Luca Silvestrini’s award-winning Protein continues its celebrated work with refugees and people seeking asylum at The Place and Woolwich Works and embarks on a new development of their popular outdoor experience across The Royal Borough of Greenwich.

On Saturday 15 June Protein presents There and Here at The Place. Winner of The Stage Awards’ Community Project of the Year 2023, this performance follows a three-week project that has seen 21 displaced people from countries including Ukraine, Afghanistan, Iran, Colombia, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Peru and Cameroon come together to sing, dance, and share their individual stories and collective resilience.

Dedicated to people worldwide who have been forcibly displaced because of persecution, conflict, violence, human rights violations, or disasters of climate change, There and Here features refugees and asylum seekers new to the UK and clients of Islington Centre for Refugees and Migrants, Families4Peace, Young Roots and Care4Calais.

Part of Protein’s inclusion programme Real Life Real Dance, There and Here aims to engage and empower the lives of those involved and has helped enhance linguistic skills, combat feelings of isolation, improved self-expression, and allowed participants to tell their stories.

Following his participation in the project’s performances in 2022, artist Ramin Imantalab, originally from Iran who now has settled status in the UK, returns to form part of the creative team, giving a first-person insight into the transformational power creativity has on the lives of those involved in the project.

Of his involvement in There and Here Ramin said: “I am a painter, line artist, musician, singer, ney and percussion player and teacher of calligraphy. One of the best events in my life has been getting to know Luca Silvestrini’s Protein and working with them. This acquaintance is my first job in England since gaining a legal right to work, it fills me with pride to share my skills and be recognised as an artist.”

As part of Refugee Week 2024, There and Here – A Celebration takes place at Woolwich Works, the home of Protein, on Saturday 22 June. For this celebration artists and refugees come together for a day of performances, arts, craft and dance workshops, live music, and a communal lunch.

Performances include excerpts from Protein’s Border Tales, community projects with members of Islington Centre for Refugees and Migrants and Creating Ground collaborating with dance students from London Contemporary Dance School, live music from Delband and songs from celebrated Citizens of the World Choir. For more information about Refugee Week see https://refugeeweek.org.uk/

Performed across outdoor spaces in Woolwich, Protein’s En Route Together takes to the streets from Friday 26 – Sunday 28 July. Featuring a cast of community performers from across the Royal Borough of Greenwich this promenade performance unites artists, musicians, and local people.

“An adventure from start to finish” (Seeing Dance) En Route Together offers new and unusual insights into the local area, emerging from the historic setting of St George’s Garrison Church crossing streets and squares on its way to the Royal Arsenal. A relaxed walking experience which welcomes all and aims to be accessible to everyone, audiences will be swept up in a 360-vision of a community on the move as dance, storytelling, and live music unfold around them.

For over 25 years Luca Silvestrini’s Protein has been one of the most distinctive voices in British dance theatre, blending choreography, text, music, and social commentary to engage and entertain audiences and participants across the world. Winner of the Critics’ Circle National Dance Award for Best Independent Dance Company in 2011 and nominated again in 2016, its body of work includes LOL (lots of love), Border Tales, May Contain Food, The Little Prince, and dance film The Sun Inside. For his work Luca has won a Jerwood Choreography Award, Bonnie Bird New Choreography Award and The Place Prize Audience Award.