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3 dancers wearing short black dresses, with bare feet, perform in front of a while background. Theatrical lights are cast onto them creating shadows, making it look like there are more dancer moving than there actually are.

And They Have Escaped, NOCTURN

Case Studies

In a self guided experience, free to the public, NOCTURN asked their audience to consider if always being online means missing out on their real lives?

Fusing a museum collection with contemporary dance, motion sensors, projection mapping and a custom made mobile phone app they could interact with three very different provocations.

John Darvell’s creative concepts and thought provoking choreography are brought to life by the technical wizardry of Greyworld. Coupled with Rogerio Silva’s magical cinematography, John Chambers haunting sound score and the joyful animations by Yeast Culture.

Co-commissioned by West Berkshire Council and West Berkshire Heritage and supported by Arts Council England and Corn Exchange, Newbury.

This bold project employed 29 South East based professional artists to create a unique museum experience, NOCTURN worked with over 400 young people, mentored and achieved 174 Arts Award Discovery Certificates; delivered over 90 workshops and worked with a talented group of adult participants to create a 20 minute performance piece.

Find out more about the making of this project:

It is very important that museums engage with the performing arts and vice versa. Performing artists look at these spaces – and their possibilities - through different eyes and do things we would never have thought of doing. Having NOCTURN at the West Berkshire Museum brought new and different people over the threshold and made them think about this unique historic building as something that is as important to the here and now as it is to our heritage.

Paul James

Culture Manager, West Berkshire Council

Performance credits:

Director & Choreographer | John Darvell

Producer | Tessa Howell

Danced & performed by

Deborah Ann Camp

Effie Mcguire Ward

Harriet Waghorn

Filmed & edited by Rogerio Silva

Composition by John Chambers

Technical partner | Greyworld

Animations | Yeast Culture

Photography | Savannah Photographic

Storyboard drawings by Ben Qureshi

Read more on the NOCTURN website

Visit webpage

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