The world premiere dance-theater event will take place each Saturday in October at iconic locations and hidden gems.
Found Movement Group, Nashville's leading site-specific dance company, premieres Lost Nashville, a new original work developed in response to prominent sites around the city. Performances will be held each Saturday in October beginning at 6PM.
Assembling the collective's talented community of dancers, musicians, performers, and other artists, theatrical scenes will be staged in memorable locations such as music clubs, art galleries, boutique hotels, and outdoors parks. The production, presented in partnership with Kindling Arts Festival, aims to create an exciting "elevated scavenger hunt" experience for audience members during a time when traditional indoor performances present public health concerns due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Featuring new choreography devised with the performers in the dance collective and special guests, Lost Nashville is part "choose-your-own adventure," part performance art crawl, and uniquely Nashville through and through. Discovering 4-6 local sites before the finale, the experiential event hopes to expose the rich, unseen, and sometimes forgotten pieces of the city, and encourages continued support of local businesses.
Audiences can now purchase tickets for a minimum donation of $10 per person via Eventbrite. As part of the purchasing process, FMG will request social media and cell phone numbers for each attendee for communication and virtual clues. Ticket holders will be invited to a launch location where their experience will begin. After checking in, participants will receive text messages detailing instructions for the evening and providing a series of clues and riddles for the audience to solve. Each clue the audiences unravels will guide them to a different nook in the city, and participants will gather evidence as each location as proof that they cracked the code.
Performances of Lost Nashville will comply with safety precautions in light of the Covid-19 pandemic. Audience members will be required to sign a release form upon arrival and must agree to wear a mask at all times, unless they are consuming food or drink at a location. Social distancing at each location is also required. The performers will all be wearing masks and will not have physical contact with each other or the audience. Transportation will be required between sites. Guests are encouraged to use ride-sharing services, and FMG has secured an arrangement with Lyft to provide discounted rides for audience members.
"In these times, we have to reinvent ourselves," says FMG's Executive Director Stacie Flood-Popp. "As performing artists, we create fleeting moments that are gone in an instant and never again replicated. How can we still offer these moments to our community in a raw, bare bones fashion while ensuring a safe environment? With the idea of being 'lost,' we challenge our community to mirror the current emotional atmosphere by leaning back into time, seeking what might have been overlooked, and always with the goal in mind to move past despair to empower our neighbors."
Kindling's Producing Artistic Director Daniel Jones echoes Flood-Popp's excitement for the project, saying, "Found Movement Group has been innovating thrilling new ways to experience dance in Nashville for years, and it's particularly encouraging to see this new creation in the middle of such a difficult year. Lost Nashville offers us a unique chance to safely access live performance while participating in a meaningful exploration of our beloved city."
Guests will be asked to arrive at 5:45pm, and the experience is expected to end around 8pm each night. Performances will take place rain or shine, unless there is a threat of particularly severe weather.
For more information, visit foundmovementgroup.com or kindlingarts.com
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