Sap Dance and Louise Ann Wilson Company

Jack Scout

Jack Scout was a walking performance specific to Jack Scout, an intimate location in Silverdale, Lancashire, of bewitching beauty and extraordinary aesthetic, cultural and scientific value overlooking the vast sands and tides of Morecambe Bay.

The project was conceived and directed by Nigel Stewart and Louise Ann Wilson, and was performed twice a day over ten days between 17 and 26 September 2010.  Audiences of 17 at a time were led by two guides through the heath, along the shore line and over the beach as live music, dance, voice and art evoked its land, sands, skies and sea.  Woven into these impressions was the story of the Matchless, a pleasure boat that was shipwrecked in 1895 with the loss of 34 lives.

The work arose from four 'Dialogues' that the creative team had with the place and people with different knowledges of that place: an 'Underworld Dialogue' with National Trust wardens and plant ecologists about the site’s unique flora and fauna; an 'Overworld Dialogue' with RSPB educators and ornithologists about the behaviour of indigenous species of birds, butterflies and bats on the heath and migratory birds on the beach; an 'Innerworld Dialogue' with children at a nearby school for urban children with special needs; and a 'Waterworld Dialogue' with cross-bay guides and fishermen concerning fishing traditions and the Bay's infamous tides, shipwrecks and drownings.  Through these dialogues the creative team used experimental cartography, writing, improvisation and notation, drawing, and photography to register and distil their own experience of the place and to evolve material that was transformed into the final performance.

Altogether the project aimed to evolve new ways of perceiving the natural world, of increasing human wellbeing, of exploring environmental values, of advancing the rural arts and creating new audiences.

'Part walking tour, nature ramble, geography field trip, dance theatre, music performance, art installation and dramatic story telling, [Jack Scout] created a visually-stunning and emotionally-charged experience that will have left images seared on the minds of those fortunate enough to have been there' (David Upton, Lancaster Guardian).

Our Funders

With Support of:

Jack Scout was delivered in collaboration with a host of partners who offered advice and/or support-in-kind, including: Dukes Theatre Lancaster, Gibraltar Farm Caravan and Camping Silverdale, Grand Theatre Lancaster, Kayes Nursery Gardens and Tea Rooms Silverdale, Lancashire County Council Environment Directorate, Lancaster Institute for the Contemporary Arts, Maritime Museum Lancaster, More Music Morecambe, Morecambe Bay Partnership, The National Trust, Ridgway Park School Silverdale, Royal Exchange Manchester, RSPB Leighton Moss, Silverdale Parish Council, and Visitors Information Centre Lancaster.

Special thanks to:

Lancaster Institute for the Contemporary Arts LICA, The LICA Building, Lancaster University, Lancaster LA1 4YW, UK
Tel: +44 (0) 1524 510807 Fax: +44 (0) 1524 594900 lica@lancaster.ac.uk