Middlesex University students on Creative Industries courses have combined their talents to create a contemporary dance routine around life-size structures that they designed and built in workshops at the Hendon campus.

A total of 68 first-year students on the BA Interior Architecture and BA Interior Design courses worked in teams to produce the eclectic stage pieces while 15 BA Dance students gave feedback on the designs and used the props in a 20-minute performance before an appreciative audience of University staff and students.

Now in its tenth year, the Big Build project has brought together students from different disciplines to create innovative stage environments that inspire a dynamic dance show at the end of the six-week process. In its previous guises, as ‘Instruments Of Dance’ and ‘Objects Of Rhythm’, the initiative won accolades at the Interior Educators Awards in the last two years.

This year’s project, ‘Extend’, challenged the Interiors students to create a ‘dance playground’ for the performers to interact with and expand their presence. The structures, up to two metres tall, had to extend from, and contract back, into their dock, offering the dancers an interactive space to enhance their movements and around which they could create a routine.

Ben Sinclair-Macdonald, Senior Lecturer in Interiors, said: “The project mirrored working in the interior design and interior architecture industries which are very collaborative. Our students learned about teamwork and negotiation, liaising with a real-life client, while also developing their spatial awareness, creativity, and technical skills.

“Projects like these put our students at a real advantage when they leave Middlesex University because they have hands-on experience on designing and building structures in our fantastic workshops with our technical team, while also developing their digital know-how and client liaison experience.”

The Interiors students worked with a range of materials that were recyclable and have limited environmental impact. They mainly used soft wood to build their props, and also incorporated Correx, which is an inexpensive floor protection, jersey fabric, rubber grip tape, and electric blue webbing and cable ties to add vibrant colour.

With these materials, the students created tall, angular structures, with movable wooden arms that had fabric draped from them. The dancers used them as an extension of their bodies, moving the arms and creating a flowing movement with the fabric.

The students tested their initial ideas and documented their work with photographs and sketches to create a portfolio. They then obtained detailed feedback from the dance students before making the final structures using specialist tools in the University’s workshops with support from the technical team.

Interior Design student Lexie Haddow, from Chatham in Kent, said: “The project has been amazing and taught me a whole range of skills that will make me more employable when I leave university. I learned everything from the technical aspects of design, such as using machinery to make wooden joinery that allows movement, to becoming adept at using apps to produce detailed degital designs. Working with the dance students was also a brilliant learning experience; as designers it helped us to think more deeply about a client’s needs and come up with creative solutions.

“I was so excited to see my work as part of the dance performance and felt proud of what we all achieved together. It was really inspirational to see how the dancers used our structures to enhance their exciting performance.”

Nicoleta Mereuta, who lives in Ilford, East London, and is studying Interior Architecture, also found taking part in the project a valuable learning experience. She said: “Our goal was to create something delicate but dynamic, while also being sturdy and stable. We used jersey material, blue straps to create a pop of colour and wooden poles, while the technicians from our workshops helped us a great deal. As designers, we loved working in the workshops; it was very interactive and we were able to use a whole range of specialist equipment.

“Working with clients was enlightening and taught me a lot about negotiation and team-working. The dancers gave us feedback which was very useful in adjusting our designs. They liked the idea of the moving arms in our props, which was like an extension of their own arms, and they liked the material, the feeling of the stretchy fabric – it created shape. We all benefited from the whole experience.”