Doorstep Recommends: Dog Ballet

Artists Nigel and Louse have been meeting with beach users and dog walkers, joining the community of people using the beach to walk, exercise, play and socialise.

They want to set the ordinary, everyday activity of people walking their dogs to exquisite live music and transform it into a dance of great beauty and complexity.

They’ve studied the dogs playing and walking together, discussed their idea and how it might work with the participants and recorded interviews with owners about their dogs. Through early June, animals and humans are ‘rehearsing’ together – playing music while they walk on the beach, trying to choreograph simple movements and follow how the dogs run and play.

After ‘last light’ on June 13th, the dogs will be accompanied by a live violinist and a soundscape made from recorded testimony from local people – about the relationships and bonds we share with dogs, with each other and with our natural landscapes.

Bathed in light designed by Richard Williamson, with sound by multi-instrumentalist Lewis Gibson and starring local participants and their dogs – the performance will climax with dogs in flashing collars playing in the darkness and chasing LED flashing balls.

This research performance is to test the possibilities of Dog Ballet, working towards the development of an epic light and sound show with people & their dogs – with prospective partners from seaside towns around the UK.