Our Devise Dance Document outreach work with Ocean Arts in 2015, saw us return to Tyneside, working with poet Mark Greenwood on cut-up poetry, collage and a recording of Jean Genie with 25 members of this key daycare centre https://oceanchoices.uk Inspiration came from the holy trinity of influential contemporary creatives who emerged from South Shields in the mid-20th century: Ridley Scott, Eric Idle and Lindsay Kemp. Lindsay then got in touch, to invite us to visit his home in Italy, when we planned a return to his home town.
This most eminent choreographer, dancer, director and visual artist had last performed in South Shields, in the early 1950s. Partnering with The Customs House, we devised Encounter where Lindsay was reunited in a Q&A with schoolfriends Sylvia and Yvonne. Masterclasses with local residents, a sold-out exhibition of Lindsay’s drawings and a Fellowship Presentation Dinner with Arts Council England in attendance completed the programme. We visited Talbot Road in the town, where Lindsay lived as a boy, skinning up in a phonebox and wandering the streets, with his flowing humour as commentary on the theatres that once thrived. Since Lindsay passed away in 2018, we have continued to to help secure his legacy, with two of his company, Daniella Maccari and David Haughton, who both live in Italy where he is much revered; but sadly not in his home country, where he deserves so much more, a true original who influenced and nurtured so many other great artists, from David Bowie to Kate Bush and three time Academy Award winner, costume designer Sandy Powell.
Project Title
Return of The Maestro_LINDSAY KEMP LEGACY
Location
Home of Lindsay Kemp, Livorno, Italy
Across South Shields municipal area, Tyneside
Encounter programme design
Ewan Buck
Encounter opening film edit
David Haughton
Producer
Garry Hunter for Fitzrovia Noir assisted by Ged Lynn
Credits for Lindsay In Livorno film by Garry Hunter
Filmed by Doralba Picerno
Edited by Gareth Evans
Featuring excerpts from
Kemp Dances filmed by Maurizio Maltoni
Walk On The Wildside a film by Daniel Abineri
Message To Chile by Enrico Del Gamba & Viola Pagli
David Bowie Top of the Pops Starman performance
Kemp and Bowie 1973 photograph by Mick Rock
Archive footage/still photographs provided by Nendie Pinto-Duschinsky
Artists
Lindsay Kemp
Daniela Maccari, principal ballerina
Media
Dance, drawing, film, photography
Dates
February – September 2016
“Lindsay Kemp is a great, repeat great artist”
Alec Guinness
“Britt Ekland was such a pain to work with, that I ended up pouring a pint of heavy over her head and getting a taxi back to London. Robin had to plead for me to return to the set.”
Lindsay on filming The Wicker Man directed by Robin Hardy in 1973.