‘Festival of Flight’ opened at the RAF Museum in London on February 3rd 2006. The 600-image exhibition was a product of many partners who had come together with Heartstone to tell the story of flight from a new perspective. In this case, the aim was to unite people through the theme of man’s dream to fly, how this aspiration has been the starting point for extraordinary endeavours and outcomes including challenging racial and gender prejudice, and, as with all Heartstone exhibition events, to provide a practical mechanism to bring people together, to meet face to face, and have the opportunity to break down commonly held misconceptions and stereotypes.
As part of the exhibition event, the stage show, ‘Garuda’, brought to life several of the stories featured in the images. Sitakumari, dancers of Laban Contemporary Dance based in London and selected young people from local schools came together to present the show within the exhibition. This was the first time a show was presented in this way with the dance choreography flowing seamlessly from the images surrounding the dancers. It was a magical experience combining Indian Classical Dance technique with Western Contemporary dance to tell the story, starting with the Indian legend of Garuda and ending with the most powerful aircraft in the skies today.
