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Thanks for dropping by.  The website is a work in progress featuring work and projects produced by KP Projects / Karen Poley.  Please explore and drop back again soon.

A pyramid of performers costumed in yellow helmets, cycling capes & goggles, backlit by the sun

 

2014 has got off to a fantastic start with a short Strictly Cycling tour of the Tour de France around the UK.  A participatory strand has been commissioned by Edinburgh Cycling Festival, with 20 new costumes, and we’ve also explored incorporating visually impaired participants and tandems into the mix, working with Bristol Cycle Festival.

 

 

 

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.