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Clod Ensemble

Performance company in London, United Kingdom

Performance company in London, United Kingdom

Clod Ensemble is a multi-award winning performance company and registered charity based in London, UK. Founded in 1995 by director Suzy Willson and composer Paul Clark, the company creates performances, workshops and other events in the UK and internationally.

Artistic work

Each production has a unique visual identity and distinctive musical score, ranging from acoustic work to multi-speaker installations. Performances take place in theatre spaces, festivals, galleries and public spaces including Sadler's Wells, Tate Modern's Turbine Hall, Serralves Museum Porto and Public Theatre New York. Their work explores the relationship of music and movement, bodies and spaces. Performances sometimes draw on medical themes and the complex relationship we have with our bodies and the medical profession.

Selected performances include Silver Swan, featuring a choir of seven unaccompanied singers, Under Glass, where performers are contained within glass cases, from a jam jar to a test tube; An Anatomie in Four Quarters in which the audience cut a path through the auditorium of a large theatre; MUST, a collaboration with New York performance artist Peggy Shaw; and Red Ladies, in which a chorus of identically dressed women transform, celebrate and interrupt the familiar streets of a city.

They run a programme of education and participation projects in schools, higher education institutions and NHS Trusts. Their award-winning Performing Medicine project delivers courses, workshops and events which draw on techniques and ideas in the arts to provide training to medical students and healthcare professionals. Performing Medicine was cited an example of best practice in the 2017 report from the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Arts, Health and Wellbeing.

They are recipient of a Sustaining Excellence Grant from Wellcome Trust and are an Arts Council England National Portfolio Organisation.

Education and Participation projects

  • Performing Medicine - a sector leader in arts-based approaches to professional development in health and social care contexts
  • Reboot - a programme of artist development workshops composition masterclasses for GCSE and A Level Music students
  • Ear Opener - A schools programme and youtube channel for young people writing their own music, featuring exclusive interviews with leading composers.
  • Extravagant Acts for Mature People - a programme of free arts events for over 65's
  • Beginners Guide to Classical Music - workshops to introduce young people to classical music through embodiment
  • Catalyser - A creative training programme for young emerging performance makers aged 18-30 who have experienced barriers to participating in the arts.

List of Productions

Direction and Choreography by Suzy Willson. Music by Paul Clark.

TitleFirst PerformanceRevivalsNotes
*Feast During the Plague*1995, Battersea Arts Centre, London
*Musical Scenes*1995, Battersea Arts Centre, London1996, Battersea Arts Centre, London.
*Metamorphoses*1996, Battersea Arts Centre, LondonUK Tour including Oxford Playhouse.Text by Peter Oswald.
*The Overcoat*1998, Battersea Arts Centre, LondonUK TourReferenced in: *Drawing attention to the significant: exploring the functions of music in The Overcoat (1998)* by Millie Taylor
*Silver Swan*1999, Battersea Arts Centre, LondonVictoria & Albert Museum, London (2002).Based on two 17th Century songs by William Lawes and John Smith.
*Lady Grey*1999, Purcell Room, Southbank Centre, London
*It's a Small House and We Lived in it Always*1999, Purcell Room, Southbank Centre, LondonInternational Touring Double Bill *Double Agency* with *Miss Risqué*, including La Mama Experimental Theatre Club, New York (2002).A collaboration with Split Britches.
*Miss Risqué*2001, Nuffield Theatre, Lancaster UniversityInternational Touring (see above)A collaboration with Split Britches.
*For One Night Only*2002, Battersea Arts Centre, LondonA selection of short pieces including *Wrestling*, *Trapeze* and *Egg&Spoon*.
*Kiss My Echo*2002, Battersea Arts Centre, London
*Greed*2003, Battersea Arts Centre, LondonUK and international tour including Bristol Old Vic
*Red Ladies*2005, Trafalgar Square, London as part of British Architecture Week (outdoor interventions).UK and international revivals 2005 – 2024 including:Text by Peter Oswald.
*Must*2007, Wellcome Collection, LondonUK and international tour, including Public Theater, New York as part of Under the Radar FestivalWritten by Peggy Shaw & Suzy Willson. Performed by Peggy Shaw.
*Under Glass*2009, Sadler's Wells - off-site at Village Underground, LondonUK and international tour 2009 – 2019*Village* Text by Alice Oswald.
*An Anatomie in Four Quarters*2009, Sadler's Wells, LondonWales Millennium Centre, Cardiff (2013)Referenced in: *Clod Ensemble: Performing Medicine* by Suzy Willson.
*Zero*2013, Sadler's Wells, LondonUK Tour (2013)
*The Red Chair*2015, Live at LICA, LancasterEngland tour (2015)Written and performed by Sarah Cameron.
*Snow*2018, Kings Place, London as part of Noh Reimagined FestivalText by Suzy Willson & Peggy Shaw.
*Placebo*2018, The Lowry, SalfordUK Tour (2018) including The Place, LondonIncluding *My Lonely Lungs* monologue written with Peggy Shaw.
*On The High Road*2019, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Southbank Centre, LondonUK Tour (2019)Including *Madam Wu* monologue written with Peggy Shaw.
*This is My Room*2021, The Rose Lipman Building, Hackney, LondonMusical contributions by Manchester Collective and Damsel Elysium.
*The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady*2023, Shoreditch Town Hall, London as part of EFG London Jazz Festival.Barbican Centre, London (2024)Collaboration with Nu Civilisation Orchestra.

Other Productions

TitleFirst PerformanceRevivalsNotes
*Pierrot Lunaire*1998, Battersea Arts Centre, London1999, Battersea Arts Centre, LondonMusic by Arnold Schoenberg.
*Songs for the Dead*2000, Battersea Arts Centre, London2001, Battersea Arts Centre, LondonIncluding music by Purcell, Schnittke, Paul Clark, Elliot Carter and Ligeti.
*Swing Night*2006, Battersea Town Hall, London2012, Stoke Newington Town Hall as part of London Creativity and Wellbeing WeekWith Gordon Campbell Big Band

References

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References

  1. "Total Theatre Awards 2009".
  2. "ARGUS ANGEL WINNER Brighton Festival: The Red Chair, Brighton Dome Studio Theatre".
  3. Charity number 1064633
  4. "The Red Ladies of Clod Ensemble hit the streets of Oxford".
  5. "Under Glass".
  6. "Silver Swan".
  7. "Another view on An Anatomie in Four Quartets (sic)".
  8. "Butch Noir".
  9. "Clod Ensemble: Red Ladies review – dance rendezvous with Grace Kelly style".
  10. "Excellence and innovation in the arts". Times Higher Education.
  11. Willson, Suzy. "Performing Medicine". ''The Lancet'', Volume 372, Issue 9647, {{doi. 10.1016/S0140-6736(08)61574-3
  12. "The doctor will dance for you now".
  13. "All-Party Parliamentary Group on Arts, Health and Wellbeing Inquiry Report".
  14. "Grants awarded: Sustaining Excellence Awards".
  15. "The data: 2018-22".
  16. "Drawing attention to the significant: exploring the functions of music in The Overcoat".
  17. "An Inventory of Falling".
  18. "The Clod Ensemble / Split Britches, Lady Grey / It's A Small House And We Lived In It Always".
  19. "THEATER REVIEW; One-Acts Deal in Delicate Negotiations, in the Music Hall and Home".
  20. (2010). "Red Ladies: Who are they and What do they Want?". Oxford University Press.
  21. (2011). "A Menopausal Gentleman: The Solo Performances of Peggy Shaw". University of Michigan Press.
  22. (2012). "Queering the Temporality of Cancer Survivorship". Aporia.
  23. (2016). "The Pain of Specimenhood". Bloomsbury Publishing.
  24. (2020). "Clod Ensemble: Performing Medicine". Routledge.
  25. "Looking at dance through a scientific lens".
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