Spotlight on Untellable Movement Theatre's Interactive Movement Map

Visitors to the St. John's Downtown Pedestrian Mall will notice a whimsical and welcoming new addition to the space in front of Atlantic Place at 215 Water Street. It’s one that inspires and encourages movement of all kinds, regardless of experience, age or ability, and that will bring the community together in a colourful and creative new way.

The interactive Movement Map is a public art project from Untellable Movement Theatre (a non-profit that’s focused on embodied storytelling in unconventional spaces and making dance accessible to all), in partnership with the City of St. John’s. Inspired by games like hopscotch and "Snakes and Ladders,” the Movement Map consists of colourful shapes and words on pavement created with chalk pastels that invites the public to explore different modes of movement.

Some of Duncan Major's early sketches of the Movement Map.

The project encourages freedom of expression, inviting members of the public to embrace their own creativity and imaginations as they navigate, interpret and dance along the map in different ways. Several people can use the map at once, and it’s family-friendly and accessible to all. (For those who are blind or experience low vision, an audio description of the map is available by visiting https://www.untellable.ca/.)

“The whole thing is just to make dance a little bit more accessible,” says Lynn Panting, Untellable’s Artistic Director and Producer (who is also Business & Art NL’s Program Coordinator).

“The idea is to get people thinking about dance in a different way...it’s an opportunity to engage in play, really, in a way that you might not have thought about. Dance doesn't have to be on a stage.”

The Movement Map begins to take shape.

The project is a collaboration between Panting and Duncan Major, graphic designer, animator and letterpress printer (who also operates the printshop Walpurgis Press). They also worked with accessibility consultant Kim White.

Panting says they are also hiring some movement artists from different backgrounds to do their own interpretation of the map, "just basically encouraging people to choose their own adventure,” she adds.

“It's really nostalgic bringing back all those sidewalk games that you played as a kid, but just kind of levelling it up.”

Duncan makes some additional refinements.

The map was installed on August 13 and, depending on weather conditions, should last between two to five weeks. Working with Major, Panting says, and getting a view into how a visual artist translates dance was also an interesting part of the project.

Prior to designing the map, Major says, Panting provided a written choreographic score, a theme song (Maggie Rogers’ “Alaska") and a range of inspirations upon which to draw, including Laban technique (a method for describing and interpreting movement), Alice in Wonderland and a 1705 celestial chart.

"Drawn immediately to the idea of a Movement Map, I was reminded of one of the things my kids like me to draw—chalk lines that weave around our driveway. They love to follow the improvised lines of curves, corners, and shapes,” he says.

"Using the inspirations provided to me, a few pencil sketching sessions soon revealed what looked like an ecosystem filled with shapes and paths to inspire motion. A few drafts later and I worked out a composition that would allow people to enter from either end and choose different paths as they navigated the map. When designing the map, I was imagining what might be fun for people to interact with, and drawing from the choreographic score which included words like slow, pause, free, flow, direct, zig zag, etc."

After sharing his sketches with Panting and White, Major says, "we decided to include text to help people get an understanding of what they were looking at and what they were meant to do. At this point I moved the drawing process into Procreate on an iPad and started adding colours, keeping in mind the palette of chalk pastels that would be provided to me.”

The Movement Map is created in such a way that allows people to enter from either end and choose different paths, encouraging them to embrace their own creativity.

This project, Major adds, also provided him with some fresh insights and a chance to learn new things.

"I’m grateful to be working with Untellable Movement Theatre on this public project that blends art forms,” he says.

"I hope it is as enjoyable to experience as it was to create.”

Have you tried the Movement Map? Have any thoughts or suggestions you’d like to share? Reach out to Untellable Movement Theatre on social media @untellablemovementtheatre, or drop them a line: untellablemovementtheatre@gmail.com