How can we raise awareness for each other through movement?

For their STORMO® performance the Italian Effetto Larsen company seeks to connect with a temporary community based in Leeuwarden. Around 25 city residents – young and old – are to participate in the performances given in the city’s beautiful Synagogue hall and to explore how people can get a better understanding of each other through movement. When does one come up against the limits of individual freedom? What does this mean for the group? When to hold on and when to set free? STORMO® (the Italian word for flock) is inspired on the technique birds use to organise their flock in flight. During Explore the North multiple performances are offered, each one determined by the spontaneous interactions between the participants and festival visitors during each particular performance. The dynamics of the moment dictate the show! You too can participate: join the group and surrender body and mind to this flight (or just come and observe, because this will allow you to become part of the group as well).

Workshop

In May this year the Effetto Larsen company visited us in Leeuwarden in a quest for a suitable location for STORMO®: ultimately their eye fell on the hall in the Synagogue. Apart from this they explored – together with 25 local residents during a workshop in the Westerkerk – how people actively listen to each other through simple, physical and direct relations. Relations which allow us to see other people beyond the boundaries of their roles, social classes, cultures, languages and nationalities.

"It allowed me to learn harmony that is neglected in our society" – a participant of STORMO®

About Effetto Larsen & STORMO®

Effetto Larsen, founded as a theatre group, is an Italian company which focuses on human relationships in its work. The group has developed a very original research process, allowing them to explore man and human relationships beyond the well-known framework of the traditional theatre perspective. Free from any kind of restrictions, they like to open up to other disciplines, places, people, relentlessly confronting the reality around them. All of their projects give participants an active role, as part of the creative process itself or as audience.

Over the last 12 years numerous performances of STORMO® were given at all kinds of locations and in various capacities, from international festivals to multinationals as well as from primary schools to scientific research: thousands of people have indeed participated in this project.