greenroom

Following funding cuts announced earlier this year, greenroom, Manchester’s only dedicated new performance venue for nearly quarter of a century, is closing down. I have been performing and creating work at this very interesting and friendly venue, and am very sad to hear about the news. Their extraordinary legacy is currently being documented on their online archive

New audiences at Laban Theatre

Laban Theatre has yielded a plan to offer complementary tickets for local residents to see the premier of TRAFFIC on the 17th March. The aim was to increase the awareness of Laban Theatre within the local community. This video contains the views and opinions of some of those who came to that performance.

Premiere at Laban Theatre and first review

A few days after our premier at Laban Theatre I found our first review here. Thank you everyone for coming to see the performances and we are really looking forwards now to our next shows!

Final Rehearsals

 

We are in our final rehearsal stages and I have started to talk to Jackie Shemesh about ideas for the lighting design.

An advocate for independent dance artists

Gill Clarke is one of my favorite dance artists and I am very happy to hear that she just won the Jane Attenborough Dance UK Industry Award at the Critics' Circle National Dance Awards at Sadler’s Wells.  The writing says:

The Jane Attenborough Dance UK Industry Award honours an individual working in dance who has made an outstanding contribution to the art form and who, through their knowledge, skill and generosity, has had a significant effect on dance. The winner is chosen following an open nomination process, making the winner someone who is truly respected and admired by their colleagues.
 
Gill’s nominations for the award cited the importance of her impact as an advocate for independent dance artists. Also, her generosity, offering time and advice to support fellow artists, resulting in her being recognised as a major influence on the careers of many independent dance artists and choreographers.

 Gill in her award acceptance letter says: “I would like to accept the award on behalf of Independent Dance Artists – that powerful and under-acknowledged workforce that is made up of all those artists who work in the demanding freedom outside the relative security of institutions. These multi-talented artists are vital to the Dance ecology – they are the performers or choreographers of most of the contemporary work seen around the country, they act as bridge-builders, connecting a public of all ages to the rewards of engaging with dance, they teach and inspire the next generation of artists as well as established company members, and most importantly their investment and passion generates knowledge that will help us to keep re-defining Dance, ideas that will find their way into mainstream theatres such as this – and new choreographic forms in media and contexts that we cannot yet imagine.”

As an independent artist, Gill Clarke has spent her careers as a dancer, choreographer, curator, producer, teacher, mentor, researcher and has influenced many other artists. She is also the co-director of Independent Dance

Out of the studio

We had a rich and intensive day last Sunday at Northampton University, that gave me many new ideas of how to develop the work. I taught a workshop for Northants Dance and saw a performance of "Counting Piece", a short silent work for 8 dancers that I have created this summer with the student's company Playgrounds, which is directed by Matt Gough. What I really enjoyed about the seeing the students perform was their commitment to the materials and to the spirit of a group piece, which has a quite different feel to the more intimate trio we are making. Then we presented our work in progress followed by a talk. I decided to present a lot more material than before and some of it was still very raw. Vida Midgelow, who is a reader for dance and performance at the university, led the session. What are the most memorable moments after watching the two pieces? How would you describe the works if they were not a dance piece but something else? What is the performance quality of the work? Why did you decide to work with live music? The stillness and movement of the accordion was one thing that was picked up by the audience, how to capture it in a satisfying way?

Photos by Zoe Plummer