lou cope - dramaturg & writer

See www.loucope.com

Lou Cope is a British dramaturg, writer and lecturer currently based in Belgium. Recent projects include: dramaturg to Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui & Damien Jalet on the multi award-winning ‘Babel (words)’ designed by Antony Gormley and dramaturg to Lisi Estaras and les ballets C de la B on her research project ‘Soup’. 

Lou specialises in aiding, facilitating, teaching or writing about the slippery complexities of collaborative devising processes in both dance and theatre contexts.

Recent publications include : 

2011 Seasoning the Soup - reflections on Lisi Estaras' les ballets c de la b www.lesballetscdela.be

2010 ‘How do you train somebody not to belong?’  UK Journal ‘Theatre, Dance & Performance Training’. This article will look at the role of intuition, talent and training in the Belgian dance performance scene, where a sense of ‘not belonging’ seems present in both the productions created and the individuals that create them. Project ongoing.

2009 'Looking inward, outward, backward & forward with Alain Platel':  for UK Journal ‘Contemporary Theatre Review’. This document features an edited cut and paste of an email exchange between myself and les ballets C de la B director Alain Platel. Written as Platel toured the world with his recent show ‘pitié!’, our discussion covers the origins and hallmarks of the Flemish performance movement, Platel’s own journey, his approach to making work today, and thoughts on what he might do next.

2008 ‘Mapping the Multiple’ – a chapter in ‘Making Contemporary Theatre’ to be published by Manchester University Press in 2009. Edited by Jen Harvey and Andrew Lavender.  In 2007 I observed Belgian-Moroccan choreographer Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui in rehearsal for 8 months as he worked with a company of 25 actors, dancers and musicians to devise the show ‘Myth’. This article reflects on the complexities of working in large collaborative processes for both director and performer.