Photo  Arnolfini event 2023

“Premiered in 2020 All Terrain Training is an ongoing project series by Will Pegna firstly starting in collaboration with sonic artist Shirley Pegna.”

ATT has developed from its first performance in 2020 in London. I will allow Will Pegna, director and creator, to describe various of the works in this post as he illustrates the differences well.  In choosing not to set the work on a conventional stage, Will has allowed the work to respond to the different settings and collaborations encouraging ideas to develop and create new and different iterations in the process. Described here are some of the first six events of this emerging body of work. Instead of being a single show with the name All Terrain Training,  All Terrain Training or ATT,            has become an umbrella company for further creative initiatives, ideas and artists. Here below are the performances I have been part of with descriptions. 

Will Pegna writes:

“Currently taking form as a performative exhibition, ATT presents a situation that allows audiences to plug in to a deeply concentrated, non-competitive, physical simulation. Viewers share the space with 7-9 dancers tasked with maintaining engaged contact for 2-3 hours. A shift-taking movement structure that creates a durational tension, inspired from and accompanied by collected sounds of Arctic glacier’s and tectonic tremors.

Midway between dance and sport, ATT offers a new perspective on performance norms, group objective and athletic identity. Vocal signals between dancers, bespoke sportswear and rumbling sub-level vibrations all help to build the world of All Terrain Training, ultimately offering a space to connect to each-other and our active planet.”

ATT at Honeymoon Gallery Peckham London 2020

I will comment about this first gig in Honeymoon gallery in Peckham, where the audience instead of choosing to enter or exit during the two hours of performance, the space filed up and up. The performers moved needed to move round them and between them. Sound and people filled the space, and the start of the journey was a success.

ATT at Honeymoon Gallery Peckham London 2020

Stadium – Lee Valley Velodrome, London

Will Pegna writes:

“Lock down put a stop to touring for a while, although Will and his London team were able to access the Velodrome to make a short film. Stadium depicts a scene from project series “All Terrain Training” where six dancers are searching to find a point of balance. Embodying sounds of glacial shifts and tectonic tremors dancers explore physical positions whilst maintaining tension.

Drawing influence from endurance training and combat activities, ATT ‘s visual and conceptual language combines dance and sport. Filmed at the Lee Valley Velodrome, Elizabeth Park ’Stadium’ exists at a time when dance within this context is being introduced globally, with the inclusion of Breakin’ as a sport in the function of place, housing intuitive movement compositions at a stadium built for competitive speed.”

Here is a short exert.

Watch here: https://vimeo.com/1070763920    🎧

ATT at Milan’s Fashion Week 2022

For the Milan Fashion week Vibram commissioned ATT to bring the show for the opening night.

http://www.vibram.com . This company make the specialised climbing and floor gripping footwear worn here by the dancers.  Vibram Innovation Lab were interested in how the dancers would use their footwear. The performance was set in the studio where the shoes were on display and where the sound was side by side with the evenings late night DJ set up.

Photos Teo Giovanni Poggi

Here is the company being filmed in the welcome warm Italian sunlight. And the company – some dancers from the UK and some from Milan, with the UK filming crew.  The performance was set in the studio where the shoes were on display so another different space to navigate.

Scout – at the Windmill Gallery, Seoul

Scout – at the Windmill Gallery, Seoul

Will Pegna writes:

“Specific to Windmill’s underground gallery space ‘Scout’ is a new iteration of ATT that encourages people to think about how the earth is always in motion. From earthquakes and glaciers to its orbital rotation there is a constant activity going on below our day-to-day conception. Viewers are given flashlights upon entry to the exhibition space, mirroring the pursuit taken by sound artists Shirley Pegna to uncover the sounds of the earth’s continuous, sublevel activity. The flashlights are used to find and illuminate dancers in collision within the dark gallery space.”

Photos Jinyoung Lee

The dancers in Seoul came exclusively from the city and brought in an inquisitive audience ready to play and explore through the dark corridors with their torches to find the dancers. Once again, the piece had been adjusted reacting to the performance space to convey experience and pose questions.

It was cold in South Korea!

BLO-ATT – Collective Ending – London 2022

Will Pegna writes:

“Running thought July 2022 ATT collaborated with London based arts group BLOAT collective. Located at Collective Ending HQ the duo show compromised of sound and video installation, synchronising both party’s practices exploring non-competitive game play and group objective in response to natural landscape.

For the closing event, BLOAT reconfigured the exhibition space to present a live new work consisting of ATT’s dancers in contact training whilst BLOAT recorded and live streamed their own video work onto the green floor in real time.”

Photo Bloat Collective

The gallery looked like this but became transformed when filled with dancers and the streamed green screen video by BLOAT

Arnolfini performance – Bristol 2023

Photo – Arnolfini Bristol

At the Arnolfini Bristol, the performance space was the vestibule and main hallway entrance. This provided another ‘landscape’ for the dancers to navigate involving different floor levels, the staircase, doors, pillars as well as the public. Thanks to Phil Owen for making possible the radical staging. Many friends, dancers and colleagues were present at the workshop and performance given that at least half the dancers grew up in Bristol with Will and shared with him either school, dance or breakdance training and competition experiences.

WATCH THIS SPACE

https://www.pgna.studio/all-terrain-training

@all_terrain_training

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