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KP Projects CIC works with a range of partners to create surprising, intriguing & inspiring outdoor arts performances, installations & community engagement projects for the widest audiences. Our work focuses around the environment, sustainability & healthy living, with projects exploring cycling, recycling, awareness of local environments, digital storytelling & new technologies in public spaces.

NEWS

Version one of The Living Coast Undersea Experience launched for user testing at vrLAB as part of the #TomTech programme at The Old Market, Brighton Digital Festival.

Following further development, we are anticipating further testing in the new year & a pilot tour in spring 2019, after which the piece will tour the region.

A horizontal woman smiles at the camera. A pair of feet appear just behind her head

 

 

A fabulous 2018 summer season for The Bicycle Ballet Co.  Blazing Saddles went from strength to strength, with performances across the UK & two commissions, from Milton Keynes Pedalling Culture & Lakes Alive, to develop new participation models for the show, more here.  And, Strictly Cycling toured for its epic sixth season – here’s to many more.

 

 

Amongst many inspiring presentations of projects encouraging women & cycling, The Bicycle Ballet Co was honoured to present Blazing Saddles to the 2018 Women & Cycling Conference. We very much hope to develop a project together in 2019

 

 

KP Projects CIC is delighted to welcome two new board members: Veronica Stephens Executive Director of Seachange Arts, & artist, producer & educator, Bec Britain.  We will be developing the board over the next few months.

Amazing news! The Living Coast Undersea Experience is up & running with a grant from Sussex Community Foundation’s Rampion Fund, matched by ACE Catalyst Evolve funding. Further fundraising continues for the development of education/information materials & a tour.

Honoured to be included in Xtrax’s ‘Outdoor Arts Hot 100′ celebrating ‘those who help shape, champion, support & raise the bar for outdoor arts across the UK‘

An autumn (2017) of presentations:

At the Street Arts for Inclusive Societies Conference in the European Parliament, KP presented her outdoor arts work over the last 20 years.

Launching an idea for a new show to delegates at the National Outdoor Arts Conference in November 2017.  More info Here

KP presented the Blazing Saddles project to delegates at the Xtrax Shorts event, as part of the Out There Festival Sept 2017.  More info Here

Delighted to announce that KP Projects & The Bicycle Ballet Co have been awarded Catalyst Evolve funding from Arts Council England, as part of the Carrot Consortium with Bureau of Silly Ideas (BOSI) & Red Herring to develop successful & sustainable fundraising models. More at this link: Catalyst

Ten performers, wearing yellow helmets, goggles & macs, kneel on each other's backs to create a pyramid

 

Strictly Cycling has had an amazing summer, touring the UK so far this year.  Stand out top of the bunch was an amazing day with the largest Strictly Cycling performance to date for the final stage of The Women’s Tour 2017 in Trafalgar Square.  More about the show Here

 

 

 

Bicycle Ballet’s Blazing Saddles has evolved & is available for touring, thanks to a commission from Wandsworth Arts Fringe 2017.  The show has been redeveloped as a smaller scale, visual narrative, which unfolds as it roves around a performance space.  More info & a short film here Blazing Saddles Touring Show

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NHS Stories – an interactive, outdoor exhibition & part of an ongoing exploration into digital storytelling & new technologies, during the Brighton Festival May 2017.  More at this link:  NHS Stories

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A black & white image of 3 young women speeding along a road on their bikes

A new Bicycle Ballet show, Blazing Saddles, was created with a group of local women & performed in a series of sites along a bicycle ride, around Dulwich Village on 17 September 2017.  The show was commissioned by Southwark Events, funded by Arts Council England & supported by Tru Thoughts.

The show is a  visually stunning, outdoor contemporary dance walk/cycle-about celebrating women & cycling & fashion; a wry look at pink, evolving cultural taboos, modern women & bikes.  Read more here Blazing Saddles

a woman holds a bike wheel shooting a sparkly, gerb firework effect

FireSpring at Cyclopark was on 26 March 2016. Conceived & developed by KP Projects, as a magical event to celebrate the turning of the seasons & changing of the clocks. The event aimed to transform Cyclopark into a garden of fiery delights with hundreds of fire pots around the BMX track, extraordinary fire sculptures & spectacular firework moments performed by dancers, BMXers & local cyclists.  Sadly Storm Katie was against us, with 74mph winds halting the show early.

5 cyclists in green, red, yellow, white & blue helmets & lit up capes, with lights on their bikes & spokes cycle around a track in an arrow formation

 

 

A very exciting, commission took place this week (2nd March), to create a short sequence for the opening ceremony of the World Track Championships at the Lee Valley VeloPark.
Close up of a bike wheel, with the tyre aflame

 

 

 

 

Exciting plans afoot for 2016

FireSpring, an event to welcome back the summer on 26 March 2016, at Cyclopark near Gravesend, Kent.  More info soon….

 

 

 

Five performers pose behind a bike with 2 bikes framing either side. Performers are dressed in yellow capes, helmets & goggles with lights underneath the campes on helmets & on the bikes

Strictly Cycling has been touring again in 2015, including an Arts Council England supported visit to the Performance International Arts Fair & showcase in Paderborn Germany.

The company also received commissioned from The Birmingham Weekender & Birmingham Hippodrome to create Strictly Night Cycling, a night-time version of the Bicycle Ballet Co’s highly successful Strictly Cycling.  The show premiered to huge audiences in Centenary Sq on 25 & 26 September.  Follow the links for more info.

Karen has been appointed Artistic Director for the development of a pilot arts programme in Spring 2016 for Cyclopark, near Gravesend Kent.  The appointment builds on the reCyculture Kent project in 2012, which was based in Cyclopark.

Exciting developments for the next few years in the pipeline – have a look at the Ideas Block & get in touch if you’d like more information.  In the meantime, have a look at what KP Projects achieved in the last few years here: KP Projects 2009-2014

Touch tour of the Everyday Hero tandems

 

Just published:  “Leaping the Barriers: a short guide to improving access for visually impaired people to events.” The guide follows the Bicycle Ballet Co’s Everyday Hero show, created with/by an integrated cast of sighted and visually impaired performers, and work with Bristol Cycling Festival in 2014.

Download here: Leaping the Barriers

Four images focussing on a small pebbleface, gradually zooming out to reveal the wider location

New in 2015, The Great Pebble Dash has been commissioned by the University of Brighton to welcome delegates to the Visual Methods Conference, September 2015.

The Great Pebble Dash is a high speed game around a town or location, to find tiny, ‘pebbleface’ artworks drawn by artist Raysto 

Players follow visual clues posted online, matching the shapes, textures and patterns in the landscape, as they are gradually revealed, to find the pebblefaces.

“Suddenly we were looking at the city in a completely new way”  PebbleDasher.

“Lots of fun.  A brilliant idea, loved it!” PebbleDasher 2

 

2015 – Strictly Cycling is touring again

Tour of Britain Bristol 2014 © Chris Bahn small

 

In 2014 Strictly Cycling was commissioned three times, by:

*  Edinburgh Cycling Festival, to develop flash mob workshops, costumes & performance opportunities for up to 20 participants

*  Belfast City Council, to create a PINK version of the show for Gira d’Italia’s Big Start

*  Bristol Cycling Festival, to create a tandem workshop for visually impaired people & front riders

The show was seen by an estimated 15,000 people in the streets, in fields, indoors, in monumental locations, in a Carnival & on the Tour of Britain finish line, rain or shine.

Performer stands on one leg, the other stretched out horizontally behind her. An audience member holds her shoulders mirroring someone next to her holding her bike by the handlebars 6 Strictly Cycling @ Fairlop Fair 2014 © Raysto Images sma Strictly Cycling takes the road © Raysto Images Cyclists stretch down the road in Bristol's CarniVelo ride, fronted by a group on tandems wearning yellow helmets, macs and goggles waving their arms in the air

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Xmas 2013/4

Shine On London Road – reCyculture
Commissioned by Brighton & Hove City Council & the London Rd Portas Pilot regeneration project.  The epic, alternative Xmas Light installation, survived tumultuous winter storms & was taken down on 12th night.

Shine On, reCyculture © Raysto Images copy Shine On London Road Brighton © Raysto Images small

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

An amazing 2013 summer season, with two new shows from The Bicycle Ballet Company created and touring this year, Everyday Hero and Strictly Cycling.

Vanity & Curiosity peer anxiously through the lift doors (two tandems held on their back wheels)

 

Everyday Hero is a unique outdoor, dance theatre show, performed by a cast of visually impaired and sighted performers.  In a surreal tale of adventure, Vanity, Fear, Happiness, Frustration, Bravery and Curiosity journey through real and imagined landscapes, battling their demons to realise the dream of a tandem ride.

 

Five performers wearing yellow macs, helmets & goggles pose in between two bikes raised on their back wheels

 

Strictly Cycling is a high impact, strolling/cycle-about performance which plays with the everyday experiences of riding a bike.

 

 

 

 

March 2013

Funding has been confirmed for the creation of a new Bicycle Ballet show – Everyday Hero; a unique outdoor dance production, performed by a company of sighted and visually impaired performers.  Exploring universal themes, the show imagines the first solo adventure of a person who has lost their sight, through an exploration of Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey.

Three silhouetted figures gaze towards the sunset. Two hold bike wheels and each wears a different hat: a cloche hat with feathers, a top hat, and a furry bear's hat

 

2012 was an incredible summer, with a national tour of the Bicycle Ballet Company’s Mass Show; an exciting R&D exploring the potential for a new, outdoor show on tandems with blind, partially sighted and sighted performers; reCyculture projects across Kent & in Roehampton & Putney in Wandsworth; and bookings for the two touring shows, ‘the dance of cycling’ and ‘The Bunny Hop’.

The Mass Show was created with local rehearsal directors and participants five locations: So Festival, Skegness; Edmonton Carnival; Hadleigh Essex; Preston Guild Launch; and Stade Saturdays, Hastings.

In the foreground a performer jumps into a crough, hair flying, and in the background performers manoeuvre their bicycles on back wheels

Two lines of three bikes cycle past each other with a sparkling sky above, from a fading special effect pyrotechnic

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The first phase of the Tandem Ballet (working title) R&D explored the potential of the project, click here to see a short film.  A second phase in November will answer a few remaining questions. We are looking for partners to develop a full scale, outdoor, touring show in 2013. Please get in touch for further details.

A front rider cycles the tandem and the partially sighted rider on the back, stands on the cross bar, holding the handlebars with one leg raised in the air The audience sit in the centre, able only to partially see the performance, whilst performers circle around them

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

reCyculture created a series of 12 installations  across Kent, reCycling disused bikes, and creating an online, virtual layer through workshops and residencies with local people.

Four green bikes leap towards the sky, from a central point, on top of a lookout at the end of Margate's Harbour Arm. QR code links to virtual layer at www.recyculture.co.uk and search 'Cycling the Seven Seas" Seven green bikes - from child's bike with stabilisers, to adult's trike - leap from a rooftop. QR code links to www.recyculture.co.uk Search for 'Seven Ages...' child's bike sits on a high wall wall, amidst strings of red and white bunting 7 green bikes leap from a fence, QR code links to www.recyculture.co.uk Search for 'Seven Deadly...' Green wheel padlocked to another bike. QR code links to www.recyculture.co.uk Search 'Stop Thief' A pile of bikes with a black cat in the foreground. QR code links to www.recyculture.co.uk Search for '20 bikes...'
Five green painted bikes, leap from the two roof levels of Putney Leisure Centre

 

 

Green Horses on Putney Leisure Centre, for Wandsworth Council, as part of MOL presents, on the route of the Olympic road race.

long distance view of three green bicycles emerging from the side of a block of flats

 

 

 

 

 

For Wandsworth Arts Festival
Green Horses on the Wall installed as part of reCyculture, around the Alton Estate in Roehampton.  Check out Chris Paradox’s spoken word response on Soundcloud. Further info here

 

 

 

 

 

Bicycle Ballet Mass Show touring the UK, summer 2012.  Further info here

29th June – So Festival, Skegness
21st July – Edmonton Carnival, London
5th August – Hadleigh, Essex
18th & 19th August – Preston Guild Wheel Launch
29th September – Hastings Stade Saturdays

the dance of cycling and The Bunny Hop continue to tour this year.  Further info here & here.

BUT, its not all about bikes!  Check out the Ideas Block for future projects.