{"id":4924,"date":"2015-03-09T09:00:33","date_gmt":"2015-03-09T09:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.danceanywhere.org\/news\/?p=4924"},"modified":"2015-03-07T23:11:07","modified_gmt":"2015-03-07T23:11:07","slug":"shunt-appreciating-ambiguity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.danceanywhere.org\/news\/2015\/shunt-appreciating-ambiguity\/","title":{"rendered":"Shunt: Appreciating Ambiguity"},"content":{"rendered":"

The \u00a0London-based, performance collective, Shunt, performs in bridge\u00a0vaults, old warehouses, and various expansive spaces in and around the city. They are fierce, daring, and courageous and encourage similar traits from\u00a0their audience members.\u00a0Audience members\u00a0are do not know before a performance what they are getting themselves into. Sometimes,\u00a0participants are instructed to take off their shoes, other times they are given a key.\u00a0Whatever the case, the audience must embrace the realm of spontaneity and the vast\u00a0unknown. Heather Uprichard, one of the founders and current members of Shunt, said, \u201cWe wanted to make work…outside an established\u00a0space, so we made it where we could. We all had the same financial streak, so it was\u00a0rigorously democratic, perhaps too much sometimes, but also brilliant. It has all been\u00a0a great accident really–probably driven by chips on the shoulders and sheer bloody\u00a0mindedness as much as anything\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"Shunt<\/a>

Shunt collective<\/p><\/div>\n

The core group is made up of 10 people, \u201cwith about 6 associates and many, many, many others in a beautiful big extended family\u201d says Heather, \u201c…we just wanted to get\u00a0on and make work that excited us… Because\u00a0there were 10 of us with an equal…creative steak in the work, the method\u00a0evolved out of that really. We made it up as we went along and changed it as we saw\u00a0fit\u201d. This \u201cmethod\u201d that Heather discusses is the all-encompassing, ever-experimental,\u00a0site-specific, theater performances that Shunt has masterfully conducted throughout\u00a0their long career.<\/p>\n

\"Shunt<\/a>

Shunt Collective<\/p><\/div>\n

Their methods of site-specific performance began by maintaining a hub in Shunt\u2019s birth-place, London. \u201cI love it. I love\u00a0the enormity, the anonymity and the diversity\u201d says Heather. The groups decision not\u00a0to tour has allowed them to remain in the city and create a strong following. \u201cThis was\u00a0unexpected genius that gave us strength in the start. It helped us grow slowly and with\u00a0confidence, and it let us grow an audience. Other people told us we were very different-\u00a0-but what we just made theatre we liked, where we could and how we liked.\u201d A previous show, The Boy Who Climbed Out of His Face<\/em>, was\u00a0performed in a temporary space, where audience members and performers appeared and\u00a0disappeared in and out of shipping containers. Another performance,\u00a0Money<\/em>, was presented in an old warehouse. Shunt built a temporary set in the center of\u00a0the vacated building and audience members were invited inside to completely saturate\u00a0themselves in the other worldly and puzzling landscape that is, Shunt.\u00a0<\/p>\n