ANCHORED

LV21 is a light vessel, a floating lighthouse, historically set to aid safe navigation at sea and serve as a visual landmark and a place of refuge in case of need.

Boats are referred to as female, and traditionally women on board bring bad luck! With a whole female creative crew, ANCHORED subverts outmoded paradigms and brings to life the softness and tenderness of caring for each other aboard this historical vessel.

The aerial performers, through a highly visual and impactful choreography, enhanced by an atmospheric soundtrack and a bespoke lighting design, inhabit various outdoor upper deck and infrastructure elements of the ship. 

As the Midsummer sun sets beyond the horizon, they create a series of moving images and sequences at height aimed at broadening and shifting conventional perspectives, and using the unique features of the historic vessel.

The narrative and choreography are inspired by the functions and day-to-day tasks to be accomplished by the crew aboard the vessel: rescuing sailors at risk; communicating through marine semaphore signals; observing the weather up on the crow’s nest; switching on the lantern light; sharing food and drink together amongst the crew.

As in a Pina Bausch choreography, the mundane is amplified and transformed, it becomes abstract and develops a rarefied beauty.

A collaboration between LV21 and Scarabeus Aerial Theatre, ANCHORED is a site responsive outdoor performance inhabiting the body and soul of the vessel while creating lineage with her surroundings.

The performance aims to provoke surprise and questioning, sadness and joy. It seeks to offer an immersive visual and aural experience to the audience viewing from ashore, create an immediacy in their response, and leave a legacy in people’s heart and memory.

Image: LV21, Anchored, 21 June 2025, photography by Gary Weston.