The Swings

Come and enter our world and playground of The Swings. We love being on a swing and we know you do too!

Part performance and part installation, The Swings is both an aerial dance duet and an open invitation for the public to swing high and free. It all takes place on our magnificent, larger than life, five metre high swing set.

A giant swing set, 5 m high and 2 swings. 2 aerial artists use the Swings as their aerial apparatus to fly high and appear throughout the day. They appear and disappear opening the Swings up for anyone to come and join in, to sit and swing.

Whilst you are on the swing a sound installation plays full of memories, thoughts and feelings of being on a Swing. Feel the rush of air past your face, the rise and fall and the joy of swinging that we love too.

Play, watch and listen. An interactive event for all the family that has toured to 43 venues across the UK in 2021-23 and will be out touring again in 2024. In 2023 we visited the venues below including our first international visit to Canada

8th & 9th July Theatr Clywd, Wales Family Arts Festival

22nd & 23rd July Journeys Festival International, Leicester

5th & 6th August Kensington & Chelsea Festival, London

12th August Topsy Turvy, Theatre Porto, Ellesmere Port, Cheshire

26th & 27th August Birmingham Weekender, central Birmingham

23rd – 25th September & 30th September – 1st October at Toronto International Festival of Authors, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Read our 4* review from Kelly Apter of the Scotsman

The Swings was co-directed by Jennifer Paterson & Nic Green, sound design by Yas Clarke, design by Becky Minto.

Performed by: Chrissie Ardill, Suzanne Bee, Claire Crook, Beverley Grant, Amy Longmuir, Danuta Ramos, Grace Turner, Adam Wright & Saya Yamaguchi

★ ★ ★ ★

“Jaw-dropping fun for kids and allows grown-ups to revisit their childhoods”

Kelly Apter, The Scotsman

2021/2022 Venues We Visited

“It was a fantastic event! The kids and adults loved it!”

Hayley, audience member, Catstrand

Sound Installation

Whilst making this piece we asked our friends, family, neighbours and colleagues about what being on a swing meant to them. Ideas of freedom, leisure, togetherness and shared space resonated strongly with the circumstances we have found ourselves in of late.

Fragments of these conversations can be heard in the installation, and transcripts can be found in full here as part of The Swings Programme.