Introducing our new Made By Katie Green intern for 2013!

My name is Kate Thomas and I’m the 2013 intern with Made By Katie Green. This opportunity arose from Katie working in partnership with Enterprise@Lincoln, a centre working alongside the University of Lincoln, to support and give opportunities to recent graduates. I was lucky enough to be hired for the next three months to work alongside Katie and her company during the Dancing in Museums project.

Throughout my time at university studying dance, I became interested in learning more about production and administration within the arts. This internship will be an invaluable chance for me to experience and learn how a professional company creates, produces and shares its work. 

Our first week of rehearsals at the Terry O’Toole Theatre in North Hykeham was full of experimentation and research. Each day started with an open company class, which gave a chance for us to meet and dance with local people, as well as warming up for the day.   

Dancing in Museums is a project designed for an audience of children aged 7-11 and their families, based around objects and people you might find in a museum space. During the week Katie and the dancers have developed the research gathered from the R&D, as well as introducing and discovering new ideas. The main areas of practical work have included:  

• Character development including movement, voice and words
• Character interaction
• Introduction of props
• Interaction with clothing as well as making creatures from the clothing
• Creating own moving fossils inspired by Burgess Shale
• Improvisation developed from key character words        
• Discussion and movement inspired by evolution, including studying differences between Neanderthals and modern humans – adaptation and posture
• Introducing and playing with text and movement together
• Working with rules within a museum and trying to fragment and distort them

As rehearsals continue next week I’ll be contributing my own research into the Ice Age, the evolution of Man and different mechanical objects and discoveries for example. I can already tell I’m going to learn a lot throughout my time working on this project and I can’t wait!      

One of Kate's photos of the rehearsals in progress

Follow Kate on Twitter @whiteblondehair to keep up with what's happening in rehearsals.