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Excitement for MOVE IT!

MOVE IT 2014 The UK’s biggest dance event is just around the corner! MOVE IT is a dance haven for any fan, young or old and no matter what style of dance you love! The event offers classes, seminars, workshops, performances, shopping – the list goes on!

Spread over three days from 7-9 March at London’s Olympia, there is huge choice of what to do at MOVE IT, even if it is just soaking up the atmosphere. For many the most exciting and important part of the MOVE IT experience is watching performing arts colleges demonstrate their talent on the main stage, with the aim of one day becoming a professional dancer, actor, singer or musical theatre performer.

Whilst there is an abundance of entertainment on the main stage, there is also the chance to learn repertoire from your favourite musicals or dance productions. In a classical ballet repertoire workshop, participants will have the chance to learn the choreography from the particular show or production, taking them even closer to the world of performing arts. This is not to mention the incredibly talented teachers and workshop leaders who conduct the sessions. Many have extensive performing and choreographic careers and have worked with some of the biggest names in the dance industry.

Aside from watching performances, taking part in exciting classes or even performing on the freestyle stage at the wonderful world of MOVE IT, the dance shopping at the event is second to none. Shop for the latest dancewear brands and return from MOVE IT with an entirely new wardrobe! Be the envy of your dancing friends with the latest dance gadgets and training equipment, full inspired by the performances on stage!

http://www.moveitdance.co.uk/

P.S. You will find us at MOVE IT again this year, at stand 104… close to the main entrance! See you there! 😉

English National Ballet My First Ballet: Coppélia

Following the My First Ballet series, English National Ballet and English National Ballet School are presenting Coppélia from April to the delight of young children everywhere. From 5 April–25 May 2014 the Peacock Theatre in London and a national tour will see Coppélia visit Shrewsbury, Manchester, Tunbridge Wells, Woking, Aylesbury and Bromley.

My First Coppélia is the third in the My First Ballet series, the comic tale of an eccentric toymaker and his mechanical doll, based on Ronald Hynd’s original production. The dancers will wear the beautiful costumes from the professional company’s full production, giving audiences the look, feel and quality of a classic ballet, but understandable for all. The adapted story and choreography will make the ballet more approachable and fun for younger audiences.

Last year’s creative team of Gavin Sutherland and ENB’s Associate Artist George Williamson, a graduate of ENBS, will be collaborating again to bring young audiences their first taste of ballet, with captivating music and beautiful choreography performed by the students. George’s first major commission was Firebird for English National Ballet. He returns to the My First Ballet series after choreographing last year’s My First Cinderella.

Children aged 3 and over can get their first taste of classical ballet with this magical production. The simplified version builds on the great success of My First Sleeping Beauty and My First Cinderella, developing the audience of tomorrow and establishing long term relationships with the arts.

English National Ballet was awarded a £114,520 grant from the Leverhulme Trust in 2013. The grant was awarded to support two years of the series and English National Ballet are delighted that the funding will also support My First Ballet: Coppélia, helping to develop the dancers of the future and enable students with outstanding potential to gain vital skills by working with a professional company.

The Dancing Plague

The Dancing Plague Almost 500 years ago a whole town was overcome with a “Dancing Plague” that saw people dropping dead from dancing, exhausted. This phenomenon has parallels with Romantic classical ballet Giselle, with Hilarion forced to dance to his death by the Wilis. Protagonist Albrecht, meanwhile, is saved by Giselle, her love for him just as strong in death.

The summer of 1518 saw a Strasbourg woman named Frau Troffea begin dancing intensely in the street, and refused to stop even after many hours and days. Within a week, one hundred people had been overcome by the same compulsion to dance and after a month, 400 people found themselves obsessively dancing into exhaustion without no explanation for their actions.

The authorities in Strasbourg even encouraged the dancers by hiring musicians to accompany them in the belief that they would recover by continuing to dance. It wasn’t long before dancers collapsed and died from heart attacks and exhaustion, and the dancing plague subsided after a few weeks. Some explanations for the epidemic include drugging (by psychotropic mould growing on stalks of rye that people accidentally ingested), cult involvement and mass hysteria.

1518 was not the first dancing plague of its kind: in that part of Europe cases stretched back to the late 1300s. Some suggest that the dancers were in a trance-like state, which allowed them to continue dancing despite their exhaustion due to the contemporary belief in St. Vitus (the patron saint of epileptics) who was believed to take over people’s minds and inflict compulsive dance. Already under psychological strain from the famine and disease that was common in Europe, it could be that people’s fear of the curse caused them to believe they had been possessed and induce themselves into a dancing trance.

These instances of dancing mania eventually died out in Europe, having claimed many lives.

Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

Rambert’s Curious Incident

Britain’s oldest dance company, Rambert, is set to host community performances of the National Theatre’s The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, the Olivier award-winning production. South London community groups, along with representatives of local employers and businesses, will have the opportunity to watch the production when it is performed in the round in a ‘rehearsal room format’ at Rambert’s new home.

Rambert’s new building is directly behind the National Theatre on London’s South Bank; the performances will take place during the week of 17 February in a studio with lighting and sound facilities of professional standard so can easily accommodate this version of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time is based on Mark Haddon’s award-winning novel, adapted by Simon Stephens and directed by Marianne Elliott. It tells the story of Christopher who has an extraordinary brain – exceptional at maths but ill-equipped to interpret everyday life. When he falls under suspicion of killing Mrs Shears’ dog Wellington, he records each fact about the event in the book he is writing to solve the mystery of the murder. But his detective work, forbidden by his father, takes him on a frightening journey that upturns his world.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, the winner of seven Olivier Awards, will resume its West End run at the Gielgud Theatre from 24 June (opening night 8 July). A screening of the National Theatre Live broadcast of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, filmed during the play’s original run in the Cottesloe Theatre, will be shown in cinemas on 22 May with further screenings in following weeks. The Broadway premiere of the production will open in New York in October this year.

MOVE IT For Gemma Coldicott

Gemma Coldicott, Step into Dance’s Inclusive Dance Development Officer, has a wealth of dance experience. From studying Dance in the Community at Laban to gaining a Masters in Inclusive Arts Practice from the University of Brighton, Gemma is a leader in her field. Since her studies Gemma now works to mentor and support freelancers teaching inclusive dance sessions, leads inclusive dance training courses, writes training resources and is currently the company Director of SLiDE (South London Inclusive Dance Experience).

When did you begin dancing, where and why?

I started dancing aged 3 in my hometown of Norwich. My mum took me to the local ballet school, I guessed I asked to go but maybe she dragged me along. But I’m so glad she did!

What were your early years of dancing and training like?

I did 15 years of ISTD Ballet, Tap and Modern, until I was 18.

What does dance mean for you?

Dance means expression and freedom. It has the power to change lives and to bring diverse groups of people together.

How long have you been working as an inclusive dance practitioner? How did it begin?

Ever since I left Laban in 2007! Shortly after I finished training I participated in a project with Heart n Soul, a learning disabled arts organisation based in Deptford. It was a dance project with 60 people, disabled/non disabled, and culminated in a performance on the steps outside the National Portrait Gallery in Trafalgar Square. It was an amazing experience and I understood from then on what I wanted to do, to give people access to dance who might not ordinarily get the chance.

What is a ‘typical’ day like?

Answer emails from 8am and post on social media. 10am, visit a dance class at an SEN school on the Step into Dance School somewhere in London, give the teacher feedback and support. Head back to the RAD office and complete emails, observation reports. I then attend or teach a community dance class.

What’s the best part of dance for you?

That it brings a smile to people’s faces who are both dancing and watching! It’s also the relationship between music and dance, it connects the mind, body and soul.

What would you say was your greatest dance achievement to date?

That 80 people attended my inclusive dance training days at the RAD last year, from all across the country. To share my skills and knowledge in this way feels great.

What advice would you give to someone aspiring to be part of the dance industry?

Do as much assisting, shadowing as you can with teachers and practitioners you respect. Be professional at all times, always be on time and be reliable. Attend courses and workshops at venues such as gDA for professional development; you never know who you are going to meet at these things. The key word is networking!

What’s next for you?

At the moment I am working hard at Step into Dance to get SEN and mainstream schools dancing together. I am hosting afternoons of dance called ‘Step togethers’ whereby disabled and nondisabled students dance together and perform for each other. Our aim on the Step into Dance programme is to promote inclusion and equality for young people across London and I think we are really achieving this.

Which classes are you holding at MOVE IT?

At MOVE IT I am running a workshop called ‘Introduction to Inclusive Dance Practice’. I shall be focusing on facilitation skills and running creative tasks with mixed ability groups. I hope to give everyone more confidence in leading creative dance sessions and some key ‘tools’ to take back and apply in their own settings.

Rachel Burn – Freedom And Fulfilment In Freelancing

Rachel Burn Rachel trained at Middlesex University, and the Merce Cunningham Studios in New York, where she also performed with the Repertory Understudy Group. She has choreographed for Cloud Dance, Actual Size, Middlesex University Students, Switchback Productions and currently a variety of her own projects, including ‘Pull Through, Flick’ performed at Woking Dance Festival, G Live and Cloud Dance Sundays, and ‘Threshold’ at Emerge’13 and Resolution! 2014.

Rachel currently creates and performs with/for Delve Dance and The People Pile, and has recently finished working on a dance film for musician Tiny Leaves. She has also worked with H2 Dance, Laila Diallo, Douglas Dunn, Shobana Jeyasingh and Gary Clarke.

When did you begin dancing, where and why?

I don’t really consider myself to have properly started dancing until I was at university at Middlesex in north London. I was a very small ﬁsh in a big pond with terrible feet, no ﬂexibility, a pronounced arch in my lower back and sticky out ribs. I was encouraged to focus on dance particularly by a youth worker I was close to as a teenager – I owe a lot to her.

Once there I just absolutely LOVED the live musical accompaniment and the massive energy that was required, in Graham class in particular, and with this like-minded tribe of people. That’s one of my favourite feelings still. That felt like I was really ‘doing’ something. I loved feeling strong and I worked really hard.

What were your early years of dancing like?

I took Saturday dance classes as a child, because my Mum was a dance teacher and I think that’s a really normal thing for little girls to do (hopefully little boys too!), I did acro at a smoky, rundown school in Grantham that possibly still turns out amazing gymnasts. I didn’t really start to take it seriously until a teenager, about 15. I had dropped the acro and the little bit of ballet I’d done and taken on modern and tap (I LOVED tap!). Then I thought I should begin some ballet classes and enjoyed the autonomy of getting buses after school to the next town to take my dance classes. I felt pretty empowered by that!

How long have you been performing? Did you start young?

I’m sure I did a couple of productions when I was little but my head is very scatty and I think I was always the little girl who didn’t know we had to stay for rehearsals, or who hadn’t got my Mum to sign the permission slip, or those sorts of things, I only remember one or two. In school I always loved drama and did quite a few LAMDA exams to a good standard – I loved costuming crazy characters, improvising sketches, and also won a few medals for playing traumatised autistic children… which is curious…!

Where did you train and what was a typical day like?

I trained at Middlesex University and as the years went on the days became fuller and fuller, mostly with rehearsals and extra classes. We’d be on campus from 8.30 until the theatre closed at 10 – before that there was no closing time on the theatre so we were sometimes there until midnight and back again at 8.30. I slept quite a lot in the canteen…

We would have one or two technique classes a day – Graham and Humphrey in the ﬁrst year, then with Cunningham or Skinner added in in the second year, and then our choice of the three in the third year. Ballet also happened a little between those techniques (I wasn’t mature enough yet to take proper advantage of ballet, I had decided I didn’t like it so was a very grumpy ballet student!).

For me though, in dancing 24/7 I had found the thing I really felt empowered and energised by so my focus became pretty strong and from the word go I joined as many extra classes as I could. In ﬁrst year that meant joining the other groups’ Graham classes, in second year joining the other groups’ Cunningham classes (Cunningham was a hallelujah wake up call to me – ﬁnally somewhere my body felt at home!), and in third year joining everything I had a chance to, plus a lot of rehearsals. I did 7 day weeks there most of the time.

After I graduated I took a year to train at the Cunningham studios in New York until they closed and we all got sent home! Doing nine classes a week in that beautiful roof top studio was like dancing on clouds. It was one of the most difﬁcult and rewarding years of my life and I would encourage everyone to make a scary jump like that. You can choose whether it’s good for you or not – choose it to be good.

What is a typical day like now?

Now there is absolutely no such thing as a typical day. They consist almost arbitrarily of class, meetings, rehearsals, so much more emailing and computer time than I ever imagined – they don’t teach that at uni… pub shifts, events work, teaching, researching, train trips to visit companies or locations I want to make a new work in, more emailing, more meetings. I can regularly be found working at the South Bank Centre, or downstairs doing class for myself if I’ve missed it, or working out some new choreography.!

I’d say a lot of my time is spent in making contact with people for possible opportunities in the future – they may be other local dancers, musicians I’ve met, photographers, ﬁlm makers, other choreographers, costume designers. There’s a lot of coffee drunk in the freelance world!

Do you still take classes? How do you keep on top of your technique?

I would absolutely say that taking class is one of the most important things a freelancer can do – for the ongoing technique and for networking. That’s the only way I made any of my initial contacts in London when I ﬁrst moved back here from New York. Class, class, class.!

Having said that, I’ve actually let class slip a bit recently – which is why I talk about taking it for myself, I ﬁnd it so helpful having the semi-ﬁxed vocabulary of Cunningham in my system which I can do in my living room, or Lloyd Park or the South Bank centre or wherever, if I haven’t been able to get to class. I also ﬁnd it very meditative in busy/stressful periods.

Do you prefer choreographing to performing?

Whenever I’m doing more of one I miss the other! When I graduated I stupidly decided that I would only choreograph and a year later I was CRAVING a performance opportunity. There’s a big gap in my CV as a result which now I think can be overlooked but in the early years was a regrettable problem.

What’s the best part?

Of being a freelancer? I would say the sense of self-empowerment and freedom. There are so many restrictions on this lifestyle choice, of course – in terms of ﬁnance, opportunity, distraction, loneliness etc – but if you have a strong sense of self then I think it’s actually one of the most empowering decisions you could make. Although to be honest I don’t think I really ‘chose’ it, I just saw a lot of other options that I knew I didn’t want to do, or maybe I didn’t even notice the alternatives, I just kept gravitating towards ‘part-time work plus my own work’ until I found that my own work had become my priority and ‘other work’ could ﬁt around that!

What would you say was your greatest choreographic achievement to date?

This is tricky… I would say with my most recent piece, Threshold, which was performed as part of Emerge Festival in November and Resolution! in January, that whilst I believe it holds absolutely to tenants that make something ‘contemporary’ in nature – which is not a quality set in stone but probably something about authenticity, integrity, and an effort at originality – it was genuinely enjoyed and ‘understood’ by audiences that are not at all otherwise engaged in dance. For them to have felt connected to it, inspired by it and free to bring their own understandings to it, that’s a great choreographic achievement to me. I hope I empowered audience members in that way. To be honest, I think I saw it a lot in my poor parents who have supported me for years, with my Dad groaning about coming to performances because he never ‘gets them’, and then with this piece, both of them really celebrating that they had felt all the things I had hoped people might, without me having to articulate anything verbally. That was really encouraging.

I think there can be a big gap of misunderstanding between the dance world and the ‘real’ world where people think that we dancers must be trying to confuse them or outwit them, make them feel a bit stupid; and sometimes as choreographers we can be a bit too submerged in our beautiful little community to realise that our work can just be a bit too ‘out there’ for audiences… There is absolutely a place for that experimentation and boundary pushing – it’s integral to contemporary work – but showing it to the wrong people as a ﬁnished product actively dwindles audience numbers. We need audiences! So I’m really happy that I feel like I made a piece of work that achieves both without losing integrity. Possibly it was a one-hit, who knows.

Which part of contemporary dance do you enjoy most?

I love the community of dancers, I think we all share a sort of common understanding. I work with some wonderful people who are genuine, who never make each other feel stupid, who are respectful; when you’re working with a group people with all sorts of different bodies and training and backgrounds, sharing work can make you very vulnerable so respect is needed. I love that about contemporary dance because I ﬁnd it consistently. They’re some of my favourite kinds of people.

I also absolutely LOVE nailing a sequence in class and throwing my body around really energetically to some really loud live music :-)!

What advice would you give to someone aspiring to be part of the dance industry?

Get to class and talk to people. Say yes to everything at ﬁrst. Be easy to work with and reliable. Over time you can begin to engage people in creating work with you. Let your reputation be known and be good.

What’s next for you?

Right now? A few days off with my nephew! That’s the freelance advantage, taking midweek days off 🙂

Professionally it is following up on contacts to getting Threshold seen and seen and seen. I have a few new projects being offered to me at the moment too, one musical collaboration, one sculptural and one architectural! And I’ve recently started the choreographic residency at Clarence Mews so am committing to regularly getting back in the studio and Pattern Making, as I like to call it. I also want to start a ﬁlm project, which will require a lot of organisation. There are a couple of separate teaching projects I want to start too. Those are a few of the things – there are always so many ideas! In many ways that’s the disadvantage of being freelance – you can do anything! So what do you do?? 🙂 It’s difﬁcult to decide which one requires prioritising in the now.

Daria Klimentová: End Of An Era

Daria Klimentova © Laurent Liotardo Photography Daria Klimentová, one of English National Ballet’s Lead Principals has announced she will retire after dancing the role of Juliet at the Royal Albert Hall in June with long-time partner Vadim Muntagirov. Despite his recent departure to The Royal Ballet the pair have formed one of the most admired ballet partnerships. He will return to the Company to play Romeo in Derek Deane’s spectacular production of Romeo & Juliet in-the-round and partner Klimentová in her final performances.

Performed by a huge company of 120 dancers, actors and sword-fighters, the production is an epic staging of Shakespeare’s timeless tragedy. This acclaimed production brings to life all the emotions of the world’s greatest love story, from the majestic sweep of the masked ball to the passion and intimacy of the lovers’ balcony scene. Klimentová has recently named dancing Juliet with Vadim Muntagirov as one of her favourite roles.

Klimentová has become one of the most respected and accomplished stars of classical ballet over her professional career spanning 25 years, 18 of those spent with ENB. She has performed many of the greatest roles in classical ballet to critical acclaim due to the technical precision, virtuosity and dramatic quality of her performances.

Klimentová danced first with the National Theatre Ballet Company, Prague (joined 1989, Soloist, Principal); going on to the Cape Ballet Company, South Africa (joined 1992, Principal) Scottish Ballet (joined 1993, Principal) and before joining English National Ballet as a Principal in 1996. She has the won Paris Dance Foundation Prize at Prix de Lausanne, first place Tokyo (1989), International Ballet Competition, Pretoria (1991), and received The Patron’s Award from Dame Beryl Grey (2011). Daria won the 2011 Critics’ Circle National Dance Awards for Outstanding Female Dancer.

Image courtesy of Laurent Liotardo Photography.

Smart Move For Dutch National Ballet

The Dutch National Ballet and game studio Game Oven are developing Bounden, the first two-player dance game for smart phones giving mobile users a first in this form of dancing technology. Similar to that of Merce Cunningham’s use of technology to choreograph, most notably for one of his last works, Biped, Bounden lets people dance with each other.

In a mix of ballet and the well-known party game Twister, phones are used as a guide to dance or get entangled with someone else. In addition to using your thumbs to move in synchronisation to dance together, Bounden brings together programmers, choreographers, music composers, filmmakers, and visual artists. Each choreography is accompanied by classical music specifically composed for the game.

Ernst Meisner, the artistic coordinator of Dutch National Ballet’s Junior Company, will be one of the choreographers from the company creating choreographies exclusively for the game. This will open up both mobile users and dance lovers to a whole new level of dance and the use of technology. Whilst Bounden is just a game there is a clear possible progression route from the game, using modern technology to greater avail within dance and performance.

Game Oven, the game studio in association with Dutch National Ballet, makes games that makes users sweat, previously such as Fingle, Bam fu, and Friendstrap. The company is based in Utrecht, the Netherlands, and consists of just four people that make games with new, weird and unique ways for people to interact with each other. For Bounden, dance is at the centre of their work.

Bounden is supported by the Dutch grant program Game Fund and will be available in May 2014 on iOS and Android.

The U.Dance Awards!

U.Dance 2014 Youth Dance England, the national organisation passionate about advocating dance for young people, wants to champion the great work that goes on around the country to provide performance opportunities for children and young people. U.Dance is the primary vehicle for doing so and will take place this summer. The nationwide programme will support the people who organise youth dance performances, whilst also raising awareness of the wonderful events across the wider dance sector and beyond.

U.Dance consists of a registration scheme, which fits within a national performance framework aiming to provide dance performance opportunities for every child and young person in England. For 2014 there are three awards to be won as part of the scheme: to be in with the chance of winning the first 2 awards, YDE are inviting everyone who registers their event to upload film footage of their favourite dance pieces from their show to YouTube under one of two categories:

Outstanding Choreography, for pieces that aim high with the choreographic content of their piece, that are innovative and inspiring, and that challenge the audience through the ideas they embody; or Excellent Performance, for pieces where the performers really shine and show their passion and enthusiasm for dance through their energy and focus. A winner will be chosen for each category and the two winners will each be presented with a U.Dance Award trophy. Their film will then be profiled on the U.Dance website.

The third award will be for Biggest U.Dance Performance which will be given directly to the U.Dance Champion who registers the event involving the largest number of people! (To be in with a chance of winning this trophy you must make sure that you submit the number of performers and audience members to YDE when prompted after your event.

Get dancing!

Bourne’s Lord Of The Flies

Matthew Bourne's NEW ADVENTURES Lord Of The Flies Matthew Bourne’s NEW ADVENTURES has announced the casting for its next dance theatre production, Lord of the Flies, based on William Golding’s classic novel. The production will be choreographed by Scott Ambler, and adapted and directed by both Matthew Bourne and Scott Ambler.

Matthew Bourne’s NEW ADVENTURES has produced some of the most successful dance theatre productions of the last 25 years including the Tchaikovsky classics Swan Lake, Nutcracker!, and last year’s sell out hit Sleeping Beauty, as well as other re-imaginings of classical ballet productions such as Cinderella, Highland Fling (La Sylphide) and the more modern Edward Scissorhands.

For Lord of the Flies the company brings a thrilling new dance production to the stage, with casting seeing a number of young males creating the roles of the male protagonists of the tale. The action will not take place on a deserted island but in a deserted theatre: a group of schoolboys find themselves abandoned. With no adults around they start to make their own rules and create their own civilisation, before order breaks down and the story builds to an electrifying climax. Bourne is renowned for his cinematic and enigmatic work, so much is anticipated from this savage, animalistic tale.

With a cast of New Adventures dancers and remarkable young talent from across the UK, Golding’s legendary characters of the novel are brought to life with raw energy, emotional intensity and breathtaking performances. Chilling, beautiful and hugely entertaining, Lord of the Flies will enthrall Bourne fans and inspire a generation of new audiences.

The production’s choreography will be installed by the Olivier Award-nominated Ambler, with set and costume design by Olivier Award-winner Lez Brotherston, music by Terry Davies, lighting design by Chris Davey, sound design by Paul Groothuis, adapted and directed by Olivier and Tony award-winner Bourne in association with Ambler.