Ride : Arts Council Slop Shows

Ride : Arts Council Slop Shows

A show using corporate language, to get booked by corporate organisations to create corporate datasets

/Zoeilogic, a charity based in Southhampton, says they connect people through the power of movement, breaking down barriers and challenging the norms of who dance is for. Does this sound familiar? Swarali Karulter, The Motz Group, Sport for Good and Jimbo on tiktok all use this exact  phrasing to describe their work. What does it mean to connect people, and what is the power of movement?

Zoei is the executive director of Zoeilogic. Surprise! A ‘social change leader’ and ‘Cultural pioneer’ and ‘Dance innovator’ who has ‘Shaped the UK and international creative industries’ and the ‘Events landscape and dance sector’. She holds an MBE and claims to have ‘expanded access to high quality dance experiences for thousands of people’.  It seems that these touring shows are an income stream, marketed towards local city and town councils. With shows like ‘manmade’, ‘The ostentatious ball’, 

Arts Council Englands ‘Let’s Create’ Strategy over the last 10 years seems to have created a certain genre of performance in public space. You’ll see it up and down the country, in our cities that have long been forgotten by industry. Art is for all – a great statement, but when corporates capitalise on this with little regard for the actual quality of performance, for the content of the shows they pump out at £2950 a pop, you’re left with shows that make the public think dance isn’t for them, because it’s built

Online, the show seems to be exciting, accessible dance, with many quotes from ‘audience members’. “The moment the car ‘came to life’ – the audience gasped, then erupted in cheers. Pure magic.” – Audience member. The hyperbolic nature of the event copy is truly something to behold.

But as strike-a-light more aptly described the show as “A dance performance featuring three men, jumping over, on and around a spinning red car in Gloucester’s Kings Square.”

I came along tp It really was just 20 minutes of three men, jumping over a car. The three characters seemed non-verbal, until one started pissing in a jerry can. Suddenly, the first words spoken in the performance are ‘WHO WEE’D!’ and chants of ‘WEE’ for a few minutes. This seems to be the cause of the three character’s conflict, who then become feral and start ripping apart the car, with the car being pushed in circled and hauled on it’s side. After we’ve seen some tricks, there seems some sudden resolution, and the men begin putting the car back together. They’re friends again, although there’s still piss in the engine. Maybe this was supposed to be some comment on masculinity, how it is destructive to the mens wellbeing to fight over dominance of the steering wheel? I’m left confused.

Sure, it’s a family show for fete’s and public squares. But if you were a child, would this make any sense to you? Punch and Judy might’ve been more adequate.