Inner Fish Theatre Society

The Collective Body/Looks Like Sounds

Inner Fish Theatre Society is an interdisciplinary performance company from Kelowna, B.C. Co-founders Neil Cadger and Denise Kenney collaborate with artists from diverse disciplines to create original live art, and present professional contemporary performances, educational opportunities and interactive art in a festival context. The company is committed to supporting emerging interdisciplinary artists. Inner Fish Theatre Society Exists To: Collaborate with diverse communities and artists from different disciplines to create original work that challenges the boundaries of live performance. We offer educational and professional opportunities for emerging interdisciplinary artists. We present touring performers in the Okanagan Valley. We promote public gatherings that focus attention on our relationship with the land we occupy – ancestral territory of the Syilx & Okanagan people.

The Collective Body/Looks Like Sounds

This project involves an audio/visual installation (The Collective Body) presented on the exterior windows of the venue, and a live, public performance (Looks Like Sounds) in an interior space. The Collective Body is a collaboration between classical and avant garde musicians, and variously trained dancers from across North America, creating an ever-changing amalgamation of video imagery and sound. The creative process resembled a rhizome with simultaneous, diverse, interconnected points of generation. It began with movement artists recording 1-minute silent choreographic pieces; these were sent to musicians, inspiring the creation of a 3 - 5 minute recording; the recordings were sent to movement artists who created 1-minute videos...and the pattern repeated, expanding laterally. Looks Like Sounds is a live, public improvisation with local and guest musicians, dancers, and projection artists in interdisciplinary collaboration amid an ever-changing visual background - bringing artists together in collaboration, innovation and trust.
Photo courtesy of the artist

Performance History of The Collective Body/Looks Like Sounds

The Collective Body was premiered in January 2021 (video) at the Rotary Centre for the Arts in Kelowna, B.C. and has since been presented at the Luna Festival in Revelstoke, and by Mile Zero Dance in Edmonton.

Project Details

Project created by: Andrew Stauffer and Neil Cadger

Key Collaborators: From B.C.: Aleks Dulic, Miles Thorogood, Melissa Sorge, Manuel Sorge, Kurt Werner, Denise Kenney, Kate Twa, Ronan Reinart, Ralph Escamillan, Nick Denton-Protsack, Leila Neverland, Darren Williams, Trevor Salloum, Vanessa Goodman, Lan Tung,Ezra Cipes.

From Alberta: Cayley Thomas, Michael Reinhart, Camille Renarhd, Yaw Baayim, Charmaine Headley, Barry Bilinski, Naishi Wang, Mat Simpson, Minggao Zhang, Gianna Varcirca, Kate Stashko, Yukichi Hottari, Denise Clarke, Lin Snelling.

From Ontario: Deepti Gupta, Learie McNicolls, Claudia Moore, Craig Pedersen, Kathryn Ladano, Ben Grossman, David Ryshpan.

From Quebec: Laurence Petitpas, Jeremi Roy.

From the USA: Maria Finkelmeier, Belinda McGuire.

Audience: General Audience

Length in minutes: The Collective Body can be played indefinitely. Looks Like Sounds runs approximately 90 minutes

Space required: Ideal spaces for The Collective Body are venues with large, contiguous exterior windows - Cultural Centres with high visibility in public areas, for example - that have the capacity to install projectors in the interior space. The installation can adapt to existing architecture. With a small requirement for space for dancers and musicians, and minimal technical needs, LLS can be presented in any studio theatre, black box or hall with an appropriate dance floor. It is best suited to intimate audiences.

Preparation required: N/A

General technical requirements: Inner Fish will provide artists and the footage for The Collective Body. The presenter will provide vinyl for the windows, video projectors, an outdoor sound system, a computer, and all cabling - the number of projectors will depend on the number of windows in the venue. (For 16 windows we employed 4 projectors and one computer). For Looks Like Sounds, It is the responsibility of the presenter to provide an interior venue, dance flooring (minimum 100 square feet), audience seating (on the floor in a circle), and a sound system - microphones & amplification for 4 musicians. This should include 2 - 3 microphones for percussion, and one microphone per instrument. Lighting requirements are minimal. *Note that Tech rider for musicians may change (specifics contingent on selected musicians)

Availabilities: Available to Tour 2022-2024

Number of performers on tour: LLS: 8 (4 Dancers/4 Musicians) TCB: can be presented without live performers. 0-8 (Local and guest dancers and musicians will be invited to participate. Touring artists will be engaged depending on the presenter’s budget.)

Number of support staff on tour: 2

Community Engagement Activities

Interdisciplinary Improvisation Workshop for Dancers/Musicians Facilitated by a Musician and Dancer from Looks Like Sounds. Locations: theatre spaces, schools, community centres, dance studios, etc. For ages 18+. Workshop length: 2 hours. Max registrants: 4 musicians, 6 dancers. Registration fee: $35 - 50. The workshop will focus on improvisation within and between artistic disciplines. During the first portion of the workshop, musicians and dancers will be grouped separately to familiarize themselves with each other and learn their improvisational styles. Then, dancers and musicians will merge for multiple group improvisations. After each improvisation, there will be an open discussion about what worked and what didn't.

Contact Agent/Manager: Will Cullen, willcullen.ma@gmail.com

Website: thecollectivebody.ca

Facebook: the-collective-body-2021/22