Dancenorth’s ‘Rainbow Vomit’
Explores Impact of Technology on Kids
Rainbow Vomit is an immersive contemporary dance show created especially for young audiences.
Choreographers Kyle Page, Artistic Director of Dancenorth, and Amber Haines, Associate Artistic Director, explain the inspiration behind this strangely titled piece.
“Rainbow Vomit stemmed from a curiosity surrounding the impact of technology and the accompanying sensorial saturation for young viewers, in particular the impact on their developing brains,” said Page.
“There is a large body of research surrounding the impact of technology (screen time) on children and their developing brains – in particular the stifling effect that tech can have on their imagination and creative capacity. ‘Tech Addiction’ has been referred to as ‘digital heroin’ for kids – turning children into screen junkies. Children are unknowingly falling victim to an addiction that doctors say is as bad as cocaine for their minds.”
Rainbow Vomit is the first time in 11 years that Dancenorth have created a work targeting young people, although the work is designed to appeal to all ages.
Premiered in April 2016, this performance invites you to enter a space of tangled imagination, where light and sound collide in a familiar yet distant world. Creatures from afar morph within the shadows to navigate an ever-changing landscape of bewilderment and wonder. Synaesthesia envelopes the mind as rhythm becomes vision, voice shapes movement and light warps sound. Welcome to the world of ‘Rainbow Vomit’, a place where anything is possible, everything can happen, and much more than colour erupts from the darkness… Audience members are invited to watch the performance through their own pair of ‘fireworks glasses’. These magical glasses are made using holographic diffraction film, which refracts light into all colours of the spectrum, generating a myriad of rainbows.
“In Rainbow Vomit we have created a space that is intensely colourful, extraordinarily physical and saturated with ideas that we hope will inspire kids to go home and play and be creative in their own space,” said Haines.
“Before widespread access to digital technology children would spend hours outside playing in the yard, conjuring up games and imaginative spaces to explore. Computer games quite often present a limited set of scenarios or options with the destination, if not the journey, predetermined, i.e. from level 1 to level 2 and so on.
“These scenarios are always dictated by the imagination of the games creator, and in this way they are limited.”
“Together we have created a world in which dream, fantasy, illusion and play are funnelled through unreality. We offer open-ended questions and hint at the potential for imagination, like starting points on a mysterious map. As for any linear meaning within the work, well, that is entirely yours to create!” said Page.
Following the performance audiences will be welcomed further into the colourful world of Rainbow Vomit to explore the set and play on the stage.
