Why Are People Clapping!? is a cheeky, uplifting, short work created by NDCWales dancer Ed Myhill. Set to composer Steve Reich’s ‘Clapping Music’, this family-friendly piece uses rhythm as a driving force. The 15 minute work begins as a series of playful scenes accompanied only by live clapping, in which the dancers play a game of tennis, encounter themselves in the mirror, and compete in a pose-off. The final section brings the scenes together in a joyful sequence of clapping, stamping and jumping set to the soundtrack of ‘Clapping Music’. It’s 15 minutes of face-pulling, toe-tapping, joy which is equally entertaining for children and adults. The work can be accompanied by a short interactive workshop delivered by the dancers directly after the performance.
This dance work is for 5 dancers and is performed in a thrust stage set-up, and can be performed on grass or on mats laid on a flat hard surface (provided by NDCWales). The piece was originally conceived for small-scale indoor touring, premiered in November 2019. The work is being developed for outdoor performance and will be premiered in Summer 2021.
