Magazine

Resolution! Preview: Estela Merlos

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After many years of wanting to present Avatâra Ayuso's work as part of Cloud Dance Festival, she presented an excerpt of a new work, Balikbayan, in our November 2013 festival, performed by Estela Merlos, who was then a dancer with Rambert Dance Company. She completely amazed her colleagues who had never seen her move in such ways previously, and so it was little surprise that she chose to leave Rambert soon afterwards.

Having seen her first UK choreography at the end of 2013 and had several conversations with Estela about her future plans, it was about time I interviewed her ahead of her upcoming premiere at The Place on Saturday 24 January. Tickets are still available and can be bought from here.

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We Need To Talk About Unions

Read more ...A few weeks ago, there was a huge outcry about the (then) latest audition notice from Royal Opera House, and the pittance offered as payment; Article19 originally drew attention to it, and refused to publish the notice, and the grumblings grew from there.

As we all know, the situation arose because Equity agreed a fee with ROH which has turned out to be embarrassingly and insultingly low, so now Equity has had to have a rather awkward conversation with ROH. Even more embarrassingly, ROH hasn't yet deigned to respond, but we don't want to talk about that in case we upset them.

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Preshow Speech

funny-animal-pictures-102I'd planned to give a preshow speech before tonight's Cloud Dance Friends show to help explain its background and put it in context. But after a day spent running around the theatre (literally), I figured I'd not spent enough time thinking about it or preparing for it. So here's the speech which I would have given - and many thanks to everyone who attended tonight.

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Your Feedback Required

As I mentioned previously, I'm currently seeking advice across the industry on how to make Cloud Dance Festival relevant to dance artists' needs, and so I've put together a survey asking some of the key questions I need your feedback on, for example about how people create work, what their creative process is, and what support people receive and would like to receive.

Every response provides me with invaluable insights into how people work and what needs to be done to offer the support they need, so I would be very grateful if you can take the time to fill it out. Many thanks!

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A conversation with Igor and Moreno

Read more ...I was lucky enough to catch Igor and Moreno’s ‘Idiot-Syncrasy’ at The Place as part of Spring Loaded 2014. For 50 minutes they jumped, they sang, they became tired, they persevered; they shared their beautiful, delightful attempt to change the world. Their work settled into me powerfully and clearly, and didn’t need explanation. Nevertheless, I was curious to hear these eloquent dancer-maker-thinkers elaborate on their journey of making ‘Idiot-Syncrasy,’ and on some of the influences behind it. Soon, we were mulling over not just jumping and folk songs, but concepts of ownership and agency, the cycles of history, and the importance of time in the creative process. This is an excerpt of the full interview, as a preview for tonight's show at The Place, London; for tickets, please visit www.theplace.org.uk/igor-and-moreno-0

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CDF Awakens...

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Read more ...It's been a while. Sorry about that.

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Dance Again Foundation Gala

Edward Watson as SpidermanInjury is all around us. Just yesterday, Alina Cojocaru was tweeting about it being the six-year anniversary of the surgery for a whiplash injury which could have ended her career while this morning, Lauren Cuthbertson sadly tweeted about a final-hour injury which has taken her out of the upcoming Royal Ballet performances of Manon.

For many, injury means a (substantial) recovery period before being able to return to dance, while others face a loss of confidence or not being able to dance again, and in a profession where pain is the foundation of people's everyday lives, simply having injuries checked out and treated can be one of the largest hurdles.

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John Ross Dance

Just over two years ago, the dance world gathered at Sadler's Wells to watch the showcase of the first New Adventures Choreographer Award (NACA) winner, James Cousins: a showcase which quickly led to commissions in Chile and Singapore and which saw his duet 'There We Have Been' staged by dance companies around the world.

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Dance Writers & Bloggers Sought

We are seeking to revive and expand the magazine section of our website and are seeking people interested in writing about dance and reviewing dance to contribute.

If you are a dancer, choreographer or work in the dance industry and are interested in regularly writing articles, features, conducting interviews and/or reviewing shows for us then please email us at write [at] cloud-dance-festival.org.uk including a link to your blog if you have one, and/or two samples of your writing.

Although many of the shows we review are in London, it's important to have a national perspective, so we'd like to hear from writers and reviewers from around the country.

We regret that we aren't in a position to pay our contributors, however free tickets will be offered for reviewing.

 

 

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Feed TheImp!

A few weeks ago, Twitter notified me that someone from my high school was now following the @clouddancefest Twitter account. Curious to see what the @clouddancefest timeline actually looked like, I scrolled through it, to see that it was mostly full of tweets to Article19.

Online for nearly 15 years, for many people in the dance industry today, Article19 has always been there, either as a go-to place for auditions and workshops, the site's other features, including a rich video library, or the commentary on any number of issues affecting this industry we live in.

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Ode To Audiences

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Theatres attract such diverse audiences, and yet there is one thing which all audience members have in common: a universal loathing for those people who cannot put their phone away long enough to watch a full act of a show.

It's not as though theatres leave any room for ambiguity, normally: their anti-phone stance is typically outlined on their website, cast sheets and programmes, and usually addressed in the preshow announcement. And yet we will always get those people who feel that they are nonetheless above such strictures. Oh yes, they can text, email, tweet, check Facebook and so much more during a show - and that's just for starters! And unfortunately, due to funding cuts, too few theatres have the available ushers (and really long sticks / cattle prods / tasers) to keep audience members in line.

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Nuno Silva: A Darker Shade of Fado

Nuno Silva's 'A Darker Shade of Fado' is a visually beautiful work which seeks to fuse the physicality of soul-bearing Fado music with contemporary dance, and a story of love and jealousy, set in the evocative historical old quarters of Lisbon.

Nuno Silva has worked in opera and musical theatre but is best known for his work with Henri Oguike, Javier de Frutos and Arthur Pita; while Fado has been included in his performances in recent years, this show allows him to fully explore the meeting point between dance and Fado.

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MurleyDance: 'Object of My Affection'

MurleyDance represents an enormous amount of passion, ambition and vision for Artistic Director David Murley; in spite of the challenges of sustaining a touring ballet company in this country, MurleyDance is now in its third year, and on its second nationwide tour with the first of this year's two mixed bills.

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In conversation with Drew McOnie– Part II

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This is a continuation of a conversation between Elise Nuding and Drew McOnie in relation to The McOnie Company’s new production of Drunk. Read Part I here.

Elise Nuding: To my contemporary-dance oriented eye, ‘Drunk’ is a musical theatre show. The choreography itself, its specific physicalities, are very theatrical, and are what I associate with musical theatre. This is not a criticism, but that is how I perceived it…

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In conversation with Drew McOnie - Part I

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Drew McOnie is the artistic director of the recently-launched McOnie Company, and choreographer/director of the new ‘theatre dance’ show, Drunk. Drunk is seventy-five minutes of alcohol-themed, high-energy song and dance, performed by an impressive eight-strong cast of dancer-singers and an excellent live band. It left me very entertained, but triggered many thoughts and questions about what it is that we do as dancers/choreographers and who we do it for. To unpack some of these thoughts, I sat down with Drew to hear a little more about the ideas behind Drunk. In this two-part conversation we pondered everything from bridging gaps within the industry and the importance of process, to accessibility and the role of stereotypes.

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Probe: 'Running On Empty'

Probe’s Running on Empty offers an eerie world inhabited by three individuals simultaneously detached from and tangled up with one another. Through a combination of music, sung vocals, spoken text, and movement, narratives are suggested, but never explained. The work opens with Probe’s Artistic Director Antonia Grove singing to Scott Smith’s folksy, bluesy sounds. As Grove steps back from the microphone, Greig Cooke’s twisting, articulate movements, punctuated by questions directed at Grove, set the tone for their tangled, convoluted relationship.

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Resolution! Suse Tietjen, Lucy Palmer Dance, Ihsaan De Banya & Kenny Wing Tao Ho

Suse Tietjen's 'Brother Of Sleep' stood out when I was researching the works in this year's Resolution: somewhere, I came across a blog explaining that Johannes Elias Alder, a fictional Austrian musical genius, was struggling with unrequited love when he was told "a true lover never sleeps", and so took his own life, having resolved never to sleep again. This was certainly a rich story to tackle through abstract dance.

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Resolution! Anecdotal Evidence, Pell Ensemble, Daisy Farris Dance Collective

The Laban crowds were out in force for the first Friday of Resolution 2014, with works by Laban CAT teacher William Aitchison and recent Transitions graduate Daisy Farris - as witnessed by the hearty response to one of William's jokes about Laban graduates at the start of a very mixed night of dance.

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