MADDOGZ

Sri Lanka and Brno
 

Over the course of 6 weeks in Sri Lanka Lewis Sherlock took what he knew about street theatre, outdoor performance and interaction and applied it to a daily route - a performance ritual. What began as an experiment became an everyday, compulsive dance. Only changing his costume and starting time, Lewis built up an audience and engaged a community.

 

In his ritual Lewis was able to engage with local and visiting Sri Lankans around Hikkaduwa station with a choreography based upon the invisible boundary that belonged to the sea, delineated post tsunami, that was being encroached on by manmade structures and tourism. Away from the tourist trail Lewis was able to interact on deeper level with viewers often skipping class, social and language barriers in process.

 

After 3 weeks, and armed with a camera, a purpose became apparent and documentation was developed, finally Lewis approached his daily viewers to engage in spoken conversation. The footage makes up the short film MADDOGZ.