Out of the Deep Blue

A large-scale outdoor performance featuring a sea giant puppet and a contemporary dancer, inspired by the themes of the climate emergency and the biodiversity crisis.

Out of the Deep Blue is an outdoor physical theatre performance featuring a 13-foot tall Puppet operated by 5 puppeteers and a female dancer.
This spectacle is designed specifically for family and festival audiences and tells the magical story of Eko, a sea giant who rises from the deep ocean and who encounters, on the shore, a courageous little girl called Violet.

The choreography is a larger-than-life ‘pas de deux’, which uses contemporary dance theatre and masterful puppeteering as storytelling tools, accompanied by a mesmerising soundscape.

The performance is in two-parts: a 25-minute promenade of the giant puppet interacting with the location, environment, architecture and the audience, and a 25-minute dance theatre duet located at a set performance space (traditionally the walkabout leads to static show).

Created in 2021, Out of the Deep Blue has toured and continues to tour extensively across the UK and internationally. The show has visited over 95 festivals and performing to more than 760,000 audience members.

​Autin Dance Theatre (ADT) is an innovative touring dance company, established in 2013 under the helm of acclaimed French choreographer & Birmingham-based Artistic Director Johnny Autin. Our mission is to inspire, educate and instigate positive social changes by delivering relevant, highly responsive, multi-disciplinary arts activities to communities, in theatres, outdoors and in non-traditional spaces. ADT provides extensive learning & engagement programmes with a wide range of participants across several local communities.

ADT draws on contemporary social issues (environment, community, relationships, identities) to make engaging, highly accessible and relevant performance work. ADT uses our unique blend of contemporary storytelling, striking physicality, and innovative large designs to transport audiences and communities along carefully choreographed moving outdoor processions and static performances.

The company is a collaborative ensemble of creatives who devise and produce socially engaged and mass participatory movement performance projects across the UK & internationally. We have built a strong reputation with high levels of engagement for our work with critically acclaimed productions including A Posi+ive Life, Dystopia, Square One,Street Games & Out of the Deep Blue. In 2023, we have premiered our brand new spectacle Parade – The Giant Wheel.

‘The large puppet kept audiences mesmerised with the inspirational dance movement and haunting music of the sea, reflecting its power, danger and mystery.’

Grimsby Telegraph

‘The especially impressive spectacle was entitled ‘Out of the Deep Blue’ by Autin Dance Theatre. The show was a combination of dance and puppetry on a level worthy of comparison to Handspring’s War Horse at the National Theatre.’

Review Culture

‘Eko was mesmerising and it was magical to watch him explore the streets and interact with our visitors. The performance was beautiful, powerful and kept our audiences firmly engaged throughout’

Jennifer Shufflebotham, Creative Programme Manager  (Shakespeare’s Birthday Celebrations)

‘The walkabouts and performances were a massive hit with audiences across the site and were a brilliant addition to the festival’s creative programme and we genuinely loved having them.’

Simon Hollingworth, Mr Holly – Creative Producer (Peterborough Celebrates Festival)