dance is also a visual medium, so the use of paintings - themselves often multimedia - formed a powerful and attractive element, and also helped to engage Team members for whom movement is not one part of their own practice. Newham residents have suffered a great deal due to COVID-19, and there were Team members and participants present who had experienced significant bereavements in the past 18 months.
The thoughtful and reflective subject matter therefore assisted with engagement as well as helping participants to process their grief and produce creative responses.
Overall this was the most successful dance project we have hosted in 11 years, despite being online, and we look forward to working with the company again.
To see SDC's current touring work and other projects, click here.
Go to The production team information


Research Development & Workshops
March 20-25 Selly Oak Manor Birmingham Research Development Community workshops and R&D performances
April 5-17
New York City Research Development Film Research and Outdoor Performance Research and at
The Metropolitan Opera House
Central Park NYC
Wilmington North Carolina
May 4 - 30
Zadar Croatia R&D & Performances
June 21-23
Graz R&D Performances Graz Museum & KIG
August 21 - 23
Waddesdon Manor Research
September 8 -10 Wycombe Arts Centre R&D Rehearsals Performances and Next Generation Festival
October 2 & 3 University Of Middlesex Research
October 3-8 Leeds Workshops at Slunglow Deaf Community
Together 2012 Five Online Workshops throughout the project
'The 'Places, Faces & Broken Hearts’, R&D SDC engaged Deaf, Disabled and
Non-disabled Young People, their families, and their communities through community participation and sharing. In addition. We researched ''Places Faces Broken Hearts'' throughout the project in collaboration with the community participants and local artists. The project helps the company build and strengthen its relationship with new and established partners and institutions. The relationships will allow us
to support our target audiences and communities further.


USA R&D Film Research Findings
By Rob Corcoran & David Bower


USA Collaborators
Caylia Wallace Sebastian Gomez Irina Kapan
Read Zoe Partington's Report about SDC current development
”Some of SDC’s works are so memorably beautiful, as to be unique in their own context, constantly changing and fluctuating from what is seen as ‘traditional dance/theatre work, sign dance embeds not only a visual spectacle, but unconventional approaches including music as soundscapes, sign and spoken languages to engage different audiences’'
Zoe Partington
"Researching ''Places, Faces & Broken Hearts'' was a new experience but came naturally. I found it great to discover dance and how I feel through movement. It’s a pleasure to participate in this fluid devising process''. Freddie Churchill

"The places I have in Israel and in the UK. The faces I faced were challenges and obstacles. The broken heart was my failure to overcome with quick recovery of temptation the person and the children I love. I now have a wiser head and more of a person, since wisdom and pain are good bed fellows."
Golda Dahan Dancer

Participants developed signdance compositions from the paintings from which we have been researching the performance work. With the Leeds Deaf Theatre Company, we focused on sign stories into signdance theatre with the students at Middlesex. We developed the draft script from slow-moving photos. With Together 2012, we created a dance composition from Viviana Molinares's artwork, which inspired the whole process.
Next Generation Artist

First Sound Improvisation by Angelina Schwammerlin and Isolte Avila Kino Cinema Zadar Croatia May 2023

