Rosemary Lee created the third part of the Take Me to the River event, which led the audience to three site-specific performances by boat. Her work which was set in the ornate painted hall in the Royal Naval College, Greenwich, involved fifty performers of all ages.
The cast was made up of children from a local school, young people from Lewisham College, an open mature group and 2 seniors from the Lillian Baylis over 60’s performance group.
“The impressive space felt rather empty of life so I decided to fill it wit energy. I chose to work with groups of different specific ages and to reveal their varied energies and the concerns of each age group through movement and text. Coupled with the theme of the river, father time, the rivers within our bodies and the history of the hall. The banquet tables became rivers, exam desks, gangplanks, and jetties.”
– Rosemary Lee
“Lee demonstrated with The Banquet Dances she’s got an uncanny knack for spotting untried or tested performers and drawing extraordinary results from them.”
Keith Watson, Metro 2001
Commissioned by the South Bank Centre, Greenwich Dance Agency and Canary Wharf Events and the Greenwich and Docklands International Festival.
Music composed by Jonathan Lever, performed by a mixed age cast of 50, design by Emergency Exit, lighting design by Chahine Yavroyan