In a project with collaboration and experimentation as its motivating force, artists working in different companies and fields (including Hilary Westlake, Claire van Kampen, Jane Wells, David Fielding, Tim Hopkins, Caroline Gawn, Aldona Cunningham, Lucy Bailey), came together to take part in a four-week workshop under the auspices of Second Stride and overseen by Ian Spink. Such an initiative is wholly relevant and welcome, giving artists the opportunity to experiment with ideas and form without the pressure of creating a ‘successful’ piece of tourable performance. Although only a fraction of the work was presented, what seemed to have resulted were experiments which attempted to bring together and play off text, movement, and music in an interactive form/structure.

Laying beneath the project, however, I couldn't help but detect an element of frustration from the practitioners involved. It appeared that so much material had been generated (some 70 pieces), with so many people experimenting with so many ideas, that not one project had been taken to its full potential. Although the project wasn't about presenting finished pieces of work, I couldn't help but feel perhaps more risks could have been taken had the artists been able to concentrate on one or two pieces only. Such a project seems so vital to forward experimentation that perhaps it would seem beneficial to allow the opportunity to follow through more concentrated experiments within the Second Stride framework.