Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility

Kuwait Calling

Sheikh Jaber Al-Ahmed Cultural Centre

2020

Performance magic, inspired by Kuwait’s origin story

Kuwait Calling was a trailblazing collaboration between the Sheikh Jaber Al-Ahmed Cultural Centre (JACC), a cultural powerhouse in the Arabian Gulf region, and 59’s team of Tony and Olivier Award-winning creatives, featuring dancers from Rambert, one of the UK’s leading contemporary dance companies.

Curtailed by the COVID-19 pandemic, the site-specific piece, inspired by Kuwait’s origin story, reimagined the possibilities of live performance – combining dance and music with live motion-capture and architectural-scale projection mapping.

In a dramatic dialogue between the physical body and cutting-edge technology, 12 dancers from Rambert together with five Kuwaiti dancers performed this new work, uniting contemporary and traditional dance choreographed by Rambert’s Artistic Director, Benoit Swan-Pouffer. Dancers were fitted with motion-capture suits, and as the narrative progressed, the live-data captured from the suits enabled the dancers to control the animated projections in real time.

Just as the choreography embraced modernity and tradition, an original musical score created by critically-acclaimed British and Kuwaiti composers, Paul Clark, Dr. Ahmad Al Salhi and Yousif Yaseen, uniquely combined Western composition with live Arabic instrumentation including rababa, tabla, oud, violin and qunan, to an evocative, transporting effect.

Co-conceived by 59 Productions’ founder Leo Warner, JACC’s Director Faisal Khajah and Head of Creative Production Reham Alsamerai, Kuwait Calling was the first production at JACC specifically designed to be presented both regionally and internationally.  The creative team designed-in the repurposing of the show to facilitate future performances in radically diverse spaces, both indoor and out. 59 and JACC are in discussion with a number of promoters and partners from across the globe and look forward to announcing details of further presentations of this ambitious production beyond the region in the coming months.

Opened March 2020

Sheikh Jaber Al-Ahmed Cultural Centre, Kuwait City

The Design

Developing the Design Approach

Venue & Staging Design

Motion Capture

Pre-visualisation

Construction

Behind the scenes

A closer look at the making of Kuwait Calling

Production Shots

Credits

Conceived, directed and designed by
59

59 Team

Director
Leo Warner

Choreographer
Benoit Swan Pouffer

Original Music by
Paul Clark

Producer
Ollie Hester

Stage Designer
Jenny Melville

Video Designer
Max Italiaander

Lighting Designer
Matt Daw

Sound Designer
Gareth Fry

Costume Designer
Laura Hopkins

Assistant Video Designers
Felix Green
Diego Sanguino
Nick Corrigan
Nicol Scott
Dale Croft
Jamie McComb

Assistant Stage Designers
Daniel Liston
Khushali Chawda
Hannah Rozenberg
Josh Doyle
Matthew Wreglesworth
Ayanna Blair-Ford
Asha Pandit

Costume Supervisor
Megan Doyle

Stage Manager
Laura Deards

Deputy Stage Manager
Emma Frith

Animators
David Curtis
Tom Munday
Armin Kazlauskas
Jarek Radecki
Emily Howells

Production Managers
Jo Athroll
James Roxburgh

Production Electricians
Dom Cook
Adam Squire

Sound Mixer
Chris Reid

System Engineer
Max Spielbichler

Technical Associate
Iain Syme

Video Programmers
David Callanan
Jack Jewell

Design Interns
Marta Radecka
Flora Macleod
Lorna Pittaway

Technical Interns
Rhian Campbell
David Brown
Jay Meyer
Richard Wells
Graham Keith

From Rombert

Choreographer
Benoit Swan Pouffer

Producer
Julia Valentini

Rehearsal Director
Jason Kittelberger

Company Manager
Debbie Norris

Dancers
Chen Peng
Emily Gunn
Clark Griffin
Juliette Wooden
Max Cookward
Michael Kelly
Melody Tamiz
Minouche Van de Ven
Nathan Chipps
Prince Lyons
Océane Robin Torrent
Vivian Pakkanen

From Jacc

Director
Faisal Khajah

Head of Creative Production
Reham Alsamerai

Musical Director
Yousif Yaseen

Music Supervisor
Dr. Ahmad Al-Salhi