Mixing a variety of genres and artforms, 154 Collective‘s innovative Dancing with the Orange Dog stretches the boundaries of storytelling. Formed of an art exhibit, theatre performance and a music gig with The Housekeeping Society, Dancing with the Orange Dog is not your typical show; it asks you to absorb what you see and hear to reflect on the stories told in different artforms, and runs here on Friday 10 October. One of their collaborative artists, Benjamin Rabe, wanted to let us know about his experience performing in the show.
We all remember our first time, right? It’s usually not great, or smooth, or exciting, but always special. Well, mine was great, smooth, exciting and special! And that even though it was lasting just for 6 mins and 32 secs!
I am talking about my first live performance during Dancing with the Orange Dog.
Dancing with the Orange Dog: is it a play? No wait, is it a collaborative art exhibit? Hold on, it really is a big music-show, no?
You guessed right, it is all of the above. Initiated by the 154 Collective (lead by Fabric Lenny and Dan Mallaghan). I got involved early on by contributing artwork I created using different apps on my iPad. It was at this time that I took my first steps in collaborative live drawing and animation projection using an iPad based app called Tagtool. I was already happy having had the chance to contribute some artwork to the show, but when I was invited to perform live projections during the play, things got really interesting.
I remember coming into the venue in Manchester for the first time, entering the immersive space Dancing with the Orange Dog created. It was a world of its own, filled with artwork, part gallery, part living room where you could connect to elements of the play before you even knew it. That was one thing. But then what followed was a tour de force 2-person play, a thick layered stack of different stories that would magically connect in the end……
Only the end wasn’t the end, there was still my 6 mins 32 secs to come! Together with Fabric Lenny and Matthew Watkins, I got my first time as a live performer during the gig from The Housekeeping Society (part 3 of the show) – did I mention it was great, smooth, exciting and special? And it **was** great, smooth, exciting and special for one reason: only because Dancing with the Orange Dog was. A great mix, an exciting mix of different facets of the arts: poetry, play, exhibition, music and live visuals.
If you have the chance to see it: do it. It’s a first time you won’t forget.
Benjamin Rabe for 154 Collective
Benjamin is an Artist and Web Developer based in Hamburg. 154 Collective are pleased to collaborate with him on a regular basis.
Dancing with the Orange Dog runs here one night only on Friday 10 October, 7.30pm. For more information, to watch the trailer and to book, click here.
The Albany, Deptford 
Congrats!!