OPEN ONLINE THEATRE FESTIVAL Announces New Performance and Panel Discussions

IJAD Dance Company launches its 2021 live-streamed Open Online Theatre (OOT) Festival featuring new pieces by performing artists making work specifically for live-streaming using up to four cameras. As part of IJAD Dance Company's Open Online Theatre (OOT) programme, Clemence Debaig, Daisy Harrison, Lauren Tucker, Reem Naamani and O. Pen Be present performances reflecting their experiences of 2020 in 4 regions of the UK and also Lebanon. Through December and January, they will be developing their work via online co-creation sessions on the Open Online Theatre platform. The Festival is also hosting four Connective Matrix panel discussions featuring artists, technologists and researchers at the cutting edge of performing arts and the digital. Audiences can ask questions via live chat and together imagine the best and most exciting future possibilities. Open Online Theatre Festival is on Monday 1 to Saturday 6 February 2021 and tickets for individual performances, talks, or for the whole festival can be purchased here: https://openonlinetheatre.org/whats-on/

Exploring the intersection of science, movement and technology, and collaborating with specialists and communities to create work for all, Open Online Theatre (OOT) enables artists to reach audiences that they otherwise wouldn't, including curators and programmers, because of venue capacity, accessibility or geography. Open Online Theatre's was created to ensure that our creativity, physicality and artistry, coupled with the use of technology, continues to evolve. Its principal aim is to future-proof the arts sector as a driving force for forward- thinking artists to explore new performing possibilities and new ways to connect with audiences across the world. OOT allows IJAD and other arts companies and organisations to develop a new and dynamic relationship with their online audiences, supporting the continued development of the performing arts infrastructure.

Joumana Mourad, founder of IJAD & Open Online Theatre, said: When we talk about technology, we don't often think of creativity and play, new performing experiences, connectivity and its many possibilities. Instead we move into the realm of business and scientific exploration. But creativity opens us up to new possibilities; it allows us to explore the world around us in a different way. To develop new technology that will help us create the best performing arts experiences, we need to remember the way we played as children, experimenting with wonder and curiosity. If we are going to succeed in creating engaging performances for this new digital realm, we need to combine new strategies: creativity, the correct tech, time for R&D, and audiences. Bringing these components together is the challenge, but it's part of the same journey of possibility. Coupled with digital expertise, Sensography allows artists to create explicitly for live-streamed performances, varying from one to a multitude of cameras that give our online audiences a better viewing experience.

Open Online Theatre programme provides entrepreneurial guidance to artists including how to grow and promote their practice through commissions, workshops, performances, installations, and research into tech products, to create better viewing experiences. The OOT training includes Sensography, a 360° live-streaming choreography and dramaturgy technique pioneered by IJAD director Joumana Mourad, as well as social media engagement and entrepreneurship. After an expected, but sudden rush to use digital platforms earlier in the year, it became clear that this area was, and still is, seriously underdeveloped. Open Online Theatre has been operating as a live-streaming and co-creation platform, and offering artist development since 2017, with the aim of support performing artists to enjoy long and sustainable careers.

Founder and Artistic Director of dance company IJAD and performance training platform Open Online Theatre, Joumana Mourad is a choreographer and sensographer with over 20 years' experience in dance and performance across the world.

Joumana researched with Astrophysicist Professor Andrew Newsam, and Neuroscientist Professor Ian Loram for the development of Sensography. She embraces digital technologies in dance, creating performances presented on three different yet interlinked stages (physical, digital-stream and digital-social) to create meaningful worldwide conversations, before, during and after a performance. From working with 45 performers in Taiwan to engaging audiences across four continents with their live-streamed performances across Open Online theatre, IJAD embraces unconventional spaces and new formats.

'Mourad has since gone on to be one of the most intriguing figures on the British dance scene, challenges the very nature of what you think a dance performance will look like.' Keith Watson, Metro

Open Online Theatre Festival 2021 is possible thanks to an emergency grant from Arts Council England which enabled the company to begin training and enabling artists to create and develop new performance works using technology.

Tickets: http://openonlinetheatre.org/season/2021-2/

*All ticket sales help us pay the performers, mentors, and creative teams fairly. In addition, your generous donation can help us keep on supporting our creative community by allowing us to carry out our training programme, maintain our online platform, extending our research into new ways of working online and, most importantly, pay everyone working with us a fair fee for their time and commitment. If you would like to add a donation, please follow this link openonlinetheatre.org/donate/

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