Drum Up a Circus

How do you document research and development in the arts?

Well, with the arts, of course.

Cardiff-based NoFitState Circus invited our creative director Ian Cooke-Tapia to act as field reportage illustrator on a new R&D collaboration involving Ingoma Nshya of Rwanda, an all-women drumming group, and Circus Zambia, ‘Zambia’s first circus company.

Initially, Ian was asked to participate during the first week of research and development in the highland town of Butare, in southern Rwanda. Equipped with a sketchbook and a trained eye to capture movement, Ian created a visual journal of the developing collaboration between Circus Zambia and NoFitState jugglers and the women of Ingoma Nshya. The latter having had no experience of juggling or acrobatics, participated in a programme of development that quickly saw them become proficient jugglers.

Reportage illustration shines in capturing the energy and feeling of movement and a focus on the intimate, serendipitous moments that happen in the in-between. While most would look at the big circus shapes being developed in the middle of the stage, Ian likes to pay attention to the intimate moments between performer, object, and themselves.

This visual record would have been used to identify possible themes for the circus performance. For example, how Ian captured his experience as an audience member of a performer’s acting around a drum would have inspired a key scene in the performance. Using Ian’s feeling, and the particular visualisation, the sketches produced on site acted as a rough storyboard of a possible performance.

However, it was early 2020. We were all meant to return to Rwanda later in the year to document the first live performance to take place in Kigali. Covid stopped it.

Digital Collaboration across Borders

With the possibility of further in-person development on indefinite hiatus, all partners were forced into an international, digital collaboration between Cardiff, Huye and Lusaka.

We were all equally trusted into a digital-first world; in a world where equality of access isn’t a thing. Weak mobile reception, crackling audio, a storm making internet access spotty both in Rwanda and Wales, ensured that we were painfully aware of the digital poverty on show in all three geographies. Ian remained on the project to support in communication of ideas where internet failures and cultural and language barriers existed. After a short period of independent development amongst the artists and performers, it was decided that the final output of the project would be an international film. Ian then work as storyboard artist to support communication between the artistic directors and the film crew on location both in Butare and Lusaka.

Making a collaborative film over Zoom

The team first approached the project as a traditional film. Developing a rough script which would then be storyboarded by Ian before being filmed on site. That line of thinking soon gave way to a more organic approach: each performer would instead come up with their own ideas, which they would film on their mobile phones, and then present back to the group to be reviewed over Zoom and email at weekly meetings. Often new ideas would appear during these meetings, which Ian was directed to sketch or reimagine for further exploration.

In the end, Ian’s involvement became less about creating a finished illustration - even though he really wanted to - but about an illustrator’s ability to identify the core concepts and ideas that needed to be communicated, visually, across cultures and languages. An ability to adapt one’s skills to a changing challenge, and a focus on core artistic skills rather than finished outputs allowed Cooked Illustrations to participate on this project for the whole duration. In that way, we were a small part of a bigger team that came together through adversity to create something wonderful.

https://youtu.be/GjysvxdYK8k

This collaboration led to a performance of Ingoma Nyshya in the centre of Cardiff during Clifton Street Festival as part of their 2022 tour of the UK, bringing powerful and transgressive drumming to one of Wales’ most diverse and economically challenged communities.

https://www.nofitstate.org/projects/clifton-street-festival/

As of 2024, the Drum Up a Circus project contributed to the development of Bamboo, https://www.nofitstate.org/projects/bamboo-circus/

a NoFtiState production using only human bodies and bamboo. The show has been touring festivals in the United Kingdom and France, and is part of the Square Mile Partnership, bringing free circus and artistic opportunities to the communities of Splott, Adamsdown and Tremorfa in Cardiff. The show will also tour Zambia through an ongoing collaboration with Circus Zambia.

https://www.nofitstate.org/community/square-mile-summer-programme-and-parc-fest-2024-bamboo/