As director of production company 103 Falling Birds, Sam Lawrence is gaining a reputation for creating exciting new work which is enchanting and enigmatic; she aims to challenge perceptions of what is dance and explore accessible and inventive ways to engage audiences.

With a particular interest in creating performative events for more intimate and unusual spaces, 103 Falling Birds exploits the accidental and celebrates the ordinary with an inherent sense of fun. Performance work includes site specific projects, dance-theatre installation, rural touring and cross art-form collaboration.

Examples of performance projects:

Glad Rags Togs and Clobber
A highly visual and humorous dance-theatre piece in an empty shop window, incorporating mountains of clothes and a huge quantity of bras. As part of I love West Leeds Festival... in a Shop. “It stopped traffic!” Armley, Leeds 2011.

The Bramley Two go Shopping and The Bramley Two Return
Site specific dance installations creating minor havoc with physical antics in and around Bramley Shopping Centre. I Love West Leeds Festival 2009 and 2010.

Tropical Hibiscus Floating Paradise
A dance-theatre adventure with a tropical flavour cruising on the river Ouse aboard one of York’s famous party boats. As part of York’s Festival of the Rivers 2009.

Nearly New
Combining dance, live music, theatricality and humour, Nearly New took the audience on a journey through an unfathomable web of enchanting stories, long lost memories and lots of old junk. “I felt like I had dreamt the whole thing! It was beautiful and surreal” Audience member. Developed as part of the IOU Professional Development Scheme and touring village halls as part of North Yorkshire Rural Touring Scheme 2009.

Lido
A spectacular performance event in Yearsley Swimming Pool to mark the pool’s centenary, combining dance, swimming and the magnificent music of the Shepherd Group Brass Band (2008). “Imaginative, playful and humorous choreography, a bracing union of dance, swimming and brass band music.” Charles Hutchinson - The Press, November 2008. “So original and inspiring, a great site specific piece” - Audience member.

Lunch Break Island
An outdoor ‘pop up’ dance installation involving a lunch box, a minature island and a hula dance. At a variety of city centre locations including Anthony Gormley’s Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square and as part of York Rivers Festival 2008.

Improbable Picnic
An outdoor dance-theatre promenade exploring nostalgia for lost childhood, belief in magic and a world where things just don’t quite fit. “Truly stunning and audience friendly” - Audience member. Dance York and York Festival of the Rivers, 2007.

Current and Future Work:

Venus Viola’s Three Minute Muffins
A mouth-wateringly unique and playful blend of sideshow, cookery demonstration, dance-theatre and song, Venus Viola’s Three Minute Muffins meddles with incongruity, transformation and expectations of femininity.
This 30 minute show is available for festivals 2011/2012.

Le Picnic
An exciting site-specific community dance performance along York’s riverside. With a touch of vintage charm and crazy antics, Le Picnic aims to delight passers by with creative choreography, a visual feast and a sense of the unexpected. The project will involve members of the local community working with the company over a six week period culminating in a series of performances as part of York’s 2011 Festival of the Rivers.

No Grown Ups Allowed
An outdoor site specific dance-theatre piece for Bramley Park in and around the park’s play area with an infectious sense of fun and mischief, commissioned by I Love West Leeds Festival 2011.