MASS SKIPPING ROPE & RHYME
I like coffee - I like tea - I want someone in with me
We’d like to invite you to join us in recalling childhood playtimes through the act of skipping. An ongoing collection of rhymes and songs has been compiled from memory, from friends, family and strangers.
Come along, jump in and decide your future…
Tom, Dick or Harry - Who will I marry?
- Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Sailor
- Rich man, Poor man, Beggar man, Thief
- Doctor, Lawyer, Indian Chief
This participatory performance invites the audience to recall childhood playtimes through the act of skipping. The rhymes we can remember are made visible, written in chalk on the pavement and surrounding brick walls in a public street for the players to follow.
The process of playing traditional childhood games together as adults encourages us to think back. Back to when we learned about taking risks, making mistakes, winning and loosing, about joy and failure. Our memories of these things may be faded, altered or embellished through the process of ‘growing up’, forgetting or concealing. We re-instate playtime as a trigger for these memories and as a tool to investigate a wider narrative.
First performed in Geffrye Street, London as part of ‘OMSK : ROAM’ (not building roam, in a day), this durational mass skipaton used recollected play rhymes and involved members of the public, and the other artists involved in the event, to give a platform to join in, to talk to strangers, to remember, to play and to tell stories.
Through the simplicity of its set up, we create a situation where our audience can share a conversation, their recollections, stories and experiences.
‘Low Profile presents: skip-recall recall-skip’
(performance) graft 05, Nottingham Riverside Festival, August 2005
(performance) ‘ROAM’, OMSK, London, July 2004