Sardoville Presents 'For Only An Hour', A One-Man Romp Through Childhood Dreams, Pop Culture And Queer Art

Sardoville, a repertoire-esque theatre company fusing dance, design, art and word to tell stories that are moving and entertaining, was founded by Azzura Ardovini, Phil Sanger and Josh Wille, all former performers with Phoenix Dance Theatre, and presents For Only An Hour at Blue Elephant Theatre in London on Friday 16 and Saturday 17 November, and Trinity Community Arts in Bristol on Saturday 24 November as part of IGNiTE.

Performed by Phil Sanger, For Only An Hour is a pseudo-glamorous, one-man romp through childhood dreams, pop culture and queer art, danced to an eclectic soundtrack of Angela Lansbury, Delia Smith and Mary Poppins. Revealing itself as a 'coming out' story this is a journey into what it means to live out loud.

For Only An Hour is a manifesto about what we want to be when we grow up. It addresses the limitations placed on us in our youth in terms of gender, conformity and specialism. We are encouraged to specialise and succeed at one thing but For Only An Hour looks at what it means to be allowed to dream and succeed at multiple things.

The work also highlights the need for more visibility of LGBTQ+ art and aims to bring together audiences from both within and without LGBTQ+ communities through public engagement activities that inform and educate audiences about the world of queer art and lives. The initial drive to create For Only An Hour came from Sanger's frustrations at feeling helpless in the face of the torturing of the LGBT community in Chechnya and around the world. Working with his own life coach, Sanger decided to use the life-coaching principles to explore the politics of the issue and to create a work that would be both defiant and celebratory.

Additional music is by Donna McKevitt, glittering queer garments by Andrew Walker, artistic mentoring by Wendy Houstoun and lighting design is by Jen Wren.

In his career, Sanger has ventured into many forms of performance and movement research such as yoga, martial arts, vaudeville, tango and butoh and subsequently has performed works by some of the UK and Europe's most established choreographers including Sir Kenneth MacMillan, Robert Cohan, Philip Taylor, Charlotte Vincent, Luca Silvestrini, Richard Alston, Aletta Collins, Rui Horta and Ivgi & Greben.

Between 2007 and 2016, Sanger performed with many companies including Slanjayvah Danza and Shobana Jeyasingh Dance Company and he joined Phoenix Dance Theatre in 2009 until 2014. Most recently he has performed with DeNada Dance Theatre, Yorke Dance Project and Vincent Dance Theatre.

Sardoville is supported by Arts Council England, Metal Culture (Peterborough), Northern School of Contemporary Dance, Dance Studio Leeds, Yorkshire Dance and Studio 19.

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