Rambert’s Animateurs

Rambert Dance Company LogoNo one can deny the sheer talent of the dancers within a dance company, be it contemporary, ballet, or a jazz-hand waving West End show. However, it is often those people behind the scenes that support the work of the dancers, promote it, administrate it, direct it, and neither the dancers nor the ‘backstage’ team can do without the other.

For example, amongst many other teams of people working for the company, Rambert Dance Company (or Rambert, as it is now known) has a team of animateurs who take the work of Rambert and deliver it far and wide. The animateurs work as part of Rambert’s Learning and Participation team, and work with those who may not have access to Rambert’s work originally.

A case in point… earlier this year the animateurs worked with adult patients from HIV oncology wards and teenage out-patients over 5 sessions to create a piece of choreography using poems as a starting point. Often the partnerships with other groups begin with an interactive dance workshop, working to translate Rambert’s works to focus groups. February 2013 saw the creation of the partnership between Rambert Dance Company and Chelsea and Westminster Health Charity, and the programme included  a fortnight-long poetry residency project, 10 week dance workshop programme for patients and out-patients aged 50+ to improve their mobility. As a result the dance sessions offered inspirational experiences through engagement with contemporary dance and the prestigious company.

In the company’s move to London’s Southbank later this year, it will consequently be placed between two of the poorest boroughs in London. As a result it is likely that the company will do more to engage with its community. Rambert, the national company for contemporary dance, already offers a year-round programme of learning and participation activity throughout the UK for people of all ages and abilities, with other projects in hospitals and care environments including work with Queen Mary’s Hospital, St George’s Trust in Roehampton and Arts 4 Dementia.

The Benefits Of Dance: Flexibility, Fitness And Posture

Dance PostureAs dancers, we sometimes hit that mid-training rut, where we have had enough of the pliés, the tendus, the jetés, and definitely had enough of the pirouettes. With July turning into a bit of a scorcher, there can also be more appealing things than dressing head-to-toe in Lycra leotards and tights, let alone legwarmers!

However, it is easy to forget the great benefits of all kinds of dance, especially when sweating along to the Waltz of the Flowers or a similarly clichéd tune. Ballet in particular is a fantastic way for dancers of all ages to increase fitness, flexibility and all-round wellbeing whilst relieving stress and taking part in an activity you enjoy rather than pounding the treadmill. In particular, ballet promotes correct stance, deportment and a more streamlined body shape, with the dancer having pulled up the muscles, turned out the legs from the hip joints and lengthened out of the neck to appear more graceful. Even attempting new movements promotes the body’s resilience and supportive strength through dance classes and rehearsals. Dance offers great variety of methods of keeping fit and flexible, working many different types of muscles; Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS*) is a great way of discovering new muscles you didn’t know you had!

Once you have learnt to use the correct postural muscles it is easy to achieve a look of a flat stomach and toned legs whilst working harder towards these dance goals. In this sense, it is particularly useful to combine ballet classes with dance classes of other techniques in order to complement your body’s work and created a fully-rounded dancer that is not pigeon-holed. There are many types of dance classes readily available, such as various forms of street dance, jazz, tap, and even complementary techniques such as Pilates and yoga. Used alone or as a dancing cocktail mix, the techniques all work to challenge the body in different ways and ensure it does not become complacent! Whilst the benefits of ballet are clear ‘across the board’, other dance techniques also aim for the same goal and the joy of dance yet pursue it differently. For example, ballet, jazz and yoga or Pilates are all fantastic ways to increase leg and back flexibility and strengthen the core, yet employ different exercises in order to keep the body from becoming stagnant.

Ballet targets certain muscles through its training techniques, which also means that these areas of the body must be stretched and cared for in order to progress. The hamstrings and quadriceps, and adductors and abductors (inner and outer thigh muscles) – as opposite sides of the leg – are all worked in different ways, therefore the correct stretches must be carried out post-class for each. For ballet in particular, even holding the arms correctly as an extension of the back works the latissimus dorsi extremely hard, which are muscles often overlooked by the eagerly training dancer. As a result, stretching exercises come hand in hand with all disciplines of dance, not just ballet, and are an efficient way to keep the body mobile and maintaining the discipline and hard work of the class. For ballet in particular, muscle tone and suppleness also comes from stretching muscles such as the hip flexors, quadriceps, hamstrings, calves, soleus and the gluteus maximus and medius, for flexibility, jumps and turn out.

Many dance teachers advocate that ballet is the basis of all dance and maintain that it is needed as a solid foundation on which to build the rest of your dance training. Even if you disagree with this, it is clear that ballet and then other kinds of dance forms are needed to complement and balance out your dance work, in order to provide yourself with an all-round training that provides enjoyment and body benefits. Whilst it is not always a cardio workout, ballet works the body hard, keeps joints active and induces great discipline both for the body and the mind by requiring short bursts of intense, anaerobic exercise. By taking regular ballet classes you are constantly increasing the capacity and ability of the body, in particular, strengthening the legs and encouraging flexibility.

Increased muscle tone, flexibility and ability all contribute towards the wide goal of staying fit and healthy as part of having a healthy, dancing lifestyle. Dance can greatly contribute towards weight-loss, particularly by following a rich and varied programme of a combination of dance styles to balance out the training. With jazz dance a great cardio challenge, ballet can complement and tone up these newly found muscles, and other techniques such as Pilates and yoga used to maintain flexibility and peace of mind amongst the madness that is the world of dance!

* DOMS is muscle pain, soreness and stiffness which occur 24-48 hours after a changed or increased workout (dance) or workout intensity.

Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

The Summer Intensive Checklist

Dance Direct Summer Sale 2013It is that time of year again, when summer school places are booked up and participants are eagerly waving their practice shoes and leg warmers, impatient for the summer holidays when they can either continue or intensify their training over the sunny weeks ahead. Whilst there are a great many summer courses, school workshops, classes and more on offer to the dedicated dance student, all require one thing: a checklist of dance shoes and practice clothes.

As the largest and arguably leading dancewear retailer in the UK and Europe, Dance Direct knows its stuff when it to comes to affordable dancewear, stocking brands such as Bloch, Capezio, Pineapple, Plume, Dans-Ez and Sansha, amongst many more. This is why the latest Dance Direct promotions are perfect for all your summery dancewear needs!

New in are limited edition leotards, with some eye-catching pastel colours to get you through the sometimes eye-wateringly early ballet classes, and also some stylish black leotards – in particular a slinky one-shouldered design from Plume – to add a touch of class to jazz routines, or paired with tights and legwarmers for the old-school ’80s feel. If instead you are a dance teacher, rather than a student gearing up for the summer intensive programmes, Dance Direct are also offering dance teachers a discount programme of 40% off all costumes and up to 10% off branded dancewear ready for the end-of-programme summer shows, kitting out all the students.

If your dance wardrobe is up to date, how about browsing the latest selection of bags, holdalls and accessories, all with applicable discounts? There are a variety of kits bags on offer, such as those from Pineapple and Capezio to suit all your dancing needs, and store those new purchases ready for your dancing holiday!

Camden’s Creative Projects

Camden Roundhouse

The Camden Roundhouse, one of the the creative centrals of North London is opening its doors to young people aged 11-25 this summer to take part in a number of creative projects. With the chance to work with music, media and performing arts professionals, young people are able to develop creative skills through the projects in the dedicated creative space of the Roundhouse Studios.

Coming up this summer is a wealth of activity for varying age groups and abilities. Below are just a few opportunities on offer, so get booked in now!

MAKE A PLAY IN A WEEK
Age 12-16
Work with professional theatre practitioners to devise, write, and produce a funny, physical piece of theatre based on a classic story, and perform your play to a live audience at the end of week.
Mon 5 – Fri 9 Aug

FREERUNNING INTENSIVE
Age 11-25
Interested in Parkour or Freerunning? Learn the basics: jumping, landing, rolling, vaulting, climbing and balancing. Learn some new moves and develop your momentum, flow and bounce, and get tips on training safely and learning to view obstacles as opportunities.
Wed 24 – Fri 26 Jul

SUMMER SHOW: PERFORMANCE
Age 14-19
Create a cutting edge performance that fuses music, performance and technology! You’ll learn to use the blueprint behind great stories as you create vibrant characters and interactive stories, and collaborate with musicians and digital makers to devise a show that draws on the ideas of game design to put the audience at the heart of the story.
Mon 12 – Fri 23 Aug

STREET CIRCUS DROP IN
Age 11-25
If you are a street dancer, popper, locker, breaker, acrobat, circus artist, or just fancy giving it a go, come and try Street Circus, led by professional artists who merge street dance with circus acrobatics to create high-energy performances.
Thu 25 Jul – Thu 29 Aug

Three New Training Opportunities

Dance AuditionThree brand new opportunities for young theatricals have emerged recently, offering further performing arts training at a variety of institutions working to create the next wave of industry talents.

Shakespeare’s Globe has recently acquired a new indoor space named the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, which is set to open in early 2014 and will house a youth company which will perform The Malcontent in April 2014. Young budding actors aged 12-16 can audition to be part of this challenging, early modern production through open auditions, a workshop, and a final round of auditions throughout the summer.

Moving in a more commercial direction, the National Film and Television School are offering a course in Entrepreneurship and Producing for the Creative Industries, which was launched in January this year. This unusual yet all-encompassing course is just one year long, first attracting fourteen young media entrepreneurs from across the media industry. As a diploma, the course offers its students the qualities required to build and run businesses across Theatre, Publishing, Online Entertainment, Film and Television, amongst others, developing proposals to be presented to investors later in the course year. In total the participants will have access to more than 120 key media individuals over the course of the year.

The third opportunistic course on offer is via Punchdrunk, which is running a series of professional development masterclasses and workshops for schools and colleges as part of the enrichment programme for its new production The Drowned Man: A Hollywood Fable. Performance and design workshops and pre-show talks will be led by the performance and creative company on site for school, college and university groups, and training sessions are also available for primary and secondary teachers. Led by Punchdrunk’s creative associates, and open to emerging and established artists looking to develop their practice, the classes will offer practical insight into the work of the company.

Spotlight On Inspiration: Debbie Moore OBE

Pineapple Dance Studios LogoDebbie Moore OBE is the founding business woman behind Pineapple Dance Studios – and its associated clothing brand – bringing accessible, open classes to dancers all over the capital. Now aged 67, she shows no sign of slowing down.

Moore began her career as a model at the age of 15, gradually entering the dance and health industry following disruption to her modelling career. Following the closure of the only dance studio in central London, Moore was inspired to create Pineapple Dance Studios from an old pineapple warehouse in 1979.

This was not all Moore accomplished, as a pioneering business woman. She went on to launch the Pineapple clothing range, inspired by the dancers in her studios and their unique ways of customising and accessorising their clothes to accentuate their bodies. As a result, Moore became the first female Chairman to take her company public on the London Stock Exchange when Pineapple became a public company in 1982.

Moore was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2010 New Year Honours List following her continuing to strive to achieve the best for her brand. Her book, ‘The Pineapple Dance Book’, an insider’s guide to the world of fitness and dance was published in 1983, and ‘When A Woman Means Business’, offering business and lifestyle advice based on her own and other female entrepreneurs’ experiences was published in 1989. This book in particular was reprinted in Chinese in 1999, as an inspirational guide for Chinese businesswomen.

Moore is a ground-breaking force in fighting for success, in both the business and performing arts sectors: 2010 also saw the Sky One observational documentary series ‘Pineapple Dance Studios’ aired in the UK to fantastic success, winning the Royal Television Society Award for Best Features and Lifestyle Series. The series went on to air in several countries, including Australia, New Zealand, The Netherlands, Norway and Singapore.

Debbie Moore is certainly a force to be reckoned with!

Ballet’s Live Cinema Season 2013/14

The Royal BalletFollowing much success of previous live cinema seasons which first emerged in 2007, and even outdoor screenings of ballet productions, The Royal Ballet has released its live cinema season for 2013/14, much to the delight of ballet fans all over.

Five ballets will be presented in association with Bank of America Merrill Lynch, beginning in October with Don Quixote as a new production by Carlos Acosta, then moving to December with Peter Wright’s The Nutcracker. January of the New Year will see Peter Wright’s Giselle hit the screens, Monica Mason and Christopher Newton’s The Sleeping Beauty in March and then closing in April with The Winter’s Tale, a new production by Christopher Wheeldon.

The ROH Live Cinema Season 2012/13 featured nine productions broadcast to more than 35 countries in over 900 cinemas worldwide. The UK network has grown from 45 sites in September 2009 to 240 sites in October 2012, making it one of the widest releases of alternative content in the cinema in the UK. The next season will then see the Live Cinema project thoroughly expanding through a new partnership with Mr Wolf Presents which will build on the achievements of Royal Opera House Cinema to date and accelerate global growth. Mr Wolf Presents produces, co-produces, finances and manages distribution of live events and music-based feature films.

It is estimated that the ROH Cinema Season will reach its widest ever global audience in the 2013/14 season, with five live ballets and five live operas. With over 32,000 people watching in the UK, The Nutcracker, which was broadcast live on Thursday 13 December 2012, was the second highest grossing film that night, sitting between The Hobbit and Skyfall in the UK Box Office chart. However, the best performing broadcast to date is the ballet Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland which was broadcast live on Thursday 28 March with almost 40,000 people watching the screening in the UK.

DanceXchange: Dance-Packed Summer

DanceXchangeDanceXchange, Birmingham, has got a dance-packed summer ahead, running a varied programme of dance activity for young people and students which begins in August. The dance hub will be carrying out a hive of activity for young dancers and aspiring professionals, beginning with two summer courses: Youth Dance Intensives for ages 11-14 and 15-21 years (10 August and 27-30 August), and Choreolab for ages 15-21 (19-24 August and 18-20 October).

The courses focus on contemporary technique, performance and choreographic development. For Youth Dance Intensives, the participants will work with tutors on developing and strengthening their contemporary technique practice, and the sessions will also include the creation of a short performance piece. Choreolab is designed to give young dancers the chance to work with practising dance artists in a professional studio setting, covering improvisation, choreographic skills, development of ideas and individual style as well as working towards devising their own dance piece. Choreolab also includes a lighting choreography workshop with a senior Birmingham Hippodrome technician.

The courses are fantastic ways to build on existing skills and hone particular areas of study, especially if dancers are thinking about the next steps in their dance lives, such as building up to undertake GCSE, A-Level or vocational degree qualifications, or aiming to pursue dance careers further through auditions.

In addition to the courses for young people, also available is the application for the Jerwood Choreographic Research Project, in which over £120,000 is available to fund research proposals from artists and creatives from any artform, who consider their work to be choreographic. This would be a fantastic initiative to get a first work off the ground, or build on an existing creative state. As a National Dance Network initiative, the Project is an innovative new investment model for open-ended research in choreographic practice across all artforms.

Birthday Honours For Dance

Dance in the MainstreamWith dance continuing to raise its profile within Westminster, it was a delight to see a huge ten dance names recognised for their outstanding work in dance across a wide variety of contexts in Britain in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list.

Announced on 15 June 2013, some of those awarded an honour in the recognition of dance included the below:

Esteemed dance writer Jeanette Siddall was awarded a CBE for services to dance, recognising her outstanding contribution to the industry beyond her job. Also awarded a CBE was Gailene Stock, Director of the Royal Ballet School, for services to dance.

OBEs were awarded to Lloyd Newson, Founder and Director of physical theatre company DV8, for services to contemporary dance, and also to Cindy Sughrue, Chief Executive of Scottish Ballet for services to dance. Richard Glasstone, choreographer, teacher and author was awarded an MBE for services to classical ballet.

Howard Panter, the co-founder of the Ambassador Theatre Group and Chair of Rambert Dance Company was made a knight in the Honours list for his services to theatre. Panter has been a driving force in the fundraising and building of Rambert Dance Company’s new building on the Southbank which is due to open later this year in September as a very exciting new prospect for dance.

In particular, Dance UK has been working to respond to industry concerns about the numbers of dance professionals compared to sport, theatre and music recognised in the Queen’s and New Year’s Honours lists. As a result, Dance UK has established a voluntary Honours Advisory Committee for the industry, including dance professionals from a cross-section of dance genres. The group meets twice a year and is committed to nominating and championing dance professionals who deserve to be honoured for their services to dance.

Christopher Marney: Dancer, Choreographer, Dance Extraordinaire!

Christopher MarneyChristopher Marney is a man of many talents. Perhaps most well-known for his recent depiction of Count Lilac in Matthew Bourne’s Sleeping Beauty, Marney has worked tirelessly to build his reputation as an esteemed performer, and now sought-after choreographer for professional dance companies.

Leaving aside Marney’s creative endeavours, he has previously danced with companies such as George Piper Dances, Gothenburg Ballet, Michael Clark Company and Bern Ballet, and as part of Matthew Bourne’s New Adventures danced roles in productions such as Dorian Gray, Cinderella and Swan Lake. Choreographically, Marney has also created for companies including Ballet Central, Regensburg Opera House and Ballet Black.

Here Marney takes a moment out of his busy touring schedule to answer a few questions about his exciting role in the world of performing arts!

What were your early years of dancing and training like?

I started dancing because I was interested in acting and musical theatre, and knew from being taken to lots of theatre that it was also important to have a strong dance technique if I wanted to be in musicals. I always knew I wanted to perform, really from the first time I went to the theatre (it was the Queens Theatre in Hornchurch!) but I didn’t know which aspect I was most suited to so I went to Italia Conti at the weekends where I trained in ballet, jazz, singing and acting.

This alongside studying for my LAMDA acting exams and performing with companies like The Chelmsford Ballet Company, I was enabling myself to gain an all-round training, and by the time I reached 16 was able to make a decision about the best route to take. This was ballet, but I still had a strong interest in the ‘performance’ side of dance in particular being a character and storytelling. The natural choice was to go to Central School of Ballet where then Director Christopher Gable stood for exactly those things. He was and remains to be a huge inspiration for my career path and performing choices.

Have you always been interested in choreography? What/who inspired you to first create?

I always had lots of ideas that I thought would make good theatre and told best through dance, but it wasn’t until I moved back from Sweden where I was a dancer at the Gothenburg Ballet, that I began to choreograph. I had been immersed in a company where we were working with some of the best European choreographers, and having experienced a wide range of styles and learning about how choreographers work very differently to each other, I felt ready to put some of my own ideas into practice.

I think I have taken aspects of many people I’ve worked with as an influence to create. I admire the fluidity and ingenuity of Jiri Kylian, the way Mats Ek has intention behind his every move and, of course, the storytelling of Matthew Bourne.

What would you say was your choreographic triumph, or was there a work that put you on the choreography map?

Hotel Follies was a show that I conceived and really got off the ground in 2009, at the Arts Theatre in the West End. It was not only a way of bringing together a mix of ideas I had been developing with great performers I had met along the way, but also a good showcase for my work. The profile of the show and venue it was performed in meant that it was an opportunity to invite directors and industry professionals. This led to commissions for further work on professional companies and schools.

As for a triumph there are a few ballets I am very proud of because either the collaboration with the dancers worked and they completely understood what it was I was getting at or the combination of choices such as the music, my intention and the casting all seemed to come together. There are formulas I like to work by but sometimes you can’t say exactly why it is that you are particularly moved by one piece more than another! Duologue that I created for Ballet Central in 2010 was one of them partly because I was back in the school after ten years of leaving and the inspiration and memories of Christopher Gable were so apparent.

How does choreographing tie in with dancing with New Adventures, or are they completely separate?

They were completely separate until Sleeping Beauty recently, though Matthew has always been very supportive of my career as a choreographer. For Beauty he asked me to be his Associate Choreographer on the piece which linked the two. Because I have a long standing relationship with the company I think he felt confident with me knowing the style and way the shows worked. I provided him with another choreographic eye, created material for the new piece and assisted in teaching and staging the show. In September I will stage one of his first pieces, Spitfire on a company in Scotland which will be a lot of work to mount and teach the piece in about a week! I danced it on tour last year and also performed it on Matthew Bourne’s Christmas on Channel 4, so it is still quite fresh in my mind!

What is your favourite role you have danced?

Similar to my inspiration for choreographing, there are many roles I have loved for different reasons. I have to say the Prince in Bourne’s Swan Lake is the ultimate role for a dancer who wants to act and tell a story. He goes on a huge journey and reaches a tragic ending, bittersweet though ultimately discovering what he was living his life for. It’s a part I first played when I was twenty and have revisited many times since.

Who do you channel when you perform, or is it a different person for each role?

Each role takes a lot of research into existing or fictional characters. You build a library of images, books and DVDs that help to create the character you are playing. Recently I created the role of a Japanese fisherman’s WIFE in a new production by Will Tucket in Japan! Obviously that took some looking into! It was called The Crane Maiden and is a very famous tale in Japanese culture. Taking on a role knowing the audience already relate to this character, plus it being a different sex, I knew I had to do a lot of background work.

What do you like most about choreographing?

The thing I love about choreographing is seeing my idea come to life. I love the challenge of telling a story when there are no words and you have to convey it all physically, and working with and getting the most out of the dancers is particularly rewarding. Seeing the process from the initial first rehearsal to the realisation of it onstage can be nerve-wracking but being able to share your work and message is ultimately fulfilling.

What is the best part about dance?

I think the best part is when it touches someone and a person can be moved or made to feel something by what they are witnessing. It is amazing how that cycle continues to inspire generations.

What’s next for you?

I continually enjoy working with new people because the reason I love this profession is partly the fact that you can keep moving and meeting people, travelling and seeing new places, building up knowledge of the art form which helps sculpt you as a person.

The next half of the year is really busy with experiences just like that. I have performances of Dorian Gray in Tokyo in July, we tour the USA this autumn with Sleeping Beauty as well as opening our Broadway run, and then in December and January I will be choreographing new pieces for Ballet Black and Ballet Central. I’ve also recently moved so am looking forward to spending some time over the summer settling in and being with my family.