southwark theatres' education partnership

Just ahead of the start of the STEP Festival 2011, we met with tangled feet to discuss their Primary School project, Connecting though Creativity, and encouraging young people to play

The brilliant ensemble theatre Company, tangled feet, are known for their originality and willingness to take risks and rework forms, stories and the way theatre is created. It seems appropriate, therefore, that their next project for STEP will focused around a new concept, working with an age group they don’t usually work with.

During this year’s festival, tangled feet will be resident theatre Company in one very lucky Southwark Primary School. Working with Years 3 and 4, tangled feet will implement the structures inherent in dramatherapy, focusing on the ideas of therapeutic theatre and process orientated work. The Company are ‘interested to investigate a drama model that could, in the future, see the company tour a process-focused set of workshops and performances to local primary schools.’

The Company is steeped in experience in working in Secondary Schools, and they are eager to extend on their knowledge of working with Primary-aged children from their experience working with a Southwark Primary from the STEP 2009 Festival. During the project, tangled feet will plan, evaluate and develop their methodology, as well as research how the workshop could create a performance made for, and by, primary age children. Each afternoon they will then work with a group of children and engage them in a drama workshop to explore ideas of communication and connectivity through play and creation. An after-school session for teachers will also offer training on using drama in the classroom.

Although it is the Company’s second Primary School project, the ensemble are steeped in knowledge and experience in working with young people. Alex Ramsden, a performer with tangled feet , is also a Drama Therapist, and has worked in many primaries before (“it’s the same work, but with a different hat”, she explains about her role in tangled feet). And Leon Smith, a performer and designer, has worked with young people on previous projects. In terms of the STEP project, to what extent will tangled feet’s work feed into their Primary Project?

“The project will focus on the devising process using different resources,” Alex explains. “A lot of [tangled feet’s] initial work started much more internally; from our own stories. Much more recently, it has moved to external stories, which is quite a natural progression for any growing thing. It’s moved towards retelling, rather than just telling our own stories, which is why we’re working with the outside in and the inside out on this project.”
The first workshop with each class will focus on working from the “inside out”. Operating within a structured storytelling method, the Company will encourage the class to individually work on their own stories, “which is about the emergence of their own creativity” Alex explains. “But the idea is that the basis of the work is focused on the process of making work, rather than the finished product. There will be a product, but that isn’t the most important thing.”

Alex explains how, in a previous workshop in a Southwark School, the young people decided to share the game they devised themselves, rather than the finished piece of drama they had created. “That was the best sharing, because that’s what the work was all about”, Alex says. “They created great drama, but for the sharing they wanted to demonstrate that they could play together.”

During the second workshop, the class will work from the “outside in”. tangled feet will provide a piece of music or an image to act as an external stimulus for each piece of work. And because the school want the company to encourage group dynamics, the class will work in groups to create a response. Although the aim of the workshop will encourage the young people to work together, Alex still feels that it is still important that there is individual creativity, “at that age, finding your voice as an individual is just as important as the group.”

The way in which tangled feet work with young people is to balance structure with freedom – something young people are rarely trusted with. Is it therefore difficult for young people to devise their own work, where the process is key rather than the result? “A massive part of our workshop is that there is no getting it wrong” Alex says. “It is so liberating, but it means being able to unlearn all those things you’re taught. But every member of tangled feet really knows how to play, and instilling that play is really easy task if you demonstrate it.”

This sense of play is at the heart of tangled feet’s work, and encouraging play is key to unlocking creativity in each workshop. I ask whether there is a difference between primary-aged children and secondary –aged children in terms of their willingness to play. “Older children, have at some point, learned that there is a right and a wrong” Leon observes. “They do play, but on a different level. primary-aged young people completely do it; they throw themselves at it.”

Despite the fact that play is crucial to a child’s development, unfortunately many children miss this stage and grow up too quickly. “The biggest crime in development is the lack of play” Alex says firmly. “But it’s still there. I believe that everyone can play, no matter what age. It might take a while, but it’s inherent in all of us. I really strongly believe that. I’ve worked with a lot of adults who missed that stage developmentally, but it’s there. I’ve never worked with a school where the young people cannot play. As long as you, the practitioner, are willing, they can play.”
Leon draws on a conversation he had with a Choreographer at Laban at an improvisation festival recently. “There were very few British people there, because of our ability to play. The Choreographer observed that it was because of our education system: elsewhere in Europe, children aren’t in formal education until the age of eight, and people from Mediterranean countries tend to be a lot more open in improvisations, and more willing to play.”

“It’s because we’re so focused on achieving,” Alex says. “Which is why the process is the main point of the project we are delivering for the STEP Festival.”