Cohan At 90

Robert Cohan At 90The end of March saw the iconic Robert Cohan CBE, the father of British contemporary dance, celebrate his 90th birthday. As part of the celebrations, The Place announced the inaugural Cohan Lecture and re-launch of the Cohan Scholarship at the gala event on Thursday 26 March, and again on Friday 27 March when the event was open to the public too. The special gala event celebrated the immense contribution the legendary choreographer continues to make to dance in the UK, premiering a new work choreographed for 2015 on Liam Riddick of Richard Alston Dance Company.

The Place’s lecture series aims to cultivate lively debate around topical issues, named as the Cohan Lectures, in honour of the lively and enquiring mind of its founding Artistic Director and Patron, Robert Cohan. The first of these, entitled ‘What Matters?’, will see two of the great creative thinkers of our time, Sir Ken Robinson and Cohan, debate this question on Thursday 11 June at The Place. The lectures will run annually, inviting high profile speakers from a broad range of industries and backgrounds to continue this debate.

The re-launched Cohan Scholarship aims to support driven, talented students at London Contemporary Dance School who are in their final year, at the brink of their professional careers, to realise their potential. With donations made by supporters and guests in advance of the event, over £18,000 has already been raised, and the fund is now open for future donations. The scholarship is a way of making sure talents are excelled and potentials as independent artists are realised. The Cohan Scholarship will be awarded annually to students from London Contemporary Dance School’s BA Hons programme to support their training. The scholarship will support named students with exceptional potential in performance.

Breakin’ Convention – International Festival of Hip Hop Dance Theatre

Breakin' ConventionThe international hip hop festival – Breakin’ Convention – will run from 1-4 May at Sadler’s Wells and Lilian Baylis Studio. Breakin’ Convention has firmly established itself as one of the major highlights on the British dance calendar and one of the world’s greatest celebrations of hip hop culture. 2015 will see performances from UK and international companies and crews, the 12th year of this hugely popular Sadler’s Wells Production, hosted and curated by Associate Artist Jonzi D.

While Breakin’ Convention is an event for the whole family, for the first time this year there will be an adult-only evening of entertainment in the Lilian Baylis Studio, an intimate show blending stylish cabaret, circus, live music and burlesque with hip hop. The main festival on Saturday 2 and Sunday 3 May sees Sadler’s Wells’ foyer transformed with live DJs, freestyle dance jams, graffiti exhibitions, workshops from top international artists and live aerosol art. Participatory activities will take place pre-show and during the interval. Full line-up to be announced 12 March 2015.

Artistic Director of Breakin’ Convention and Jonzi D Projects, Jonzi D has been actively involved in British hip hop culture in clubs and on the street since its genesis in the early 1980s. Since graduating from the London Contemporary Dance School, he has been committed to the development of hip hop theatre, in his former role as Associate Artist at The Place and by creating and performing dance theatre pieces worldwide.

Breakin’ Convention is committed to celebrating, elevating and supporting hip hop dance theatre: the company works with the most respected, innovative and inspirational hip hop artists in the industry. Through its world-renowned international festival, professional development, youth projects and educational programme, Breakin’ Convention seeks to position hip hop dance alongside more historically established artforms.

The Resolution! Programme

Resolution! 2015Resolution! – the biggest annual showcase for dance in the UK – returns to The Place from 8 January to 21 February 2015. Each night is a triple-bill, profiling 84 companies across 28 nights in a huge celebration and support of new choreographic talent.

This platform offers a springboard for the latest dance trends. These performances draw on diverse choreographic sources ranging from Indian classical dance to hip-hop, ballet, capoeira and physical theatre, and deal with themes of gender, sexuality, emotional turmoil, immigration, cultural rituals and traditions, as well as literary and scientific influences. By providing a safe creative environment, Resolution! has supported some of the greatest UK-based contemporary choreographers, including Wayne McGregor, Hofesh Shechter, Kate Prince, and more recently, James Cousins.

Highlights of the 2015 programme include The Ashes: Dance Collective created by former Phoenix dancers, Estela Merlos who has performed with Northern Ballet Theatre and DV8, Joan Clevillé who has choreographed for Scottish Dance Theatre and worked with Lost Dog, Yukiko Masui who has worked with Rosie Kay Dance Theatre and Avant Garde, Joshua Beamish’s duet for Royal Ballet artists Nicol Edmonds and Matthew Ball and the National Centre for Circus Arts. Finally, Breakin’ Convention will co-present two companies exploring themes of race and masculinity as a fraction of the talent to be discovered throughout Resolution!

The festival was created in 1990 and leads in facilitating the difficult transition from vocational dance training to the professional performance world. By the end of this 26th edition Resolution! will have presented almost 2,000 dance companies. Supported by The Place’s professional team, Resolution! companies not only receive technical advice but also take part in a series of workshops to provide a comprehensive insight into all aspects of the profession, from lighting and design, press, marketing and social media, to project management and applying for funding.

Richard Alston Dance Company’s Autumn 2014 Tour

Richard Alston Dance CompanyThis autumn acclaimed choreographer Richard Alston is reviving his classic piece Overdrive, exhilarating non-stop dance to the pulsating rhythms of Californian minimalist Terry Riley. The ten dancers of Richard Alston Dance Company will perform to Riley’s relentless musical patterning, in intricate movements and sounds.

Overdrive is one of 12 prescribed professional works for GCSE Dance on the AQA syllabus: Richard Alston Dance Company has produced a teacher’s resource pack to accompany this which can be downloaded from the beginning of the school autumn term at www.richardalstondance.com. Launched in 1994, Richard Alston Dance Company is one of the UK’s leading choreographer-led companies, for which its founder Artistic Director Richard Alston has created over 40 dance-works. Richard Alston is also Artistic Director of The Place, London’s leading centre for contemporary dance, where the company is based. The company focuses on Alston’s new choreography but combines this with the re-creation of past works from Alston’s career.

The company’s upcoming tour opens on 26 September with the world premiere of Martin Lawrance’s brand new commission from the Festival Theatre, Edinburgh. This new dance is inspired by the passionately intense Dante Sonata of Franz Liszt, which will be played live by pianist Jason Ridgway. Lawrance is rapidly becoming known for his musically alert and inventive choreography, including last season’s immensely successful Madcap for Richard Alston Dance Company. Alongside Overdrive, the programme is completed by Alston’s most recent work Rejoice in the Lamb.

Another highpoint of the season will be the company’s return to Peak Performances, Montclair State University, New Jersey in that the company has been selected to celebrate Peak Performances’ tenth anniversary. An all-live music evening includes Rejoice in the Lamb, to the music of Benjamin Britten, sung live by Vocal Accord. This is only the third time it has been performed with a live choir. Also performed live will be Hölderlin Fragments, an intimate cycle of Britten songs for voice and piano, and Illuminations, Alston’s 1993 choreography of Britten’s masterpiece.

Dance For Young People At The Place

The PlaceYoung people in the capital are asked to watch, learn, create and perform this summer as part of The Place’s summer activities throughout July. It is a month packed with exciting dance for children, young people and families. The hugely popular Something Happening For Kids family festival then returns on 19 July to take the under 10s and their families on a whirlwind tour of dance. For older children there is Summer Fusion, a five-day summer school for young people aged 6-16, which starts on 28 July.

The Place will present two events that showcase the quality and creativity of the young dancers who participate in the Children and Youth Dance programmes at The Place; Without Compromise and All Over The Place. All proceeds raised through ticket sales will go towards the Iris Tomlinson Fund which helps children from all backgrounds fulfil their dancing potential by providing small bursaries to help with the cost of their dance classes at The Place.

All Over The Place will see young dancers aged 5-15 take audiences on an exploration of movement on 5 July. There will be site-specific performances, where you could find anything, from haunted houses to superheroes in training. The tour culminates with a simple dance which audiences can take part in, inspired by the national Big Dance celebrations. On 12 July The Place will present new work created for and by young artists aged 10-18, Without Compromise. The platform gives young dance makers a voice and opportunity to develop their choreographic skills and style, supported by professional dance artists and expert technical staff.

Summer Fusion is a five day summer school from 28 July-1 August for dancers who enjoy being creative. Participants will work with highly skilled dance artists, and live music will feature in all technique classes allowing young dancers to develop their musicality. The creative sessions will also allow them to explore innovative movement, working creatively to produce short dance pieces that will be shared on the final day.

The Place Presents EDge: New Generation Of Dance Artists

The PlaceEDge, The Place’s postgraduate company, has taken to the road with an energetic and dramatic programme of dance from 24 March – 13 July. The 12 talented dancers will perform a selection of work by commissioned choreographers Ben Wright, Joe Moran, Idan Cohen, Maya Levy, and work by Trisha Brown (Canto Pianto (1998)) – the first time this piece has been performed in the UK by a company other than Trisha Brown – and Yael Flexer (The Living Room [an extract] (2010-11)).

The international tour opens in Plymouth and will visit venues such as Hexham, Leeds, Dundee, Exeter, Naples, Salzburg, Swansea, Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Arcos de Valdevez and London.

The varied repertoire will showcase the artistic and technical excellence of the dancers. With moments of dramatic suspense, tenderness and frantic energy, EDge’s dancers perform a collection of work that’s both light hearted and intense. Accompanied by electronic and operatic sound score the range of narrative and abstract dance is moulded by the selection of internationally acclaimed choreographers.

Led by Artistic Director Jeanne Yasko, EDge, the postgraduate performance company of London Contemporary Dance School is now in its 14th year. Each year new dancers are selected through a rigorous audition process and the most exciting and talented students are chosen to join the company. EDge has built a reputation for embracing a range of different styles of contemporary dance, performed by outstanding artists at a key stage of their professional development.

The period spent with EDge gives each individual an invaluable insight into creating, rehearsing and touring work as a professional company. The programme for EDge students is closely integrated with other postgraduate studies at London Contemporary Dance School, and the range of artist development opportunities for artists at all career stages offered by The Place.

Resolution! At The Place for 2014

Resolution! @ The PlaceThe Place once again opened it’s annual Resolution! festival up to reviewers who wish to be partnered by a professional critic and pass judgment on some of the UK’s most promising new dance companies. The Place has engaged with audiences and participants, championed the best ideas, and created inspiring conditions for artists and enthusiasts to realise their potential for over forty years, including that of Resolution!. Combining London Contemporary Dance School, Richard Alston Dance Company and the Robin Howard Dance Theatre, together with pioneering learning, teaching, outreach, recreation and professional development projects The Place champions contemporary dance in particular, and all its strands.

The Place’s approaches to participation, education, creation and performance inform each other, respond to today’s world, and embrace risks to build on the achievements of dance history and to transform and enrich lives. By shaping where dance is going next The Place offers a multitude of opportunities to see new dance, take part in something new or join discussions about key concepts and critical issues for the world of dance today. In particular, Resolution! has become one of the biggest dance festivals in the UK, showcasing new works by emerging choreographers each year at The Place running from Tuesday 14 January to Saturday 15 February 2014.

In a cross-section of the programmes included in the wide spectrum of the Resolution! programme, 29 January presented varying standards and degrees of entertainment. The first programme saw Rachel Burn’s ‘Threshold’ shine with a haunting intensity, the piece inspired by the poetry of Walt Whitman. Despite Burn replacing a dancer due to injury, she was assured and strong in her performance alongside the other two original dancers. A strong bond was evident between these three dancers, their black costuming providing a stark contrast to the extra long white dress Burn sported as she offered herself to the audience in a silent pride.

Treacle Holasz – Today’s Pioneer

Treacle HolaszTreacle Holasz is an emerging Irish, Ukrainian choreographer who combines her eclectic heritage to create comical and engaging physical theatre. Her latest piece ‘Why Fronts: A Contemporary Lap Dance’ is being showcased as part of The Place’s Resolution! 2014 festival.

When did you begin dancing, where and why?

At around the age of 4 my mother’s friend, Lucy, gave us some Tchaikovsky recordings, that I would put on and dance around the room doing faux ballet; I had so much fun that my mother started to take me to ballet classes at our local YMCA. Then, like so many of my dance friends, I regrettably stopped taking classes, and it wasn’t until the age of 12 that I rediscovered my passion for dance and creating movement. My skills were nurtured at The Place as part of the first year of their CAT scheme and their youth company – Shift.

What were your early years of dancing like?

So incredibly fun! One of the reasons I love teaching dance workshops and community projects now is because you can see in others the sheer excitement to learn! I have always been ambitious, from a young age I juggled studying for my GCSEs alongside attending dance classes every night of the week. Thankfully I have wonderfully supportive parents who worked very hard to not only pay for my lessons but drive me to classes. Despite never having experienced contemporary dance themselves, they have always encouraged me. I think it’s really empowering to be young and discover a past time that requires both discipline and creativity.

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

I was painfully shy, up until the age of 17, so I was really only comfortable when I was performing. I performed throughout my school years, Shift in particular was a great and formative experience; as well making some great lifelong friends I was also given the opportunity to work with incredible choreographers like Martin Lawrence, Tom Dale and Zoi Dimitriou. I continued to perform throughout my training and on graduating performed with The March Performance Group. We were real pioneers, a group of feminists lead by American thinker Kate March. Shortly after, I met Cypriot choreographer Marina Poyiadji and we were commissioned by the European Union in 2012 to create and present a duet in Cyprus entitled ‘DECLARE WHAT’.

This work was an intensely intimate process, working together so closely we were almost able to second guess each others next movement. This collaboration sparked my interest in vocal rhythms of language, a device which I explore more throughly in my latest piece ‘Why-Fronts – A Contemporary Lap Dance’.

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

I trained for 2 years at Lewisham College. It was fantastically brutal, we were like a dance army, we’d get in for around 8.30am to warm up then have classes from 9am-5pm, then if you were working on choreography you sometimes didn’t get away till 8pm.

I was very privileged to learn under Buddy Watkins and Ragnhild Olsen, both very different but really memorable teachers. After Lewisham I briefly went up to Northern School of Contemporary Dance but I couldn’t leave London so I decided I wanted a choreography based degree, there are some really fantastic university courses. I chose Middlesex University; a typical day was pretty varied but generally speaking you had two technique classes. The choreography classes were always my favourite as from the start there was a clear emphasis on discovering our own choreographic voice. I set up a company in my second year called DRA – we would perform choreographies at London venues to live bands and DJs, and loads of our fellow Middlesex dancers turned up in support. It was and is a really friendly, approachable atmosphere and I’m excited to be teaching a choreography workshop on 3 February at Middlesex, hopefully acting as a springboard for more collaborations in the future!

What is a typical day like now?

Very different, literally every day is different! Freelancing is tough but you feel like you make yourself achieve and every day counts. Rehearsals for my current piece
begin with tea and a quick gossip, then we all lay down, we do a series of set breathings and face warms ups then we start creating noise, warming up our lungs from there we will begin to move first improvised then into our more set material with my wonderful dancers Georges Hans and Charlie Ford. Some days I teach and rehearse with The Meyer Dancers (a 1960’s GoGo group founded by Holasz). Whenever possible I try and a fit in a hot chocolate with my friend Ruby Isla to discuss fun ways to promote my work through social media, and how to spread the word about the various choreographic workshops that I offer, with the aim of enabling others to discover their unique choreographic voice.

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

When I was at Uni I did take class at The Place, but as a freelancer I can’t commit from one week to the next in case I’m performing or teaching – so I really rely on drop in classes. My personal 2014 resolution is to take up a ballet class again, I think it’s a technique you just fall in love with again as you get older. It’s a bit like being an artist when you learn first draw, you use a pencil, then you get excited by inks, water colours and oil and you sort of take the pencil for granted but without the pencil the painting is arguably a mess so with the discipline of the pencil you find a freedom to be creative. So you could say that Ballet is my pencil, Ha!

What’s the best part of performing?

When you see someone in the audience smile or laugh or even just look you dead in the eye and you think “YES! They get it”. I think it’s far harder to make an audience laugh and connect with you as a human being rather than an unobtainable ‘performer’. I never want to lose sight of the fact that dance should be enjoyable escapism. I’m a born entertainer: if you are paying us money, I want you to go home thinking “We just got entertained.” A personal pet peeve of mine is when I go and see a work and company are so self indulgent that they appear to be enjoying the evening more than the audience.

What piece will you be performing at Resolution!? What is it about?

I’m really proud of this work called ‘Why Fronts: A Contemporary Lap Dance’ (or if you are on the twitter-sphere, #Yfronts). Essentially it is a piece which explores the influence that gender has on society’s attitude towards movement, questioning why certain movements performed by a woman are viewed as provocative, whereas exactly the same movements or pose performed by a man are deemed
animalistic? We are also debating whether the popular but controversial dance form of a lap dance should be considered pro or anti-feminist? My dancers Georges and Charlie had a workshop with acclaimed pole dancer VEGAS (Sasha Allen) in the art of pole and seduction; she has been really influential in the work as she gave us such a frank account of her professional working life.

Which part of contemporary dance do you enjoy most?

I love moving the most, physically dancing. It is a varied and rich style and to an extent it is a misunderstood style that is often under represented – I’d like to see it be given a lot more coverage. I strongly believe that people should be encouraged to feel OK if they “don’t get it”, the wondrous nature of contemporary dance is that is doesn’t have a linear and one dimensional narrative, it isn’t something that needs to be ‘got’ or understood fully, but more emphasis needs to be placed on works being created purely for enjoyment purposes.

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

Not to listen to advice! There really is no magic recipe or clear path into any creative industry. I think you can carve your own path and make your own opportunities; you don’t always need to rely on platforms or funding awards, put on events with people whose work you dig and venues you love and just make things happen, your way.

What’s next for you? When are you performing at Resolution?

We are performing on 11 February – we really want to have fun with the piece, it’s going to be more like a party than a performance, There’s a strong cultural influence from my Irish Ukrainian heritage so we have a live Bodhran player Tad Sargent joining us, we are also asking some of the audience to join us on stage, then there is talk of vodka shots… My dashing dancers be stripping down to their Yfronts so it really is one for the diary! We both hope to tour the work and also to teach our choreography workshops alongside it to dancers of all abilities. At Holasz Choreography we are all about remembering, creating and having a ruddy good time!

You can keep up to date with future dates, plans and gossip here:

  • https://www.facebook.com/holaszchoreography
  • or @holaszchoreog on Twitter

Why-Fronts – A Contemporary Lap Dance is part of a triple bill and is being performed alongside Jenni Wren’s Slanjayvah Danza: MinorTears and LCP Dance Theatre’s Am I. For tickets and more information please visit http://t.co/TALKUlBSZ4

Body Of Knowledge

ResCenEarly November saw the launch of a new strand of ResCen, the Research Centre of Middlesex University. This strand is dedicated to the reaching and works of Robert Cohan, a dancer with the Martha Graham Dance Company and now a teacher and choreographer in his own right.

Cohan went on to establish The Place, London, with Robin Howard, and London Contemporary Dance Theatre, bringing a specific style of contemporary dance to the UK.

The students at Middlesex University are taught the Cohan method of the Graham technique by Anne Donnelly, a student descendant, passed down from teacher to student to teacher again, creating a legacy which is both complemented and supported by ResCen. The Cohan method does not differ widely from pure Graham technique; the principles of movement remain the same, just with the additions of Cohan’s profound teaching method and incorporation of the body and mind.

Robert Cohan, is the founding artistic director of The Place alongside Robin Howard, who financed the years following The Place’s inception. It was born from the journey of the Martha Graham technique from America to London by Cohan, seeing his work and legacy documented in by his colleagues and students to preserve his teaching method and also include interviews about his ethos and various works.

Now The Place is home to many contemporary and jazz classes, alongside the Richard Alston Dance Company and London Contemporary Dance School, no longer London Contemporary Dance Theatre which became the recipient company of London Contemporary Dance School students. The Place offers termly classes in techniques such as Release, Cunningham, Limón and Graham, alongside some ballet and jazz.

Resolution! Review: Calling Dance Writers

The PlaceThe Place is once again opening it’s annual Resolution! festival up to reviewers who wish to be partnered by a professional critic and pass judgment on some of the UK’s most promising new dance companies. The Place has engaged with audiences and participants, championed the best ideas, and created inspiring conditions for artists and enthusiasts to realise their potential for over forty years, including that of Resolution!. Combining London Contemporary Dance School, Richard Alston Dance Company and the Robin Howard Dance Theatre, together with pioneering learning, teaching, outreach, recreation and professional development projects The Place champions contemporary dance in particular, and all its strands.

The Place’s approaches to participation, education, creation and performance inform each other, respond to today’s world, and embrace risks to build on the achievements of dance history and to transform and enrich lives. By shaping where dance is going next The Place offers a multitude of opportunities to see new dance, take part in something new or join discussions about key concepts and critical issues for the world of dance today. In particular, Resolution! has become one of the biggest dance festivals in the UK, showcasing new works by emerging choreographers each year at The Place running from Tuesday 14 January to Saturday 15 February 2014.

As a result, Resolution! Review is an online platform covering the entire festival. Supported by a team of national newspaper critics, who are paired with a team of young writers, mentored by the professional dance critics. Each show is reviewed by both and each review is promoted by The Place, who are now on the lookout for reviewers for Resolution! 2014. The festival does not require technical dance experts, just excellent writers who can communicate responses honestly and in an engaging fashion. The successful applicants will have access to seminars providing opportunities to ask questions around current working practices.