This July Phoenix Dance Theatre delivered their second Choreographers & Composers Lab, funded by Jerwood Arts with match funding from Leeds Dance Partnership.
The 2019 Lab brought together four choreographers, four composers,
12 professional dancers and four musicians for a two-week intensive led by
Phoenix Dance Theatre’s Artistic Director Sharon
Watson and Musical Director Alexander
Campkin.
Week one saw the participants take part in workshops delivered by guest lecturers Kim Brandstrup, Peter Wiegold, Sandrine Monin and Nadine Benjamin, with the creative tasks focusing on experimentation and collaboration. In week two, each choreographer was paired with a composer and together the duos put the techniques explored in week one into practice, devising original choreography and composition. At the end of the two weeks, all involved in the process came together for a studio sharing to invited industry guests where the choreographers and composers shared their creative explorations.
Sharon Watson said:
I am absolutely delighted with the outcome of our second Choreographers & Composers Lab. To bring together 24 creative minds and see them experiment, challenge one another and create has been incredibly rewarding. Creative Labs have played a massive part in my professional development and to be able to offer a Lab that crosses disciplines is invaluable and wouldn’t be possible without the generous support of Jerwood Arts and Leeds Dance Partnership. I can’t wait to see what the 2019 CC Lab cohort do next.
At Leeds Dance Partnership, we are proud to have supported this exciting project and to attend the sharing itself to see the excellent work created. To find out about more artistic development opportunities like the CC Labs, visit our Projects & Opportunities page and join our newsletter.
Last month Northern Ballet presented Springboard, a three-day course for early career dance artists and recent graduates. Leeds Dance Partnership were proud to have supported the course with bursaries to cover course fees for four participants.
The course covered the basic knowledge and skills freelance dancers need to set themselves up, ensure they understand their responsibilities, and manage themselves as a business. This included sessions on financial management, marketing and social media, how to fill in a tax return, legal considerations and a one-day First Aid for Dance course by Underwood Training.
All of the participants said that the course helped them to feel more confident to set themselves up or deliver work as a self-employed artist, with lots of positive feedback:
‘Engaging and fun in a supportive and inspiring environment’
‘Incredibly beneficial and informative’
We’re so pleased that the course was a success and wish all of the Springboard participants the best of luck for their future careers.
Phoenix Dance Theatre is delighted to announce the names of the eight participants taking part in the 2019 Choreographers and Composers Lab. Solomon Berrio-Allen, Jamaal Burkmar, Harriet Macauley and Michael Marquez are the four selected choreographers taking part in the Lab and Anthony Davey, Eunseog Lee, Christella Litras and Angela Slater are the four successful composers.
Funded by Jerwood Arts and Leeds Dance Partnership, the Choreographers and Composers Lab brings together the eight participants for a two week intensive where they will be mentored by Phoenix Dance Theatre’s Artistic Director, Sharon Watson, and composer, creative director and cultural activist, Shirley J. Thompson.
The eight
participants will be joined by eight professional dancers and four musicians to
support their creative explorations. During the intensive the Choreographers
and Composers will take part in guest lectures delivered by industry
professionals and be set creative tasks aimed at expanding their knowledge of
collaboration.
The 2019 Lab
focuses on broadening the artists’ creative capabilities rather than the
production of a final work, to give those taking part the freedom to take risks
and experiment.
A little about the participating artists:
Solomon Berrio-Allen
Solomon is an award-winning
choreographer and freelance dance artist based between London and the South
East. Training originally in breakdance Solomon then went on to train on the
Trinity Laban CAT scheme and later at P.A.R.T.S, Brussels and Rambert School of
ballet and contemporary dance. In 2017 Solomon was awarded the first place
prize at the Copenhagen International Choreographic Competition for his work Helium.
Jamaal Burkmar
Jamaal Burkmar is
a choreographer and movement director based in the Midlands. He has been the
recipient of countless awards and commissions such as: One Dance UK’s Trailblazer Fellowship, New Adventures Choreography
Award and the choreodrome commission awarded by the The Place. Jamaal’s
choreographic style takes influence from the R&B music that he choreographs
to.
Harriet Macauley
Harriet Macauley is
a choreographer, Artistic Director and founder of InDance, Barcelona. As a
dancer she has performed with Wayne McGregor Random Dance, Rambert and Richard
Alston Dance Company.
Michael Marquez
Michael Marquez
is a current company dancer with Phoenix Dance Theatre based in Leeds. As a
choreographer he defines himself as an admirer of problem solving with a liking
for complex group dynamics, poetic and theatrical devices and narrative themes
often infused with a spark of lightness and joy. Michael trained at the
Julliard School in New York and upon graduation was awarded the Juilliard
Career Advancement Fellowship to pursue and develop his choreographic voice. He
has created both site specific and more classical proscenium dance works.
Anthony Davey
Anthony is a composer and music producer based in West
Yorkshire. Anthony has composed music for a variety of mediums and most notably
was commissioned to write and record the full score and theme music for the
BBC1 series, Home from Home, starring
Johnny Vegas and Emilia Fox which aired in March/April 2018.
Eunseog Lee
Eunseog is a
composer and educator based in Coventry. He holds a Master’s in music
composition from the University of Oxford. Eunseog’s compositions are often
inspired by religious narratives and infuses Korean instruments with Western.
Christella Litras
Christella is a
composer, music director and educator based in Leeds. She has worked with a
range of organisations including Leeds Playhouse and Opera North working on
both original commissions and with their youth groups. Christella has performed
with the likes of Rihanna and been a support act for Beverly Knight and Jamiroquai.
Angela Slater
Dr Angela Slater is a composer based in Staffordshire. She is also the Founder and Artistic Director of the Illuminate series. In her AHRC-funded PhD in composition at the University of Nottingham, Angela developed an interest in incorporating different aspects of the natural world into her compositions. She has been working on a series of works that engage with the natural world, musically mapping certain aspects into the fabric of her music.
On Saturday 18
May, the Grand Final of BBC Young Dancer saw Northern School of Contemporary
Dance student Max Revell awarded the 2019 title. Broadcast on BBC Two from the
Birmingham Hippodrome, Max competed alongside five dancers between 16-21 years
old from the Ballet, Contemporary, South Asian and Street Dance categories.
A student on
NSCD’s BA (Hons) Dance (Contemporary) course, Max was given a Wildcard entry to
the Grand Final after just missing out in the Street Dance category. After
performing three stunning pieces – a self-choreographed solo Subject Number
6, a duet with former winner Tom Hughes Lloyd titled Stranger, and a
solo choreographed by Dickson Mbi named Unstrung – he was named BBC
Young Dancer 2019.
Alongside Max
two more talented NSCD students, Max Cookward and Adanna Lawrence, made the
Contemporary category final. Max is a former student of both the Northern
Ballet and NSCD CAT programmes, while Adanna aspires to go on to join VERVE,
the postgraduate company of NSCD.
Leeds-based choreographers also shone in this year’s competition. Kenneth Tindall, Artistic Director of Digital and Choreographer in Residence for Northern Ballet, choreographed Solo for C for finalist Chloe Keneally. Kenneth was awarded the Outstanding Achievement in a new Dance Production at the Broadway World UK Awards 2017 and has been nominated for several other high-profile awards including Best Classical Choreography at the National Dance Awards. He saw his first full-length ballet, Casanova, broadcast on SkyArts and Digital Theatre. He is currently creating a new full-length work for Northern Ballet, Geisha, to be premièred in 2020. Sharon Watson, Artistic Director of Phoenix Dance Theatre, choreographed Me, myself & I for finalist Max Rawcliffe, a young contemporary dancer. Sharon has previously lectured at the Northern School of Contemporary Dance and as Artistic Director of Phoenix was named Yorkshire Woman of the Year in 2017. Sharon received the first English Women’s Award for Arts and Culture in 2018, was named as one of the Cultural Leadership Programme’s Women to Watch and has created numerous acclaimed new works for Phoenix Dance Theatre including Windrush (2018) and Melt (2011).
Monday 29 April is International Dance Day, a day to celebrate all things dance. To get in on the action, Leeds Dance Partnership will be taking over Art Council England’s Instagram, so make sure you’re following them for updates on @aceagrams.
The
BBC’s #DancePassion was a
celebration of the UK’s flourishing dance scene in collaboration with One Dance
UK. #DancePassion week ran from 31 March –
6 April with a full day of livestreaming on Friday 5 April from
dance hubs around the UK.
Leeds
was the only livestream hub in the North of England, hosted by Northern School
of Contemporary Dance. Featured videos
included Dancing on My
Own by Sara Lindstrom, commissioned by Yorkshire
Dance, and performances from Leeds artists DAZL, RJC Dance, Möbius Dance, Akeim Toussaint
Buck, Phoenix Dance Theatre, Kenneth Tindall / Northern Ballet, DeNada Dance
Theatre and Gracefool Collective were live streamed and can still be viewed
on the Dance
Passion website.
We
are delighted to announce that João Maio is
joining our board as an independent representative.
João is an independent dance artist and creative producer based in Leeds. He has worked with companies such as Carlos Pons Guerra’s DeNada Dance Theatre and Rosie Kay Dance Company.
After completing an MA in Dance and Creative Enterprise, and the 2018 UK tour of Rosie Kay Dance Company’s MK Ultra, João started working part-time as a Creative Producer for Open Source Arts, a grass-roots community development organisation.
João joins
us at the end of the month as we say goodbye to Rachel Fullegar of Gracefool Collective
as she comes to the end of her term on the board.
The
Independent Board Member place is now a 12 month appointment
and we are developing activity to engage with more independent voices.
Leeds Dance Partnership is excited to support Transform festival 19. Transform celebrates the independent and adventurous spirit of Leeds focusing on reimagining what theatre can look like.
This year, the Festival runs from 26 April – 4 May at venues across Leeds. Leeds Dance Partnership are supporting #PUNK by Nora Chipaumire and Daimόn by Luis Gray
Leeds Dance Partnership offers support for independent artists through its Artist Fellowship scheme. As part of the scheme artists work with a host organisation in response to a creative brief, developing strong relationship between independent artists and major organisations in Leeds. The artists receive a fee, a training budgets for their own development and support throughout their fellowship from both their host organisation and other partners.
The incredible artists in our 2019 Fellowship are:
Vanessa Grasse – Artist Fellow at Leeds Beckett University
Hannah Buckley – Artist Fellow at Northern School of Contemporary Dance
Jamaal Burkmar – Artist Fellow at Phoenix Dance Theatre
Lucy Suggate – Artist Fellow at Yorkshire Dance
At the end of the fellowship, the artists and organisations will share their learnings or created works at an event open to the public and industry guests.
