Shoes

That which we slip, zip, tie, buckle, pull onto our feet everyday.

What does the image of a shoe evoke for you?

Shoes hold the rhythm of terrestrial existence. They hold the conscious being to the earth: they bear the weight, they carry the connection, they impress the spirit of the wearer, stamping out identity, expressing everything from drudgery to dance. Their material and style tell of status. Even at rest they are poised to move: they are waiting in the wings to be filled and carried out. A metaphor for the journey.

Shoe Opera — current project

The initial idea of a Shoe Opera, an opera with shoes as protagonists, involving music, Foley, object manipulation and stop motion, came in two parts. First as a Shoe — the shoe as object expressing itself through its style and wear; and then as an Opera — a genre through which the inner life of the shoe could be emotionally felt. So what emotions can a shoe profess to hold? What can it tell of its materials, life and history?

With this concept of a Shoe Opera I have been exploring if shoes can sing of themselves just as self-reflecting protagonists in German Lieder do? Or in Opera, can shoes engage in heartfelt dialogue?

Foley — the art of making sound effects

Working with Foley artist Ruth Sullivan, we have been testing the relationship of shoes with Foley.

Foley as the voice of the shoes, or their movement, or their environment….

What we did find was that the metaphorical abstract nature of the shoe in object manipulation finds a good match in the hypernatural sound of the Foley. For a member of the audience the sounds of Foley are what bring the movements and characters of the shoes back to earth; the sound humanises the story.

Music and Objects: Opera and Puppetry

Testing the relationship of shoes as puppets to music/opera/song.

Stop-motion

Testing stopmotion of shoe lasts with music. What stories are created?

Some shoe lasts process across the stage, a little one hurries to keep up. What can they be thinking? Are they chanting Handel’s Hallelujah as they journey? Or perhaps they cry laments of sacrifice in the manner of Purcell. We enter the world of object and opera.