Curious Seed, Scotland collaborated with ThinkArts in October 2017 to connect teenagers in Kolkata with dance practitioners to share their creative processes with them, for their new dance theatre project, “Teenage Trilogy”. The intergenerational production explores the challenging transition from childhood to adulthood, the teenager being at the cusp of the two inevitable phases of life. The work hoped to express voices and experiences from many places and people. Working with dance and movement, the workshop, led by Christine Devaney of Curious Seed, also included sessions of conversations and exchanges about what it is to be teenager in the present times and remembering past teenage times.
This experience led to a bigger partnership project between Curious Seed and ThinkArts, “Teenage Times Remix Kolkata”. This collaboration was supported by British Council Scotland, the Creative Scotland partnership as part of the British Council UK-India Year of Culture 2017. In March 2018, Christine Devaney along with Hendrik Lebon worked with 16 teenagers, 3 dancers and a visual artist to present a performance where the young participants told their own stories about depression, weight issues, unrealistic expectations from parents, stress, mood swings, peer pressure and much more, through dance and choreography. The residency and training took place over a week and the performances were staged for parents and other audiences on 29th and 30th March 2018 at the Modern Academy of Continuing Education (MACE) and the Harrington Street Arts Centre, Kolkata.