Angela Praed Dance Production

City scape rooftop installation for twenty dancers.

Commissioned by Hall for Cornwall and Feast, Five Songs On The Rooftops subtly animated the skyline of the town of Truro in Cornwall. 20 individual dancers are placed high-above and perilously close to the edge on roofs across the city, executing a choreographed series of movement gestures in a six-hour continuous loop.   

Angela Praed created Five Songs On The Rooftops through a long process of working with late-stage Alzheimer patients. Drawing from material observed and developed in these most intimate encounters, Five Songs On The Rooftops positions moments of intense private and personal significance boldly into the public domain. On a grand scale, yet far from spectacle, it daringly combines the personal with the public, the dignity of the individual with public display. It challenges our notions of spectacle, and delves into questions of ethics of choreography in the public realm.

Five Songs On The Rooftops runs continuously for six hours and is encountered as a free public installation. It can be recreated and adapted for different towns and locations.

Five Songs On The Rooftops was supported by Hall for Cornwall, Arts Council England, Feast, The Works, Events Cornwall, Arts for Health, Totally Truro and Asset Technical Rescue.