Choreographer Thomas Small will team up with a group of young Dundee dancers this weekend to bring a witchcraft trial to life.
The artistic director of dance company Smallpetitklein is working with Dundee Dance Partnership to create dance and movement for the piece The Confession of Isobel Goudie.
Thomas is looking for around 30 children to explore the 1662 case of the young housewife tried for witchcraft.
“It’s quite an ambitious project,” he said. “We are looking for boys and girls, regardless of whether they have danced before.
“We will be exploring who Isobel Gourdie was, and the confessions drawn out of her about being a witch, through movement set to a piece of music by James MacMillan with an 80-piece orchestra from Edinburgh University.”
Children of P7 age up to S2s from across Dundee will attend the Space on Sunday for a dance workshop from 3pm-5.15pm for the project.
The Confessions of Isobel Goudie will also get children creating puppets and sculptures to make the final show on March 23 a visual spectacle.
“We are trying to use the Caird Hall in a different way,” Thomas said.
“Dundee audiences are used to watching action on the stage but we are hoping to take out the seats and have the action on the floor and the orchestra on the stage.
“We are going to have animation, projections and puppets built on the scale of a Chinese dragon.
“We are creating sculptures to sit among audience members.”
The project signals the start of a very busy year for Thomas and Smallpetitklein.
On Saturday night, the company is taking part in Breakin’ Rules at Dundee Rep.
Smallpetitklein executive producer Emma Beatt said: “The piece we’re performing is Hippity Poppity Boo. It’s a mix of break dance and hiphop, which is different for us because normally we do contemporary dance but Thomas is trying to do more street dance.”
The company is also rehearsing for a run in New York next month with its performance Within This Dust, based on 9/11.
Emma said: “It’s based on 9/11 and it was inspired by the photographs by Richard Drew that capture a man falling from the World Trade Centre during the attacks.
“We took it over to New York in April 2011 and they’ve asked us to go back with the full programme. In June we’re going with the same piece to Brazil to perform in Sao Paulo, Soro Caba and Santos.”
Emma added: “We are also going on tour this spring all over Scotland and the UK and we’re performing at the Gardyn Theatre on March 19.”