Sky Arts has recently launched a £1m fund that will commission 50 artworks to explore post-Brexit Britain, in partnership with Barbican, Sage Gateshead, BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art and Storyvault Films. Named Art 50, this follows the triggering of Article 50 as a landmark project that will explore what it means to be British post-Brexit. It will be funded by the Sky Arts Amplify fund, which was set up to encourage arts organisations and production companies to collaborate on new ideas.
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Now in its eighth year, English National Ballet’s Emerging Dancer competition will be held at Sadler’s Wells for the first time on Thursday (25th May 2017). Selected annually by their peers, six of the company’s most promising dancers perform at the event in front of an eminent panel of expert judges, before one receives the 2017 Emerging Dancer Award. Also revealed on the night will be the recipients of the People’s Choice Award as selected by members of the public, and the Corps de Ballet Award, acknowledging the work on and off-stage of a member of the Corps de Ballet.
The spotlight has recently shone on Indian dance at The Place, one of Europe’s most innovative performance spaces, with shows and workshops programmed to celebrate the British Council’s UK-India Year of Culture 2017.
The Rivoli Ballroom in Lewisham, London, is a step back into dance history. In amongst many other activities, it is the setting for the annual UK International Same-sex Ballroom and Latin Dance Competition. The event has taken place every year since 1998 to celebrate the anniversary of the Pink Jukebox social dance club in 1996 for LGBTQ people, and the competition and ball has taken place in the Rivoli Ballroom since 1999.
Arts Council England are set to invest £5 million in a new Birmingham Dance Hub. A total of £3 million will be invested over the next three years into the development of production and administrative space for dance artists and organisations – which will include office spaces, a large studio and meeting rooms which will connect to studio, performance and social spaces within the wider complex – with the remaining £2 million supporting additional dance activity.
Queensland Ballet recently joined 12 other international dance companies to showcase its Dance for Parkinson’s programme on a free online portal, created especially to celebrate the global World Dance for Parkinson’s Day on 29 April. Queensland Ballet’s home is the Thomas Dixon Centre down under in Brisbane, holding weekly Dance for Parkinson’s classes which are renowned as an important way for the company to connect with and enrich the local community and to actively contribute to research.
Southbank Centre has programmed a powerful international line-up for its summer performance and dance programme, with a host of UK premieres. The arts venue will welcome artists from across the Nordic region, as part of its 2017 exploration of Nordic culture, Nordic Matters.
Latitude Festival has announced the line up for its twelfth edition, which takes place from 13–16 July in the grounds of Henham Park, Suffolk. Latitude Festival welcomes some of the biggest names in dance and performance, celebrating BalletBoyz on the Waterfront Stage in addition to Matthew Bourne’s New Adventures, BBC Young Dancer 2017 finalists and the National Youth Dance Company.
Choreographer Alexander Whitley is a New Wave Associate at Sadler’s Wells, an associate of Rambert and an Artist Fellow at Queen Mary University London. In January 2017, Alex completed a month-long fellowship at New York University’s Center for Ballet and the Arts.
A collaboration between One Dance UK (previously Dance UK) and People Dancing (previously Foundation for Community Dance) will aim to encourage primary schools to spend more money on high quality dance provision for their students. The national dance bodies aim to tackle inactivity through the partnership, working to improve health and well-being through dance.