Described as “spell-binding” Brown Hare used dance, music and text to fuse together the ecology and mythology of an intriguing and rarely seen animal, the hare. Time stood still as young artists led a captive audience on a journey, beginning in a rowan copse on the edge of a Dartmoor hillside.
The Brown Hare project was supported by the Dartmoor Sustainable Development Fund and Teignbridge District Council. Using their environment as both inspiration and backdrop, six young artists collaborated to produce an experimental dance-drama performance, mentored by three professional artists (a choreographer, a musician and a playwright), with input from a cultural historian.
The performance explored the connections between the hare, the moon and the feminine and examined the symbol of the three hares, a mystery that is still puzzling experts today. Other themes included the ecological decline of the brown hare on Dartmoor, as well as mythology from China and Africa.
“I have rarely been moved emotionally in that way” audience member Julia Oliver commented. “I could feel myself welling up. The way that the weather and environment combined with the dance, the music and the spoken word was unworldly; it was that unworldly-ness that accessed a spiritual dimension in me.”