The Moving Book Club

Just like a great pop up book, The Moving Book Club will be popping up in the Whangarei public library throughout the Whangārei Fringe Festival, delivering short impromptu performances in the form of movement improvisation.

The Moving Book Club is a collective of local artists who publicly explore movement improvisation to create spontaneous ensemble theatre. In other words, human bodies moving through familiar spaces in the moment. The performers make their creative decisions on the spot by drawing inspiration from each other and from the environment around them. The Moving Book Club uses improvisation to discover and invent new ways of telling stories through movement. Like in a game, rules are often applied to the improvisation before the group begins. This keeps some sense of order and guides the performance. Limitations become a tool and support the performer's decision making, helping thread things together for both the performers and the audience.

The spatial and relational interactions in spontaneous ensemble theatre birth narratives and storyline’s which at times can unfold so organically that it’s almost impossible to recapture if one tried to repeat it. It is the authenticity of the exchanges between performers that makes this art form such a delight to experience.
There is a playful energy to movement improvisation that awakens the imagination and can be very freeing. Although anything can happen in this style of theatre making, it does take practice. Improvisation requires a certain amount of courage, great observation skills, intuition and considered decision making. It is the balancing act of accepting and making offers while letting go enough to allow anything to happen.

Bringing short chapters of impromptu performances to the Whangārei public library, The Moving Book Club is as much about the joy and curiosity of making together as it is about the performance that emerges.

So look out for a rag tag company of trained and untrained local artists experimenting and exploring the everyday with movement and perhaps books.