Jessica Wilson – Page 97 – Dance Direct Blog. News, Reviews & Advice About Dance

#HOFEST – a London season

The Hofesh Shechter Company has announced #HOFEST, its London season celebrating the diversity of the company’s work and artistic partnerships. #HOFEST will bring together work in September and October across four different venues; the Royal Opera House, Sadler’s Wells, O2 Academy Brixton and Stratford Circus Arts Centre. The four week long season will see the company collaborate with some of the city’s leading arts organisations and most iconic venues, giving audiences the opportunity to experience the breadth of the company’s work.

#HOFEST will be the company’s largest season of work in the capital to date. Through a vibrant programme of events and performances audiences will be able to explore contemporary dance in ways, and venues, that question the perception and push the boundaries of the art form.

The season begins with Shechter’s opera directorial debut with a new production of Gluck’s Orphée et Eurydice at the Royal Opera House, featuring the Hofesh Shechter Company. Simultaneously, the company will perform barbarians at Sadler’s Wells in repertory with its Royal Opera House performances. This brand new evening brings together the trilogy, barbarians, in the UK for the first time. Revealing his choreography at its most experimental and intimate, the evening will showcase the voice of the creator and the versatility and talent of his dancers.

#HOFEST will also bring Shechter’s critically-acclaimed Political Mother: The Choreographer’s Cut to O2 Academy Brixton for the first time. This extraordinary work with 40 dancers and musicians will bring the atmosphere of a rock gig to contemporary dance, creating an experience like no other. In partnership with East London Dance the new apprentice company, Shechter Junior, then returns from its European tour with deGeneration at Stratford Circus. The talented young dancers tackle two previous creations from Shechter, completing the evening with the UK premiere of an earlier work by Shechter, reworked especially.

The season will be complimented by a number of workshops and interactive events across London.

An exchange with Northern School of Contemporary Dance

Northern School of Contemporary Dance will be arranging an exchange with dancers from London Contemporary Dance School, Salzburg Experimental Academy of Dance and Swiss performance company Le MARCHEPIED, bringing the aspiring students to Leeds for a unique opportunity. The dancers, most of whom will go on to perform all over the world as professionals, are privy to an experience that will both enhance and develop their studies as they prepare to embark on their dance careers.

Postgraduate Connections, the name of the exchange programme at Northern School of Contemporary Dance, will see the dancers from London Contemporary Dance School, Salzburg Experimental Academy of Dance and Le MARCHEPIED perform at the Riley Theatre, Leeds, in May, creating a semi-permanent cultural hub for the city. The exchange, now in its third year, builds relationships between the schools, artists and choreographers in order to widen the opportunities and experiences open to graduate dancers internationally. Students and dancers at the participating organisations benefit over the course of an academic year from a range of professional classes, creative opportunities and performances that promote international collaboration and knowledge sharing.

The Postgraduate Connections programme is extremely important for young, aspiring students, as it enables enhanced learning, networking and performance opportunities for the young dance artists who are already in the process of building their careers. Past participants have found work through the connections they made on the programme, proving schemes and exchanges such as Postgraduate Connections are essential to help prepare dancers for professional life. Creating opportunities such as this programme is paramount to the success of dancers studying all over the world, but particularly for those in the UK who recently came under fire from leading choreographers for their lack of advanced training.

Taking place on Saturday 9 May at 7.30pm, tickets are available from www.nscd.ac.uk/riley-theatre and through the Riley Theatre box office.

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang revival

To the delight of its fans, the classic musical production Chitty Chitty Bang Bang is being revived at the West Yorkshire Playhouse in Leeds later this year, ahead of a UK and Ireland tour. The show, which has music and lyrics by Richard M Sherman and Robert B Sherman (also responsible for the iconic musical Mary Poppins), is adapted from the iconic 1968 film by Jeremy Sams. The show was first seen in the West End in 2002.

http://youtu.be/ZTTzcXSLjhI

The score includes “Truly Scrumptious”, “Toot Sweets”, “Hushabye Mountain” and the Oscar-nominated title song; reviving such a classic show is a great opportunity for the creative team involved, as it is a thrilling challenge for anyone. Chitty Chitty Bang Bang is a brilliantly fun adventure story, filled with iconic songs and scenes that hold so many memories for so many early fans, and indeed the general public too (such as of the revered, feared child catcher), so to bring the show back to the stage is a big undertaking.

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang will open at the West Yorkshire Playhouse on 10 December (previews from 2 December) for a nine week season finishing on 30 January 2016. The tour will then open at the Mayflower Theatre, Southampton on 10 February 2016 for a two week run. Further dates and casting are still to be announced.

The new production is directed by WYP artistic director James Brining, with new choreography by rising star Stephen Mear and production design by Simon Higlett. The show will be produced by the West Yorkshire Playhouse and the touring consortium Music & Lyrics Limited, which includes venues such as the Birmingham Hippodrome, Wales Millennium Centre and Edinburgh Festival Theatre. The new production is set to delight and enthral lovers of the fantasmagorical film and introduce Chitty Chitty Bang Bang to new audiences too.

English National Ballet School’s Choreographic Competition

English National Ballet School’s 2015 Choreographic Competition will be live streamed on 19 May. The school will once again be working with English National Ballet School graduate and former English National Ballet dancer Andre Portasio, Executive Producer of ArtStreaming TV, to live stream this exciting event across the world. Following the success of ‘A day in the life of English National Ballet School’, which was watched live by over 6,000 people across 23 countries and viewed by an additional 15,000 thousand on demand, the school will be sharing the competition via live streaming.

As well as being able to watch all of the action, audiences will also have the opportunity to further interact with the competition through Twitter (using #ENBSChoreo) and by casting a People’s Choice vote via text. The school is presenting a thoroughly unique opportunity to engage further with the school, and the talents of their students as aspiring dancers. It will also be an opportunity of inside access to a showcase of the young, new and exciting talent of the choreographic world.

Arlene Philips CBE will stand as head judge for the competition, observing the work of the young choreographers of English National Ballet School. She maintains, following her own experience as a choreographer in the ever-expanding arts industry, that young dancers need opportunities like this, in order to develop their craft and to find a dance maker of the future.

This annual competition has grown in profile and endeavour in recent years, giving the students the opportunity to showcase their emerging choreographic talents, similar to English National Ballet’s Choreographics scheme each year. The competition will be performed in front of the prestigious panel of judges, also including Rambert’s Artistic Director Mark Baldwin and independent dance artists Kerry Nicholls, and lead by the highly respected Phillips. The live stream will be presented by Faye Barker, presenter and reporter for ITV News and ITV News London.

The winning choreography piece will go on to open English National Ballet’s Choreographics at the Lilian Baylis Studio, Sadler’s Wells in June.

Summer University At Sadler’s Wells

Launched in 2010, Sadler’s Wells Summer University supports the development of professional dance artists interested in extending their dance practice. The first edition of the project ran successfully between 2010-2014 and the organisation is now recruiting for the second edition starting in Summer 2015. The Summer University graduates (2010-2014) was a combination of notable dance names, and the second batch looks set to mirror this result.

Summer University offers 15 dance professionals the chance to take part in a four year project, meeting for two weeks each year to share work, hear talks, explore methodologies and philosophies of performance making and extend their own dance practice through self-study. As a free course, it is open to dance makers and other artists involved in the performing arts who are interested in developing their own choreographic practice. Also focused on is the future possibilities of dance as an art form.

The course is open to artists based in the UK, with no more than five years professional experience as a dance maker. Directed by the admired choreographer Jonathan Burrows, in collaboration with Eva Martinez, Artistic Programmer for Sadler’s Wells, the course encompasses guest speakers and experienced professionals from the worlds of dance, theatre, visual arts, philosophy and artistic development in sharing their knowledge.

The second edition of the Summer University will take place between 14-27 September 2015 at Sadler’s Wells, a unique opportunity for dance artists and dance makers to immerse themselves in the art and develop their practice further. Applications for the Sadler’s Wells Summer University are currently open: deadline to apply is 22 May 2015 at noon.

Pressures In The Studio

Pressures of Dance A dancer of any calibre can face pressures in the dance studio, from themselves, their peers and even their dance teachers. Pressures can take hold in many forms, such as healing after injuries, aspiring to create the ‘ideal’ dancing body shape and changes in the behaviour of dance teachers. Each has an effect on both your dancing and performance, hindering the creation and maintenance of a healthy mind and body, which is paramount to excelling in and enjoying dance.

Often teachers can appear unfriendly and cold, not offering encouragement or help to young dancers. This can stem the enthusiasm a young dancer has for dance and can be detrimental to their progress as a dancer. A dance teacher’s decision to teach is a result of wanting to pass on their knowledge and aid other dancers, so erratic behaviour can often seem odd. They can be overly critical of your work however they usually have many students they are working with at one time, so try not to take their attitude personally.

While there are often jarring relationships with dance teachers, this can also occur on a personal level with yourself. Aspiring to be a thin waif-like dancer is unhealthy and can lead to dieting, starving and an eating disorder, which can ultimately be dangerous. Fortunately, there is now more emphasis on creating a strong body which is fit and ready to take on the challenges of dance, not likely to collapse afterwards. Teachers are now more focused on healthy eating to prevent disorders, and promote dance alongside wellbeing for the body and mind.

Similar pressures of this type on the self can also occur as a result of injuries, especially those that are slower to heal. As a dancer the mentality is to power through the class whatever the cost, due to lifelong mantras such as ‘the show must go on’ and ‘no pain, no gain’. An ethos of this sort is now becoming less common, as ultimately it is of the upmost importance that the body and mind heals following an injury.

Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

Siobhan Davies Dance And Dancing Museums

Siobhan Davies Dance will be taking part in Dancing Museums, a new European partnership project which will bring together five European dance organisations: La Briqueterie – Centre de développement chorégraphique du Val de Marne (France), Comune di Bassano del Grappa (Italy), D.ID Dance Identity (Austria), Dansateliers (Netherlands) and Siobhan Davies Dance (UK). The dance organisations will be joined by eight internationally renowned museums to explore new ways of interacting with audiences.

From June 2015 to May 2017, five selected dance artists, one from each organisation, will embark on a two year period of research and development, and will take part in a week-long residency in each of the museums, providing regular opportunities to collaborate with their European partners as the project progresses. Digital artists and experts from other fields such as history of art, education, curation, visual art, social media and new technology will also join the fray, in order to contextualise the research and stimulate new thinking.

Through Dancing Museums, new methods to engage audiences and enhance the journeys which people make when walking through art spaces will be defined and consequently implemented. In addition, the general public will have its attention drawn to contemporary dance as an inclusive, communicative form, so events will be produced such as choreographic guided tours and participatory workshops. The audience will therefore be placed at the centre of the experience, blurring the boundaries between audiences and artists.

Through the various activities, Dancing Museums will create a space for artists to develop their art form alongside others, sharing skills across multiple organisations, audiences, practices and local contexts. Dancing Museums will culminate in the creation of a new participatory, performative work in each of the five European cities highlighting the role live performance can play in enhancing understanding and engagement in art. The Dancing Museums project is co-funded by the European Union’s Creative Europe programme.

Professional Paths

Careeres After Dance Despite a lifelong dream of performing on stage night after night, the hard reality for dancers is you may not fulfil this. This can be for a number of reasons, whether you are injured or are simply feel drawn to another lifestyle. After maintaining these dreams, and even a stint of performing, there are a number of potential options you may wish to pursue. Dancers are resourceful and disciplined, having gained a number of relevant and useful skills during training and performing.

You may wish to become a choreographer or director, or even a casting director, having the last say in who performs what and when. Your dance knowledge is integral to your craft and the industry, so this is often a natural step for professional dancers. You may even want to step behind the scenes entirely, and become part of the wardrobe, stage management or part of the production crew for a theatre or company. Roles like lighting and set are also appealing to ex-performers, as they have an innate knowledge and sixth sense of the theatre; it is an equally artistic pursuit with creative fulfilment.

Remaining in the office might be more suitable to other professional dancers: management and administration are essential to dance companies and organisations through a number of roles, ensuring the companies make it into the stage and the audience make it into their seats. Other dance and arts institutions also need arts administration to ensure they run smoothly, from marketing and finance to programming, in organisations such as theatres, dance foundations and museums.

If you still yearn for physical pursuits, you may be more suited to roles such as a Pilates or yoga teacher – which complement dance training – or a massage therapist to help people to relax and restore their bodies. Alternatively you may become a fitness instructor or personal trainer, with some extra training. If you don’t want to give up the physicality of your career, fitness is an excellent alternative avenue, with dance based fitness classes rising in popularity. Simply teaching dance, however, is also just as fulfilling in passing your knowledge on to a future generation.

Future4Youth

Future4Youth – the brainchild of Impact Dance’s founder and Artistic Director Hakeem Onibudo – is an exciting partnership between Impact Dance and the African Cultural Exchange Dance and Music. It is calling youth dance companies from all genres of dance to be selected to embark on a unique journey which will focus on dances of the African Diaspora and its relationship with hip-hop.

Twenty youth companies from the UK will be invited to take part in two workshops in May and June in Birmingham and London; following these stages ten companies will be invited to perform at a youth celebration platform in October. The workshops will be lead by Vicki Igbokwe (UCHENNA), Kenrick Sandy (BOY BLUE), Alesandra Seutin (VOCAB), Impact Dance and ACE Dance and Music. The focus will be on working with leading artists in these genres, and one youth company will go on to perform at Peacock Theatre, London, in February 2016. Running parallel is a Mentoring/Leadership programme for the young dancers in the companies, forming part of Impact Dance’s 20th Anniversary Celebrations.

Youth Companies must have members between the ages of 11-19, and the companies that are successfully chosen to perform at the platform in October can be represented by a maximum of 12 dancers. The initial 20 companies that are selected will receive a bursary of £400 per company to cover travel, and the ten successful companies who progress after July to the October platform will receive an additional bursary of £300 per company.

The opportunity offered by Future4Youth is one which aims to both develop youth dance in the genres of the African Diaspora and its relationship with hip-hop, as well as performances for young, aspiring dancers who will simultaneously gain experience in working as part of a team for the same end.

Site-Specific Mamma Mia!

There is a site-specific Mamma Mia! set for cities worldwide, with the first Mamma Mia! The Party is being produced in Stockholm by Abba’s Björn Ulvaeus. The New York Times has reported that the Abba-centric musical Mamma Mia! will receive a new ‘immersive’ staging in a Stockholm beer hall. The beer hall is situated near an Abba museum; the show’s creative team will transform the beer hall into a Mediterranean restaurant, hugely similar to the Greek tavern featured in the show.

The news comes in the wake of the recently acclaimed site-specific production of Sweeney Todd, which transferred from a pie shop in Tooting to a ‘mock-up’ in the West End. The concept appears to have sparked a trend, in which immersive musical theatre performances are the go-to for a fun night out whilst engaging – in this case – with all your favourite Abba songs.

Ulvaeus will be producing Mamma Mia! The Party, which is set to open in January 2016; if the site-specific musical is a success it will then be replicated in other cities. The idea for Mamma Mia! The Party was born from Ulvaeus’ experiences in the theatres staging Mamma Mia! all over the world. In the show’s finale the audience enjoy dancing in the aisles and singing along, as a result of the happy mood the show has created.

Mamma Mia! The Party is therefore an extension of the show, transferring it to a Greek restaurant for a big party and a real-time story. Mamma Mia! The Party will not follow the precise storyline of the stage show and film, as the plot will be semi-improvised from night to night, based on interactions with the audience, with stories being created based on Abba songs. The concept looks set to be a huge success, with audiences experiencing something different every night.