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We are searching for a publisher with an exemplary record in nonfiction to assist in publishing a book that integrates creative memoirs with academic insight. The book will detail the journey of two Black British creatives and academics as they compose their inaugural play. Focused on the decolonisation of theatre-making, it will delve into the methodologies involved in generating ideas, fostering collaborative development, and engaging with the community.

INCEPTION

2010 - 2020

Win(d)ing Orchestra was seeded in 2010 at Ovalhouse Theatre. Yassmin V. Foster produced I Am an Artist for the 33% London festival, where Linton Clarke and three other artists presented their solo choreographic work. Clarke’s piece was a subversion of traditional masculinity.  He explored whining but chose not to include this in the final work, noting that the conflation of the two ideas could undermine the integrity of the technique. The lingering question was: How can we create a piece where the pelvis acts like the instruments in an orchestra? This concept was named "Whining Orchestra" and archived for future discussion.

 

In 2020, Foster led Clarke and a team of creatives for the BBC Dance Passion documentary "Laying the Ground." The project's success provided momentum for revisiting Clarke’s concept from 2010. The co-creators decided that the soundtrack for the work would be Dancehall music, which provided the opportunity to highlight Jamaican culture, paying homage to their Jamaican heritage. Initially, there was a debate over the spelling of the project name because Jamaican Patois is historically a spoken language that constantly evolves, leading to no consensus on the spelling of 'whining', 'winding', or 'wining'. Clarke and Foster acknowledged this using the letter "d" in parentheses, resulting in Win(d)ing Orchestra. 


Foster’s memory of Clarke’s idea was that he wanted to see a whole production in which the batty can “boop boop boom, du du dum du du dum!” In ongoing discussion, the Co-creators established that the work would be formatted as a play, taking advantage of the music and dynamic storytelling, which are empirical to Jamaican culture.

Big Thanks!

University of East London (UEL) logo
Clarke Vision logo
Black Dance Research Company logo
Middlesex University (MDX) logo

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