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Katie Mason is currently the Elders Programme Coordinator and an Animateur at Rambert, in addition to being a freelance community dance artist working for companies such as English National Ballet, as well as independently, Katie teaches different ages in different community settings, such as school workshops, elders groups and sessions in hospitals, as well as regularly teaching early years at Rambert.

She graduated with a BA Hons in Dance from the University of Chichester in 2012 and subsequently from Trinity Laban with a Diploma in Dance Teaching and Learning. For three summers Katie assisted in New York as a group leader/mentor for AileyCamp, a summer school run by the Alvin Ailey Dance Foundation for disadvantaged young children. In 2011 Katie also visited Cape Town to deliver workshops for Dance for All, a charitable organisation taking dance into the townships of South Africa.
 

Have you always wanted to be involved in dance? How did your involvement begin?

I started dancing when I was a very young, covering different styles. It was when I was introduced to contemporary dance at the age of 14, and subsequently going on to study it for A Level that I that I started to see the possibilities of where dance could lead me in the future.

 

Did you train? Where, and what was it like?

I went to Chichester University to do BA Hons in Dance which I really enjoyed as it gave me a general overview of the dance industry at a high standard. There was a lot of practical elements to the course; technique, performing, choreography and teaching as well as the theoretical elements to back it all up. Allowing me to explore the community dance aspect at university inspired me to study further for the Diploma in Dance Teaching and Learning at Trinity Laban. This course taught me about different teaching settings and helped me to become reflective of my own practice. By taking a part time course it enabled me to work in the community dance industry alongside studying so I could put my learning into practice which I felt was invaluable.

 

What is a typical day like now?

Being a freelance dance artist and Elders Programme Coordinator allows my days to be incredibly varied and sometimes chaotic! Often when I’m in the office, I will start the day assisting in a Dance for Parkinson’s class and then the afternoon will be spent answering emails and administrating the six projects on the Rambert Elders Programme that has been funded by City Bridge Trust. Another day I may spend the morning teaching movement to patients in a hospital, followed by a school workshop in the afternoon. Saturdays you can find me teaching 2-7 year olds at Rambert, which is a definite contrast to the rest of the week!

 

Tell us more about your work with older dancers – what do you enjoy most about it?

Our Elders Programme at Rambert includes Dance for Dementia and Dance for Parkinson’s workshops in local day centres, Hounslow Senior Group and outpatient workshops at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital. Although they are all for over 60s they are each so varied and bring their own joy and challenges! I am lucky enough to teach on two of the projects; Hounslow Seniors Dance Group and the workshops at Chelsea and Westminster. The participants are always enthusiastic and many have not danced before or know about Rambert and contemporary dance so to see them taking part in something out of their comfort zone is brilliant. We always end our sessions with refreshments and this is always a lovely part to engage in and listen to our participants thoughts and fascinating life stories! Many older adults find TV their main companion: by bringing dance to them we are combating physical inactivity and increasing social lives. To know the physical and psychological benefits that participants can gain from taking part in our dance classes makes it rewarding.

 

What has been the most memorable moment of your career to date?

Most probably working in America assisting with AileyCamp Newark for three consecutive summers. It was an incredibly inspiring project, the staff put so much energy into making it as successful for the campers as possible and by the end of six weeks to see the change in the campers was so rewarding. I feel very privileged to have been a part of that project!

 

What is your favourite thing about dance?

Our sessions are full of smiles, creativity and joy for all ages and abilities – that’s what dance is all about!

 

And the worst?

Still the lack of recognition from the NHS and government about how important dance can be in schools and during treatment as well as for the elderly.

 

What or who inspires you most on a daily basis?

My colleagues for their determination and dedication to making dance and the arts accessible for everyone.

 

What advice would you offer to someone hoping to go into a career in teaching?

To be open and positive, teaching can vary so much – day to day, session to session and you just have to go with it to be able to give your participants the best that you can.

It is no surprise that there are constant shifts to the shows opening and closing in London’s West End, however two recent changes have been significant. Billy Elliot – The Musical has announced it will play its final performance at the Victoria Palace Theatre on 9 April 2016 and a West End transfer has been announced for new show School of Rock – The Musical, which opened at the Winter Garden Theatre on Broadway earlier this year.

The award-winning musical Billy Elliot will move from the Victoria Palace next year due to a refurbishment programme at the theatre but in a compensation for the closure, the musical will embark on its first UK and Ireland tour, which will open in Plymouth in February. The tour is currently booking until May 2017 giving regional audiences the chance to experience the much-loved musical and see Billy achieve his dreams. Billy Elliot opened in the West End in May 2004 and will have played over 4,600 performances in its eleven years by the time it closes. The West End cast currently includes stars Ruthie Henshall and Deka Walmsley, and recently welcomed its 42nd Billy.

In a new treat for London audiences, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s adaptation of School of Rock – The Musical is set to open at the London Palladium in the autumn of 2016. School of Rock – The Musical is based on the film of the same name which originally starred Jack Black and follows a failed rock star posing as a substitute teacher. The world premiere on Broadway was received very well by audiences, and the next chapter of the show’s journey will be to stage it in London.

Alongside the transfer news, Lloyd Webber also announced that School of Rock will embark on a US tour in autumn 2017, presenting the musical to more people across the country, extending the musical’s reach considerably. The show features music by Lloyd Webber, lyrics by Glenn Slater and a book by Julian Fellowes. The production is directed by Laurence Connor.

Melbourne Dance Theatre has recently officially relaunched itself as the Victorian State Ballet over in down under, with the new name for the Australian dance company announced at a special gala performance. Melbourne Dance Theatre has been performing since 2003 as a pro-am (professional-amateur company). Following lasting success for the company the directors have been able to provide paid employment to an increasing number of professional dancers.

In 2014, Melbourne Dance Theatre was able to pay 16 dancers on around two month contracts, underpinning the hard work and good results of the company. For 2016, the directors anticipate they will be able to employ 15 dancers and two apprentices on season contracts. The success experienced by Melbourne Dance Theatre therefore led to the rebirth of the company through its new name, better reflecting its work and plans for the future. The directors also instilled the rename in order to distinguish the company from the two other Melbourne-based classical companies: Melbourne Ballet Company and Melbourne City Ballet.

The vision for the company is to become the central hub for dance in Victoria, Australia, and to connect people and dance across the state by providing them with an exciting and challenging programme of works. The directors plan to collaborate with leading artists and organisations as part of their mission statement, extending the reach of the company to new audiences. Negotiations are already underway with other performing arts centres in Warrnambool and Benalla in Victoria, and the company also plan to travel interstate to Adelaide for a season.

Other plans by the directors of the Victorian State Ballet are to present their own classical ballet repertoire and contemporary dance works, with three full length ballets and other shorter new ballets being prepared for. The repertoire will include Don Quixote, Cinderella, The Nutcracker, Les Sylphides and a children’s season of La Boutique Fantasque.

Family Weekend, Sadler’s Wells theatre’s annual two-day festival of family friendly events, returns for 25 and 26 March 2016. Family Weekend will take over the building, with the shows on the Sadler’s Wells and Lilian Baylis Studio stages – Snow White and Digitopia – being complemented by fun activities for all ages.

Following its award winning Rapunzel, balletLORENT brings its latest dance theatre fairytale production, Snow White, to Sadler’s Wells. This production takes inspiration from the original Brothers Grimm fairytale, where Snow White’s real mother, rather than her stepmother, becomes consumed by jealousy for her beautiful daughter. balletLORENT’s 11 professional dancers will be joined by a cast of 12 local children from the Islington borough, aged 6-9 years old.

At the Lilian Baylis studio, Tom Dale Company has partnered with MOKO Dance to present Digitopia – a dancing digital wonderland inspired by two dimensional lines, curves and three dimensions. Using and testing the boundaries of contemporary dance, Tom Dale Company’s collaborative practice focuses on the synergy between urban contemporary dance, electronic music and digital art, all for young children. Digitopia integrates live dance and digital technology to create an abstract world that defies the usual rules of gravity and physics, using a sci-fi-like environment full of digital animations and brightly coloured patterns alongside the movement of dancers.

The work has been specifically programmed for children and their families to enjoy together, with the same high production values that audiences experience at Sadler’s Wells throughout the year. These memorable theatrical experiences aim to capture children’s imaginations and inspire an interest in live performance from a young age. In addition to performances, a Creative Dance Workshop by MOKO Dance will explore themes from Digitopia with an emphasis on fun, musicality and creativity, aimed at children aged 5-8 years and parents.

American Ballet Theatre principal ballerina Misty Copeland has recently launched a girls’ scholarship programme in Rwanda, with the humanitarian non-profit organisation MindLeaps which aids some of the city’s poorest children. Copeland is no stranger to child poverty so becoming an advocate for disadvantaged youth has been a way for her to give back.

Many of the children Copeland has been working with in Rwanda are homeless and lack access to school. MindLeaps uses dance classes to improve the children’s cognitive development and prepare them for more structured learning environments, and it then adds classes in English and IT to prepare them for either boarding school or the workplace. Copeland has introduced a girls’ programme as until now it has only been available to boys.

Copeland officially launched the MindLeaps Girls Programme, and additionally awarded a dance student the Misty Copeland Scholarship in order to go to boarding school. MindLeaps is currently raising more funds for the Misty Copeland Scholarship and the girls’ programme through the International Artists Fund. Dance can be a great escape from every day life and at MindLeaps in Rwanda it is offering children the chance to prepare their lives in a different way. Dance is able to give them hope and goals, used to apply to life in the wider context.

It is clear Copeland’s experience at MindLeaps in Rwanda was eye-opening, in meeting the girls and especially leading them through a basic ballet class. Also during her visit a young boy showed her the concrete tunnel under the street where he sleeps, the boy Copeland later decided to offer to sponsor in order for him to attend boarding school. Through dance, the children have been offered an escape whilst learning to connect their body and mind, develop their physical coordination and use words to describe what they’re creating.

One Dance UK – the result of the merger of the Association of Dance of the African Diaspora, Dance UK, National Dance Teachers Association and Youth Dance England – was launched earlier in December at an event attended by 450 dance professionals. The event was also live streamed, drawing together more than 130 years of experience between the separate organisations, creating a new force for dance for the whole of the UK.

The merger will complete in April, and One Dance UK will eventually be moving out of London, possibly to Birmingham or Leeds. The name One Dance UK was selected following extensive stakeholder, industry and staff consultation, reflecting the UK-wide reach of the new organisation, the unity of its voices, and celebrating the combined experience of the organisations to create a new future for dance in the UK.

The formation of the new industry body for the dance sector has been funded by Arts Council England, the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation and the Paul Hamlyn Foundation. It will provide services for young people dancing, teachers and training institutions, as well as for professional dancers, choreographers, companies and producers. The aim is to create a single, more powerful voice for dance, a central knowledge hub, professional development opportunities and performance platforms to nurture talent, and strategic initiatives that will benefit the sector.

The body has secured £145,000 to invest in leadership development for both dancers and teachers, and will also run new performance platforms for artists working in dance of the African diaspora. A national conference for choreographers in 2016 is another of the programmes to be run in its first three years, which will also see the creation of a new exhibition and a digital platform celebrating the last 70 years of British dance launched in 2018. The national youth dance festival – U.Dance – will be also expanded and presented at The Lowry, Salford in July 2016.

The dance discipline of tap has been around since the late nineteenth century, acting as the dance of jazz music. While most of the commercial dance seen in the media is mostly competitive, modern or balletic, tap still holds a firm place in the interests of dancers, and cannot fail to be impressive.

Tap can be described as both movement and music, as while it is usually performed to music, it also makes its own music, as does other foot-stamping dance forms such as flamenco, Irish dancing and Indian classical dance. The sight of the steps and movements of the feet combined with the sounds being made means the audience is treated to double the performance.

Tap dance as we know it today emerged in dance halls, with its special technique and, as it grew alongside jazz, its special rhythmic qualities. From the 1920s through to the 1950s, tap was everywhere and could be seen in films, musicals, vaudeville, and in clubs. The death of Bill “Bojangles” Robinson in 1949, one of the greatest original tappers, saw the schools in Harlem closed at noon on the day of his funeral. Three thousand people attended and thousands more stood outside.

Following the death of Robinson, there were notable changes to tap. In Broadway shows, the tap acts changed to “dream ballets” and nightclubs were closed. Popular music changed from jazz to rock and roll, and Motown took centre stage. However the 1970s saw another shift: a number of female tappers, such as Brenda Bufalino and Jane Goldberg, decided tap had to be saved and organised festivals where tap could be performed and taught again.

Tap continues to develop and move forward, with new tapping innovators and new steps to accomplish. Considering the history of tap and its rate of development, the future looks exciting for tap on stage.

Lucy Guerin is an Australian choreographer based in Melbourne. In 2002 she established Lucy Guerin Inc. to support the development, creation and touring of new works with a focus on challenging and extending the concepts and practice of contemporary dance.

With credits including Medea (National Theatre), Motion Picture (Dance Massive, Melbourne); Weather (Melbourne Festival, North American Tour, Theatre de la Ville Paris) and Conversation Piece (Belvoir St Theatre, Sydney), it is no wonder her co- production of Macbeth at the Young Vic is off to a flying start.

Lucy Guerin and Carrie Cracknell’s Macbeth plays at the Young Vic until 23 January 2016 (www.youngvic.org). It will then play at Birmingham Repertory Theatre from 26–30 January and HOME from 2–6 February. The pair have created a new version of Shakespeare’s supernatural tragedy, weaving powerful and unsettling choreography throughout the story.

Lucy has also been commissioned by Chunky Move, Dance Works Rotterdam, Ricochet (UK), Mikhail Baryshnikov’s White Oak Dance Project (USA) and Lyon Opera Ballet (France). In 2016 Lucy returns to London to create Tomorrow for Rambert.

Photo: Richard Hubert

Have you always wanted to be involved in the arts?

Yes. As far back as I can remember I liked to make things, dress up, write stories and songs. I have always liked to express my thoughts in a visible way.

 

Where did you train and what was it like?

I trained at a suburban ballet school in Adelaide, Australia and then went to a tertiary dance college. We studied ballet, Graham and Cunningham techniques but also made our own choreographic works which I really enjoyed.

 

What is a day in your life like now?

My days vary drastically. Working on Macbeth for the Young Vic, my day could begin with meetings with the other director, designers or composer. Then some lighting or sound work in the theatre, followed by rehearsals with the cast, the evening preview show and then more meetings after the show with the creative team and crew. But at other times of the year I may be writing grants, preparing new ideas for a show, touring a work or spending all day in the studio with the dancers researching a new work.

 

What prompted you to go into directing?

I loved being a performer, but at a certain point I became frustrated with being an interpreter of someone else’s ideas. I wanted to make the decisions.

 

What has the Macbeth rehearsal process been like?

The Macbeth rehearsal process has involved a lot of discussions about how dance and text can integrate to express ideas in a different way than either could achieve alone. There has been some improvising to find a more spontaneous way to invent the material as well as meticulous crafting of how the scenes fit together. Carrie has worked mainly with the actors and I have worked with the dancers, but with a constant eye on how they will come together.

What has been your favourite part?

I really enjoyed the actual words of Shakespeare. It was a pleasure to spend so much time with them, and absorb them. But I think my favorite part was working with the beautiful dancers from the cast. They were an inspiration.

 

What’s the best thing about working in the performing arts industry?

I love the interaction with collaborators and other artists, and also the travelling. I love that it’s my job to think of ideas and spend a lot of time in a room researching ways to articulate those ideas with talented people.

 

What’s the worst thing?

Explaining to taxi drivers what I do and what kind of performance I make. I still haven’t found the right words to describe it well.

 

Do you have any pre-show rituals?

Only one, a stiff drink before press night! That can be a tough moment.

 

What is your advice to an aspiring performer?

Learn from everything you do at the beginning, and do everything you can. Your best asset is your individuality. Listen to your own imagination, even if it doesn’t seem to fit with the current trends.

 

What’s next for you?

I am on my way to France to remount a work I made previously on The Lyon Opera Ballet. I then return to Australia to work with my company in Melbourne. We have a season of short works by local choreographers called Pieces for Small Spaces in our studio. I will come back to London next April/May to make a piece for Rambert.

Matthew Bourne’s charity, Re:Bourne, has recently seen its patrons announced. Darcey Bussell CBE, Tom Daley and David Walliams have all taken roles as the charity’s patrons, flying the flag for its work and championing dance for Bourne. For young people, role models are vital in inspiring their participation in the arts and this is more important today than ever.

Founded in 2008 Re:Bourne invests in the future of dance, and is a crucial way of finding and nurturing the next generation of dancers, choreographers and audiences. The charity has grown significantly in recent years, now delivering workshops, projects and productions across the UK and around the world. Re:Bourne’s activity has continued to grow fast, with new projects and productions planned in order to engage more young people and audiences in dance.

In 2014 Re:Bourne created and toured a ground-breaking dance-theatre adaptation of William Golding’s novel “Lord of the Flies”, introducing many boys to dance who had no experience in the performing arts The production brought together adult dancers from the New Adventures company with young people in an innovative project, consequently creating a large-scale touring network. The production went on to play to an audience of over 70,000 and engaged over 8,000 young people all over the country.

Having Darcey Bussell, Tom Daley and David Walliams on board as patrons is a huge coup for Re:Bourne. They are inspiring and much-loved figures and are undoubted role models for young people in the UK today. They each have a list of accolades to their names, including dancing and now judging “Strictly Come Dancing”, being an Olympic icon who single-handedly put diving on the map and being one of the most popular comedians and actors of the last decade.

A rare Irving Berlin musical has received what producers claim is its UK premiere, with its content only discovered recently after it was first staged in the United States in 1949. The unseen musical – named Miss Liberty – by Berlin was staged on Broadway in New York, telling the fictionalised version of events that led to the Statue of Liberty being mounted on its plinth and becoming part of the city. Berlin remains one of the most important American songwriters but much of his work and music has been overlooked, now ready for rediscovery.

The musical also included four songs that were originally cut from the show, to be seen for the first time by British audiences. The songs have been discovered by Dominic McHugh, a senior lecturer in musicology at the University of Sheffield. Miss Liberty is now receiving his attention in full, to bring the production back to life. The musical was performed in the UK on 9 and 10 December at the Frith Hall in Sheffield and featured the original score, with the original orchestrations.

In addition to his Miss Liberty coup, McHugh had also previously discovered the unheard musical numbers from song writing duo Lerner and Loewe’s My Fair Lady that were also performed earlier this year for first time since 1956. The musical numbers were removed from the musical after the show’s first preview in February 1956 on Broadway: they were later discovered, alongside a ballet penned for the musical, at the Library of Congress in the USA by McHugh in 2008.

The songs, which were believed to be lost, have survived in just a box in the library. It is unknown as to what the ballet music consisted of: many musicals of that period included a ballet, however the ballet for My Fair Lady was thought not to have survived the years.