Document:Q10278

Inspired by Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake, Flock is a large-scale interactive public installation originally commissioned by the ICA with the support of the Royal Opera House that premiered in Trafalgar Square in February 2007. Later in 2007 Flock toured throughout the South West of England, and was performed in 2008 in Liverpool as part of the ‘08 Liverpool European City of Culture Celebrations.
Flock created a “pedestrian Swan Lake” in the heart of the city where members of the public became performers and embarked on a journey where fantasy and reality merged.
Each classical ballet features a ‘white act’ in which the hero usually comes into a realm where fantasy and reality merge. In Swan Lake a Prince encounters an enchanted band of Princesses - swans by day, women by night. Combining the romance and emotion of fairy tale with the classical groupings and lines of precisely drilled dances, this corps de ballet showcase seems the archetypal image of ballet to many people. As a dancer, the experience of working as part of such a large group to such bombastic music (usually Tchaikovsky’s finest) is also incredibly powerful. Flock re-imagines this experience altogether with audience members becoming the dancers, the corps de ballet, themselves.