Karen Pilkington-Miksa, choreographer and artist, is the Founding Director of The New English Ballet Theatre. She holds a degree in education and is an Associate of the Royal Academy of Dance (ARAD). She ran her own dance group and school, and has choreographed for ballet, opera and the BBC.
Tell us about your dance background.
I trained as a classical dancer and joined Seattle Ballet. I then came to London and ran my own studio and choreography group, of mainly classical ballet. I also had a second career as an artist and a sculptor!
After the years, I noticed a bottleneck in the industry – there was a huge backlog of talent and not enough opportunities for classical dancers, and so New English Ballet Theatre was born.
Explain the beginning of NEBT.
The company began as a summer festival of productions, looking to becoming a full time company of well trained dancers. We are neo-classical in genre and have a huge variety of styles and vocabulary in as wide a spectrum as possible.
Gaining charitable status took a long time, but the idea itself grew quickly in order to put the company together and offer performances.
During the last three years the company has employed over a hundred young artists including musicians, classical dancers, choreographers and designers, giving them lots of support at a high level. This company of emerging dancers was born from the huge talent pool out there and the lack of jobs available. It’s important to highlight that to audiences, as they don’t know how many good dancers don’t work because companies want a small number of dancers from hundreds of graduates each year.
Where is the company now?
We are solely dedicated to producing neo-classical work but as a cross-discipline company. In a way we are inspired by Diaghilev in commissioning a number of young artists, musicians and designers to work with us, offering career development for them.
Within two years of establishing the company it had performed in the Linbury Studio Theatre at the Royal Opera House, in addition to a premiere season at the Peacock Theatre which received great reviews – the company and its reputation is going from strength to strength.
What are you currently working on?
Our next performances are at the Sadler’s Wells’ Peacock Theatre in July, and following that at the Lantern Studio Theatre in Canary Wharf. We are currently rehearsing five world premieres! Some of the work have had previews and have received great feedback, especially ‘Kreutzer Sonata’, which is based in the Tolstoy novella of the same name.
What are your aims for the company?
Our long-term goals are to expand the programming and build up the company’s repertoire of commissioned works of exciting new neo-classical choreography.
We have been lucky to receive an Arts Council grant for audience development. We have also been booked to perform at the Cheltenham music festival and we are planning a tour and various cultural exchanges for 2015.
My aim is to make the company the premiere company for neo-classical work, as I think the UK especially has an appetite for this type of work – there is a diverse audience to support the company.
Where do you see the future of dance going?
Today the dance audience is widely spread and there has been an explosion of interest in dance. It has also become popular to ‘mix media’, and dance has become more sophisticated for it and will continue to. It’s fascinating.
The company is modern and has a wide range of styles in a crossover with classical work and because of that and our collaboration with young artists and film makers, our company is becoming very interesting to the general public.
What is your favourite part of dance?
I think the moving and lyrical expression of emotion that fits the choreography is my favourite – bleeding out of the soul of the dancer. When dance moves everyone, that what gives me the biggest thrill. This doesn’t have to be done just through a solo or pas de deux, as long as it expresses deeper emotions.
Photo by Joshua Lawrwence
12 July will see South East London’s Greenwich Park taken over by a skipping extravaganza. Hundreds of people are expected to join in the hugely entertaining and energetic Through & Out: Skipping Extravaganza, a brand new commission by Greenwich Dance for Big Dance 2014, which forms part of the Royal Greenwich Festivals 2014.
The line up has been revealed for West End LIVE 2014, and it looks set to delight each and every visitor. Last year more than half a million people descended on Trafalgar Square for West End LIVE, and this year’s event promises to be even bigger and better. Now in it’s tenth year, the celebration of the West End’s top shows is a staple in the capital’s performing arts calendar. It will take on the square on 21 and 22 June.
In both the musical theatre and acting industries – in fact, any of the performing arts – securing an agent can be tricky, and almost as difficult as securing jobs! Some graduates from performing colleges leave with agents already secured; most of these are the agency that works alongside the institution and the graduates are automatically added to their books. Other instances of securing agents upon graduation is a direct result of the students inviting agents to their final college showcases, and being taken on that way.
The Academy of Northern Ballet will celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Centre for Advanced Training (CAT) programme it runs with a fundraising Gala to support the dancing stars of the future. The summer garden themed Gala will take place on 29 June, organised by Northern Ballet’s Leading Soloist Hannah Bateman. It will include exclusive performances by the Academy’s CAT students, past and present, as well as afternoon tea and a drinks reception.
The iconic East London performance venue Wilton’s Music Hall is set to host a three-day dance festival this autumn in order to showcase new work by emerging artists, and forge relationships for future collaborations. In addition, the organisation is also looking for potential companies to partner with on future commissions across different dance forms, widening their reach to new and potential dance audiences who may have not engaged with the music hall venue before.
Young people in the capital are asked to watch, learn, create and perform this summer as part of The Place’s summer activities throughout July. It is a month packed with exciting dance for children, young people and families. The hugely popular Something Happening For Kids family festival then returns on 19 July to take the under 10s and their families on a whirlwind tour of dance. For older children there is Summer Fusion, a five-day summer school for young people aged 6-16, which starts on 28 July.
Dancers’ Career Development and The Royal Ballet School are set to work in partnership to embed a culture of Continuing Professional Development within the curriculum at the school in a partnership which is the first of its kind in the UK. It demonstrates The Royal Ballet School’s practical approach to safeguarding its students’ welfare beyond their time at the school, educating students about dancer transitions through the leadership of Dancers’ Career Development.
Floriana Frassetto was born in 1950 to Italian emigrants in the States (Norfolk, Virginia). She studied at Alessandro Fersen’s Theatre Academia in Rome from 1967 to 1969 and completed her training as actress attending a comprehensive course (mime, acrobatics, dance) at Roy Bosier’s Teatro Studio.
Alan Burkitt and Charlotte Gooch, stars of the recent West End run of the much-loved musical Top Hat, will return to play the lead roles when the show tours the UK later this year.