Tramway TV: Room 2 Manoeuvre - Vinyl Frontier
Watch now on our Instagram TV channel>
Finally back in the dance studio for one week, Room 2 Manoeuvre's Artistic Director Tony Mills attempts to chart his journey through the world of dance with his sidekick, Linoleum a.k.a. Lionel, in a residency that is the first stage in a developing new solo piece.
In this video, using hip hop, contemporary dance and physical theatre, join Mills and Lionel as they boldly flow through highs, lows and the unchartered course of one’s passion; embracing success and doing their best to dodge disaster. It’s hip hop, but not as you know it.
With thanks to Chris Devaney from Curious Seed and Dance Base.
About Tony Mills
Tony Mills, who hails from the Orkney Isles, is a founder member of Edinburgh-based Random Aspekts B Boy crew and Cypher Dance. Since giving up veterinary surgery whites for tights, he has worked with Freshmess Dance Company, State of Emergency, Off Kilter, Iron Oxide, Curious Seed, David Hughes Dance Productions, All or Nothing Aerial Dance Theatre, Russian physical theatre maestros Derevo, and the international streetdance show Blaze, which toured worldwide.
His adventures into choreography have seen him assist Ian Spink for Scottish Ballet’s EIF production, Petruska, and undertaking commissions for arts organisations and professional and youth dance companies. He has also worked as a movement director/choreographer in theatre for companies such as Terra Incognita, and commercially for high profile stars such as Martin Garrix and Kelly Rowland.
Tony is a keen ambassador for the breakdance scene in Scotland and has been involved in the production and hosting of major dance events including Castle Rocks Breakdance Championships, the Edinburgh leg of the national Breakin’ Convention tours in 2007-17 and Breakin’ Rules at the Dundee Rep Theatre. Tony continually creates new work for Room 2 Manoeuvre, most recently the international co-production, Without A Hitch.
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Tramway TV is the online platform for our arts programme, featuring a combination of film, artist conversations, digital performances and online interventions from visual artists and performance makers across Scotland and beyond.
Tramway TV can be accessed on IGTV via our Instagram page.
Rajni Perera: Traveller (visits by advance booking only)
*TEMPORARILY CLOSED*
In line with the Scottish Government’s level four Covid-19 restrictions, Tramway is temporarily closed to the public until at least Friday 11 December.
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*VISITS MUST BE PRE-BOOKED*
Tramway is delighted to present ‘Traveller’, the first exhibition in the UK by multi-disciplinary artist Rajni Perera.
Sri Lanka-born Toronto-based artist Perera’s bold and intricately crafted paintings, sculptures, textile works, and installations explore issues of ancestorship, hybridity, futurity, and identity through the lens of science fiction. Influenced by a range of visual references including Indian miniaturisim, Astro-blackness, paleontology, magical realism, scientific illustration and fashion as well as her personal experiences of migration, Perera’s works evoke alternative histories, new mythologies and possible futures for the diasporic individual. On entering her immersive installations, we encounter vivid, futuristic worlds bought to life by a distinctive visual language which incorporates traditional techniques and crafts such as embellishment, weaving, woodwork and basketry. The ancestral legacies embodied in these techniques are forged into ornate, protective garments which become spiritual suits of armour for an empowered and resilient ‘Traveller’ of the future.
The exhibition ‘Traveller’ encompasses a series of vignettes of a story about the future of humans which positions the diasporic body as the focus of the future. The Travellers and the world/s they inhabit are portrayed across a constellation of works which encompasses meticulously painted portraits, garments, busts and a large statue within an immersive exhibition environment. Together they create a dialogue between past, present and future evoking the sense that we are witnessing museum artefacts from a potential future not yet come to pass.
In addition, the exhibition includes a number of tools and garments conceived to protect the Traveller from a polluted environment following environmental collapse. Three elaborately embellished face masks are displayed on plinths, created in 2019 and described as ‘pollution wear’ they also convey notions of protection and survival being played out in our present moment.
Described by Negarra A.Kudumu in the accompanying text for the first iteration of the Traveller series ‘The Travellers are protected by way of ancestral armour developed for body and spirit, and adapted to fit behaviours of care and nourishment, while facing the dangers of off-world commute, inhospitable terrain, and territorial dispute. These vestments have been produced slowly, in some cases over the course of many centuries. Their mythologies join hands and worlds through bloodlines, through warp and weft, all the way through to the place where the formerly displaced are presently powerful, safe, protected and flourishing.’
This exhibition is funded by Creative Scotland and The High Commission of Canada in the UK, with additional support from Toronto Arts Council and Ontario Arts Council.
About Rajni Perera
Rajni Perera has been exhibited at the Phi Foundation (Montreal, Canada, 2020), Chromatic Festival (Montréal, Canada, 2019), the Museum of Contemporary Art (Toronto, Canada, 2018), The Museum of Modern Art (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) Art Metropole (Toronto, Canada, 2017), Gallery 44 (Toronto, Canada, 2017), the art Gallery of York University (Toronto, Canada, 2017), the Colombo Art Biennale (Edinburgh, UK, 2017), OTA Fine Arts (Tokyo, Japan 2017), Superchief Gallery (Brooklyn, USA, 2017), the Colombo Art Biennale (Colombo, Sri Lanka, 2016), The Public House of Art (Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 2016), Art Dubai (Dubai, UAE, 2016) and the Art League Houston (Houston, USA, 2014), and other sites. The Art Gallery of Ontario acquired one of her artworks in 2019.
Image: Detail from Rajni Perera, Traveler, 2019
Mixed media on stretched cotton rag stock
40,6 x 20,5 cm (16″ x 12″)
Courtesy of Private collection
Tramway TV: Liv Fontaine
Tramway TV presents two films by Liv Fontaine:
The Darker Days of Me and Him
This semi auto-biographical and part fantasy work is a personal and informative exploration of the considerations of sex while sick, the impossible physical expectations that may or may not lead to increased desirability and wealth and the crippling of a health service by an authority in favour of those who already have everything. Minor themes include memories of feminist heroes and friendships with cold-blooded beasts.
CONTENT WARNING: This film contains strong language and nude imagery in reference to illness, shame, desire and sex. Recommended for an adult audience.
Philomela Just Like Maria
Recorded in 2019 as part of a collaboration with Annika Larsson for her video ‘Dance Macabre’ at The Doublet, and featuring music by Edwin Stevens.
CONTENT WARNING: This film contains strong language, and is recommended for an adult audience.
Both films are available on our Instagram TV channel now:
Watch The Darker Days of Me and Him >
Watch Philomela Just Like Maria >
About the artist
Liv Fontaine is an artist, writer and performer from Southampton who currently lives and works in Glasgow. Liv’s live work typically focuses on the idea of hysteria and wild desperation as the only adequate response to society. Under the performance pseudonym VIV INSANE she creates uncomfortably entertaining situations that attempt to challenge notions of patriarchal privileges, sexual stereotyping and the subsequent violence of these - all the while examining her own complicity in this total orgy of depravity. Visit her website to find out more > www.livfontaine.com
Credits
Music in The Darker Days of Me and Him, and Philomela Just Like Maria, performed by Edwin Stevens.
Philomela Just Like Maria was recorded in collaboration with Annika Larsson for her video ‘Dance Macabre.’
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Tramway TV is the online platform for our arts programme, featuring a combination of film, artist conversations, digital performances and online interventions from visual artists and performance makers across Scotland and beyond.
Tramway TV can be accessed on IGTV via our Instagram page.
Image courtesy of the artist
Tramway TV: Joseph Toonga on Born to Manifest
In this film, Just Us Dance Theatre's Artistic Director Joseph Toonga discusses the Born to Manifest series with Born to Manifest Cinematographer Elliot Banks and Tramway TV producer Claricia Parinussa. A 4-part film series which responded to his stage work of the same name, Born to manifest illuminates systematic racial cycles and their impact on Black British men. It embodies his signature style, challenging proposals commonly used in Hip Hop dance to disseminate real life stories of those who are often underrepresented in mainstream dance.
The 4-part series is available to watch on our Instagram TV channel now>
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Originally from the Cameroon and raised in East London, Joseph Toonga is a sought-after choreographer who works nationally and internationally, between his own productions and independent commissions, from companies such as Boston Conservatoire of Dance, National Youth Ballet/ Bundesjugendballett, The Place and Richard Alston Dance Company.
Alongside extensive teaching Joseph runs his own company, Just Us Dance Theatre, through which he has established mentorship programmes supporting young Hip Hop dance artists to achieve their goals.
He is also the co-founder of artist-led Hip Hop initiative ‘Artists4Artists’, a breakthrough artist-led initiative activating industry change for the UK Hip Hop dance theatre community.
This pre-recorded film is 40 mins long
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Tramway TV is the online platform for our arts programme, featuring a combination of film, artist conversations, digital performances and online interventions from visual artists and performance makers across Scotland and beyond.
Tramway TV can be accessed on IGTV via our Instagram page.
Image: still from Born to Manifest
UNCLES: One for the Road
*SOLD OUT*
Please note, these events are rescheduled from their original dates as follows:
From Fri 13 Mar 2020 to Fri 5 Feb 2021
From Sat 14 Mar 2020 to Sat 6 Feb 2021
From Sun 15 Mar 2020 to Sun 7 Feb 2021
Tickets remain valid for the new date and are otherwise unchanged. If the new date does not suit, we will be able to possibly offer a transfer to an alternative date (subject to availability) or refunds once we are re-opened for business as normal.
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Your Uncles, Rab Florence and Iain Connell, Burnistoun, are back for another round of drinks and another round of hilarious comedy as they set the world to rights.
Ages 18+