EIF 2016 - monumental with The Holy Body Tattoo and Godspeed You! Black Emperor

Tonight we attended our fourth performance at the Edinburgh Playhouse: monumental (lowercase intentional) performed by the dance company The Holy Body Tattoo, accompanied live by the art-rock collective Godspeed You! Black Emperor. Quite a shift from yesterday's orchestra performance.

Hazel, one of our coordinators, waiting for the jury to arrive to snap photos

Hello!

Looking good

Filling out the evaluation forms after that intense performance

Still thinking about it

After the performance, we were invited onto the empty stage to speak with Dana Gingras, the show's choreographer. We asked her what inspired her to became a choreographer, and afterwards she briefly explained how the show was conceived. The text projected in the show was from Jenny Holzer's art exhibit, circa 1989, called Selections From the Living.

The rehearsal director also took some questions, and we learned that a decade ago, the dancers for the first ever performance of this show had to learn the entire choreography in three weeks. And to capture the tense energy of the piece, they began their training right away on tiny pedestals seen below (giving the dancers aprox 2'x2' of space to dance on). Rebecca and Nicole had fun climbing onto them to see what it's like. We concluded that they were definitely tough to dance on.

A photo posted by EIF Young People's Jury (@juryassicpark) on Aug 8, 2016 at 2:49pm PDT

A photo posted by EIF Young People's Jury (@juryassicpark) on Aug 8, 2016 at 12:13pm PDT

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To follow our adventures during the 2016 Edinburgh International Festival, check out more at our Instagram @JuryassicPark.

EIF 2016 Opening of the Festival and Press Conference at Scottish Parliament

The 2016 International Festival kicks off today! This morning 5 of our Juryassic Park-ers visited the Scottish Parliament for a press conference announcing us as the festival's official jury. 

Just to remind us that this is, in fact, Edinburgh, the weather started drizzling halfway through. Seasoned "models" as they are, we pressed on despite the rain. 

The hood-up, hands-in-pockets, get-me-out-of-the-rain aesthetic

The happy, I'm-under-an-umbrella smiles

Looking good!

 

We just got our statuettes for the photos

Listening carefully to the art direction by media photogs

The yellow wellies and statuettes were provided by the EIF. You will see later on that they came into good use.

JUST WALK STRAIGHT INTO THE WATER, ALRIGHT?

MSP Christine Grahame joining in

Here, Cameron takes a few pictures with MSP Christine Grahame, who visited us during the press conference. She tried to take a statuette from the bunch on the platform in the middle of the pool! If anyone walking by Parliament wants to try the same thing, we can tell you now that they are affixed firmly onto the platform. She did wind up with one from a box though... But for now the only one to get one of these will be at our closing ceremony on August 27th, where specially decorated statuettes will be handed out to every show that we see.

At this point there were about five or six media photogs snapping away and shouting conflicting instructions. "Hands up! Hands down! Look here. No wait, look there! Show your lanyards! Or don't show 'em!"

#glamshot

"I'll have to keep the wellies on now, or else it'd look like I peed myself." - Nicole, 18yrs old.

A photo posted by EIF Young People's Jury (@juryassicpark) on Aug 5, 2016 at 3:07am PDT

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To follow our adventures during the 2016 Edinburgh International Festival, check out more at our Instagram @JuryassicPark.

EIF 2016 - Making the Awards & Touring the Deep Time Installation

We've shaken up the Children's Choice Awards, appropriately renaming it the International Festival Young People's Awards, as we're working with a group of twenty teens from five Edinburgh schools. These local youth have been appointed the official Festival Jury, and will come up with their own criteria for judging all the work at the festival. After a month of theatre, opera, music, dance and more, the winning shows will be revealed during our (FREE!) awards ceremony on August 27th.

Today we held a creative workshop at Castlebrae Community High School where the teens hand-made the awards that will be presented later this month.

 

After the workshop, we were invited to Castle Rock to get a behind-the-scenes tour of the lighting and music installation for the Festival's opening event, Deep Time, an epic outdoor light show that will be projected on the sides of Castle Rock and Edinburgh Castle. It took a team of ten animators and extremely powerful computers to create, and the final show requires 42 projectors in total to execute. We were greeted by the director and producer from the production company, who also gave us a brief tour of their setup.

Here they are - Leo and Richard, the director and the producer from 59 Productions. We asked them to film a premature acceptance speech right there on the rooftop, in case they can't make it to our awards ceremony.

Each show seen by the Jury will win an award, but which one remains to be decided!

Deep time includes audience-submitted portraits of people in Edinburgh. It's too late for regular festival-goers to submit their photo, but the Jury are VIPs, so we managed to squeeze in some last minute photos; and with a backdrop of Castle Rock itself, no less! Very self-referential.

And one last group selfie to finish the day!

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To follow our adventures during the 2016 Edinburgh International Festival, check out our Instagram @JuryassicPark.

LONDON CCA WINNERzzzz!

The Epic Award by Prav

MEETING by Antony Hamilton and Alisdair Macindoe (Australia) 

The Best Touching Your Hand Performance by Maria

Everything by my side by Fernando Rubio (Argentina) 

The Best Pom Poms Award by Richelle

Miss Revolutionary Idol Berseker by Toco Nikaido (Japan)

The It as so crazy it almost gave me epilepsy (in a good way) Award by Dayna 

Miss Revolutionary Idol Berseker by Toco Nikaido (Japan)

The Hasn’t Seen Any Shows Award by Sunjeedah 

Sunjeedah

The Best Naked Dancers Award by Simar

Miss Revolutionary Idol Berseker by Toco Nikaido (Japan)

The Dirtiest Act Award by Zerda

Miss Revolutionary Idol Berseker by Toco Nikaido (Japan)

The Ugliest Dance Award by Gizem 

Miss Revolutionary Idol Berseker by Toco Nikaido (Japan)

The Crazyest Show Award by James

Miss Revolutionary Idol Berseker by Toco Nikaido (Japan)

The Best Perspective Award by Jessica

Empathy Museum by Clare Patey (UK)

The Most Awkward Award by Sahil

Everything by my side by Fernando Rubio (Argentina) 

The Best Shoe Award by Reyana

Empathy Museum by Clare Patey (UK)

The Best Hair Award by Tiana 

Clare Patey from Empathy Museum (UK)

The Most/Best Invasion of Privacy Award by Ryan

Everything by my side by Fernando Rubio (Argentina) 

The Best Facial Expressions Award by Jhonattan

Everything by my side by Fernando Rubio (Argentina) 

The Best Empathetic Award by Teddy

Empathy Museum by Clare Patey (UK)

The Best Soft Voice Award by Ramari

Everything by my side by Fernando Rubio (Argentina) 

The Best Lifestyle by Sudanez

Everything by my side by Fernando Rubio (Argentina) 

The Best Skillz to Pay the Billz by Ashely 

MEETING by Antony Hamilton and Alisdair Macindoe (Australia) 

The Best Shoebox by Berfin

Empathy Museum by Clare Patey (UK)

The Pencil Award by Jhonattan

MEETING by Antony Hamilton and Alisdair Macindoe (Australia) 

The Best High Heels Award by Sudanez Elma 

Empathy Museum by Clare Patey (UK)

The Best Motivational Award by Lewis 

Empathy Museum by Clare Patey (UK)

The Best of the Best

Miss Revolutionary Idol Berseker by Toco Nikaido (Japan)

MEETING by Antony Hamilton and Alisdair Macindoe

Last night the doors of the Battersea Arts Centre were held as the The Children's Choice Award Jury sped* across London with Tony Miller (Deputy Head) racing against the clock to see MEETING.

On arrival, at the time the show was due to start, Darren threw out the red carpet and a bell was rung and an announcement was made that the Festival Jury had arrived and would be walking down the red carpet and first in the doors to the theatre! What an entrance!!!

In all the commotion not many photos were taken, though the Jury got to meet the brains and bodies behind the work - Antony Hamilton and Alisdair Macindoe after the show, and ask them how exactly they were able to move like robots? Where and how were the invisible strings attached to their body? and would it be easier to have strings attached to the onstage pencil boxes? There was lots of giggling at the symmetry of the dancers, with the Jury unable to comprehend how the boys were moving in sync! 

*Please note - no speed limits were broken, no red lights were disobeyed. This is merely a figured of speech in this context. 

!Miss Revolutionary Idol Berserker WE HEART YOU!