Orbits: Gallery installation showing dance film created by Scotland's leading disabled theatre company Birds of Paradise
Thursday 3 to Sunday 13 April 2025. 12pm to 6pm, Tuesday to Sunday
ArtHouse Jersey at Capital House
Free entry
Pictured: A still from Orbits, featuring Portuguese disabled dancer Diana Niepce
From Thursday 3 April to Sunday 13 April ArtHouse Jersey's Capital House exhibition space will be hosting a film installation of the dance film Orbits (2023), created by Scotland's leading disabled theatre company Birds of Paradise. It features the astonishing Portuguese disabled dancer Diana Niepce and embodies the company’s vision where disabled artists are recognised for the excellence of their work and celebrated for the stories they bring to the stage. Orbits does not have any spoken dialogue and has been produced to play on a loop across gallery opening hours between 12pm & 6pm, Tuesday to Sunday. It is accompanied by an audio description version for blind or visually impaired viewers.
Created with choreographer Rachel Drazek, Orbits was filmed by Hugo Glendinning and features an evocative soundtrack by Scottish composer Scott Twynholm. Orbits is a film about how we feel and what we experience when we lose something that we have been in a relationship with, that orbits us. It considers how this can affect our experience of ourselves. When we lose someone, how far will we go to feel ‘in their orbit’ again and what fragmentation occurs in this out-of-relation place – is it just loneliness, this dislocation from the other, or an awakening to life?
Birds of Paradise has 30 years of experience and knowledge, offering trailblazing career opportunities for disabled people in the arts, making game-changing theatre and film. They continue to be a challenge to the status quo, confronting the absence and exclusion of disabled people from theatre, culture and many areas of society by placing their stories on stage. BOP exports its knowledge around the world to affect positive change for disabled artists and audiences
POETRY EVENT
On Friday 11 April a guided poetry workshop will take place at ArtHouse Jersey at Capital House inviting writers and poets of all abilities to explore our relationship to movement, visual and audio description in response to Orbits. Facilitated by local poet Catherine Collin tickets cost £5 and are available via Eventbrite.
Head of Programme for ArtHouse Jersey, James Tyson, said “This moving film is a meditative artwork on loss and absence and the unspeakable presence that can remain long after someone is gone. Orbits is testament to the extraordinary work of Birds of Paradise who for many years have been pioneering boundary and taboo breaking stageworks led by disabled artists and that makes access a creative dialogue that changes our view of how we can make a more inclusive society. We are delighted to be screening this work in Jersey and through it provide a spotlight on creative access and making art more diverse and open to different people and experiences.“
