An introduction to Rugby Youth Dance Company!

An quick introduction to Rugby Youth Dance Company from its members...

Rugby Youth Dance. You may have heard of us, but then again, you may not. We have been dancing together since September this year and we already feel like we have achieved a lot. We have recently performed in the sub regional youth dance showcase at Solihull Arts Complex amongst various dance and physical theatre companies. We felt like this was a good goal to achieve and a real challenge as we had only been dancing together for a few weeks, but we worked and worked and we all agree that the final outcome was phenomenal! We performed very well together like a professional company and since then have gone on from strength to strength. All of Rugby Youth Dance thoroughly enjoyed the chance to perform and we all hope that we will be able to take part in something like that again sometime in the future. The showcase really tested all of Rugby Youth Dance members to trust one another. We all felt the pressure as we were dancing alongside many other dance groups, some of which had been together for the best part of five years.

So where do we hope to go from here? Well, we hope to dance in different places and at different showcases and events - but this can only be made possible with funding help for costumes and travelling.

"We really enjoyed performing on the stage in front of our first audience, it was challenging and enjoyable at the same time. We feel much closer as a company now and are ready for anything our next performance is ready to throw at us!" - from all at Rugby Youth Dance.

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And on that note, I would just like to say how thrilled we are at Dancescape that Rugby Youth Dance Company has got off to such a fantastic start this term - real testament to the leaders' and members' commitment and dedication. When you see or meet the company, it's like they've all known each other and been dancing together for years - well done guys!

Sarah Jassal

Boys Dancing residency performance - watch it now!

Further to recent posts about the exciting boys dancing residency that took place with Stan Won't Dance's Liam Steel at Warwick Arts Centre during half term, you can now see a short and/or long version of the sharing that the boys presented at the end of the week. To watch it now (you know you want to!!), follow these links:

http://www.warwickartscentre.co.uk/education/current-projects/boysdancing/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHa38yXH8Kk

Babel Half Term residency at Warwick Arts Centre

Check out these links for interviews, photos and video footage from Babel!

http://www.warwickartscentre.co.uk/blogs/education-blog/boys-dancing-residency-day-3/

For lots of pictures of the action:
http://www.warwickartscentre.co.uk/education/current-projects/boysdancing/

For interviews with Liam, Kenny and some of the dancers:
www.youtube.com/user/warwickartscentre

It definitely makes for exciting viewing!

Artist Network Meeting, Tuesday 29th September 2009

The recent Dancescape Artist Network Meeting was held at Solihull Arts Complex prior to ACE Dance performing their new tour piece, 'Switch'.

I positioned myself in the cafe bar to welcome the artists (with tea's and coffee's!) and I was soon joined by Sioda Martin, a Leamington based dance artist. Sioda updated me on her current work with nutkhut's Bollywood Steps project on which she was working as an artist, and also her new class planned for this Autumn in Leamington at Stone Monkey Studios. Sioda is working on an intriguing combination of contemporary dance and Ashtanga Yoga for her new class - which sounds exciting! Just after this, we were joined by Solihull based artist Sarah-Jane Carter-Dornan, then Kath Kimber-McTiffen and Kate Mason. As each artist came in, they were quizzed about their current news and work (with added appreciative noises from the group!).

As the last person who entered then new nothing about what anyone else was up to, we went round the circle and each gave a short update of our current ventures. Kath updated us on her plans for inter-generational work, Sarah-Jane asked the groups advice on some of her thoughts about her career plans, and Kate updated us on her progress with her company and informed us of her funding success (yay!). We chatted about the upcoming U.Dance Professional Development Training which is to be held by Dancescape in November, and also the current Dance and Health initiatives that are happening in the region, including the Dance and Health conference and network event at DanceXchange on the 9th November.

As an artist it was great to feel part of a network of practising artists.....it gave me inspiration.... and if I admit quite a warm and fuzzy feeling! The process of talking through ideas, amibitions and current exciting ventures helped to reinforce the feeling of being proud to be working as a dance artist in the Midlands. I think (and hope) that the other artists felt the same!

After our meeting we all enjoyed ACE Dance and Music's brand new touring piece, Switch. It was a great way to finish off a very artistic and dance focused evening.

Hayley Duffield
Dancescape

Alice's Stride Placement

Hello, I am Alice Wise and I am from Solihull.
I am currently taking part with something set up by Youth Dance England called Stride. At the moment I am doing part of my placement with Dancescape helping them with the showcase Bounce!09 which is coming up on the 10th November at the Solihull Arts Complex. I got into Stride through the dance company Solihull Youth Dance Company which is run by Sita Manghnani which I was lucky to be accepted for when I auditioned last year. 8 people were short listed from SYDC and then 4 of us, myself, Demi Cooper, Faye Hadley and Shivani Palmer made it through to the actual Stride project. On that project we had to attend a residential either in London or Manchester and took part in many practical and theory sessions to do with dance all over the country. From that each person got given a mentor and they had to sort out a placement. My mentors are Hayley Duffield and Sarah Jassal and you have to do a 14 week placement. I am starting my placement today and have been doing press releases and programmes for the showcase. I found out about Stride from SYDC where we had to send in a video of us dancing, we used our amazing show piece from SYDC as our audition piece which was choreographed by Sita.
Currently at SYDC, Sita has been on maternity leave so we have had Ria Newman take over for the last couple of months. With Ria we worked on a piece which we will hopefully be performing soon. Sita is now back after having a gorgeous baby boy, Jayan and held the audition for SYDC which 35 people attended and 11 people successfully made it into the company.
I hope to continue with Solihull Youth Dance Company and with my Stride placement as they are both great opportunities :).

Babel - boys dancing half term project at Warwick Arts Centre

B a b e l
a week of extreme dance and intense words
for young men who love the challenge of making and performing dance

Monday 26th – Friday 30th October
10am – 4pm every day
Warwick Arts Centre
FREE

Led by Stan Won’t Dance director/choreographer Liam Steel and MC/lyricist Kenny Baraka

Over 5 exciting and challenging days, you will work with both Liam and Kenny making and mixing highly physical movement and inventive, intense text. You’ll create a performance that brings the two together to ask questions about ourselves and the world we live in…
What labels do you buy and wear?
What does it mean to be British today?
What influence do newspapers and the media have on our lives?
Do we really still have freedom of speech?

The week will be very physical and will challenge you to be personally open, honest, highly committed and willing to push yourself further than you think you can go!

Be prepared to sweat, speak, scribble and share!

To book your place contact Carly Mee at Warwick Arts Centre:
Tel: 024 7657 4786
Email: c.mee@warwick.ac.uk

Youth Dance Network Meeting

Dancescape will be holding a Youth Dance Network Meeting on Thursday 22nd October 2009, from 4.00 - 6.00pm. The meeting will be held in the studio at Motionhouse, Spencer Yard, in Leamington Spa. Come along to find out more about Youth Dance news and opportunities in the sub region.

The meeting will have a focus on Dance and Health, and will include a workshop with experienced youth dance leader, Kath Kimber-McTiffen. Kath will be looking at how to cover themes of health and wellbeing, through dance, with young people.

There will be an opportunity to network with other artists and teachers, and a chance to ask for support or advice on any dance issues you may have.

To register to attend, please email Hayley Duffield on hduffield@solihull.gov.uk or phone on 0121 704 6309.

Rugby Youth Dance Company

Dancescape are pleased to announce that Rugby Youth Dance Company is now up and running! After an impressive audition on Thursday 17th September, 17 talented young dancers were successful in gaining a place in Rugby Youth Dance Company.

Rugby Youth Dance Company has been set up for 15 - 19 year olds in the Rugby area, to develop technique, performance skills and choreography skills. They will be led by experienced youth dance leader, Alexis Haines, and co-worker, Emma Breeze.

The company has an exciting future ahead, with regular performances and opportunities for all the members alongside thier weekly rehearsals. And not to mention the huge mix of style and creativity that each dancer will bring to the table! Phew!! Watch this space for updates!

If you are interested in joining or finding out more about Rugby Youth Dance Company, email Hayley Duffield at hduffield@solihull.gov.uk or phone on 0121 704 6309.

Dancescape Artist Network Meeting at Solihull Arts Complex on 29 September

The next Dancescape Artist Network Meeting will be held at Solihull Arts Complex on Tuesday 29 September prior to ACE Dance and Music’s performance of their new show ‘Switch’.

There will be an open discussion session from 6 to 7pm whereby a member of ACE Dance and Music will chat about the artistic processes of ‘Switch’ along with an opportunity for information sharing, a general catch up with your peers and colleagues and for anyone to bring news or burning issues!

Dancescape is able to offer a free ticket to ACE Dance and Music’s show ‘Switch’ that evening to anyone that is able to attend the Artist Network meeting.

Please get in touch if you would like to come along or need any further info about the meeting. There is more information about ‘Switch’ below.

See you there!
Sarah

Sarah Jassal, Dancescape
0121 704 6747
sjassal@solihull.gov.uk


Switch by ACE Dance and Music
Tues 29th September, 7.30pm at Solihull Arts Complex

Change, choice, break the mould, embody new rituals and live again.
Switch draws inspiration from ancient practices and their relevance to our lives now. Dancing from the heart, ACE will pull energy from its oldest, purest source and transform it into something fresh, new and pulsating - flipping on its head the notion of tradition and the ancient.
Set in a black and white space, this is an exciting new collaborative work by ACE’s directors Gail and Ian Parmel with choreographers Douglas Thorpe (ex Phoenix Dance Company) and Andile Sotiya. Switch promises to be an exciting blend of sophisticated dance, music and visuals, accompanied by a robust and agile cast of six international and UK based dancers.
Suitable for all ages (running time approx 70mins)

Go to www.acedanceandmusic.com for more information about the show, choreographers and artistic team

Do you have any shadowing opportunities?

Dear dance artist

I regularly receive enquiries and requests from new dance graduates and emerging artists that are looking for advice and support with the first steps of their freelance career and one of the things that I always recommend is to make contact with other artists and to get as much experience as possible.

So, please do let me know any opportunities for shadowing, assisting etc that you might have...

I'll look forward to hearing from you
Sarah

sjassal@solihull.gov.uk

Dancescape Artist Network - July 09 meeting

Hey there!

I thought this would be a good place to log all the discussions, actions, issues etc that come up within the Dancescape Artist Network meetings as well as to keep things rolling along in between meetings, keep everyone connected and give you an opportunity for some input even if you can't make it to meetings. Let me know any thoughts or ideas you have about making this blogspot work better for us all and for the network - hopefully, it will be a great way for everyone to keep up to speed with all things Dancescape Artist Network.....?!!

Looking forward to hearing from you!

Sarah Jassal


July 09 Artist Network Meeting
Wednesday 1 July @ ICE, Coventry

Those who were able to attend the meeting in person were:
Sarah Jassal, Dancescape
Louise Bardgett, independent movement practitioner
Oliver Scott, Director, Mercurial Dance
Kate Mason, Director, Mobius Dance
Sioda Martin, independent dance artist
Holly Denoon, independent dance artist
Naama Spitzer, independent dance artist
Jenna Hubbard, independent dance artist, Spiltmilk Dance Company & Project Assistant, ICE
Alexis Wilkinson, independent dance artist & Coventry Performing Arts Service
David Bennett, independent dance artist

Context & background
We kicked off the meeting with me (Sarah Jassal) giving a quick overview of how Dancescape has got to this point, generally and more specifically regarding the artist network. Also, I shared some of my thoughts about why I think this network is needed and how those involved might utilise it and get the most out of it...

In short, this network can be whatever you want it to be, but as a starting point you might want to think of it as something essential to your practice, because networking is that essential, isn't it? Come along to the artist network meetings to share ideas and skills, discuss issues and particular areas of practice, make contact with your peers and colleagues, take part in something, develop ideas or try things out on a captive, safe audience. In between meetings stay connected and let everyone else know what you're working or what you need.

Dancescape is able to give this network a great start by facilitating it, but brings no agenda to it, other than to give time and space to allow artists to get together. We believe that networking of this nature is key to an artist's professional development and will have a positive impact on the dance practice and rich artist community in Coventry, Solihull and Warwickshire and all those that the artists engage and work with. There are resources available to make meetings happen at least between now and the end of next March, but Dancescape wants to take the lead from you as artists in terms of what can happen and what is discussed. Ideally this network will become something that is led by you, the dance artist.

What's everyone doing?
The next bit of the meeting was a chance for everyone to give a short description of their current projects and interests.

Rather than go into loads of detail here and now, as a separate post on this blog we will set up a kind of skills & interests map and will start it off by giving more info about what the people who came to this meeting are up to and in to at the moment, which can be added to by anyone at any time....

Professional development for me and for you
As a group the next thing we discussed was everyone's thoughts about their own professional development needs as well as those for the wider artistic community/network, and this is where conversations really started getting interesting as well as brains ticking and ideas flowing.

There's loads of food for thought here; lots of common issues and not too many 'bigger issues' for us to tackle!

• better links to classes and spaces
• a regional database of artists that is accessible to other artists
• opportunities for sharings of experiences, skills etc
• dance in health training
• opportunities to shadow and observe work
• support to find dance spaces
• support with marketing ideas for classes
• to know artists that might want support from other artists
• a choreographic sharing/platform for works in progress to gain feedback from peers
• a dance map for Coventry
• to share information about technical/production contacts
• access to free space to make work
• 'producer' support
• fundraising advice to make work
• advice on how to survive as a freelancer
• opportunity to share experience of processes, such as a particular funding stream
• regular sessions for class, sharing ideas, creating and discussion
• help to plan, structure and develop work
• a space to go to free from pressures and free to use
• collecting artists information to find similarities and future collaborators
• a blog or something similar to know what artists are doing, where and when

There are a number of things in this list that can be addressed through the Dancescape Artist Network or that can perhaps be signposted to other organisations, networks and contacts. For example:

'A (sub)regional database of artists that is accessible to other artists' is something we can start here via this blog.

'Opportunities for sharings of experiences, skills etc' is something that we can make happen wherever possible through piggy backing onto each other's activities. As some already know, Alan Rivett, Director of Warwick Arts Centre, is also interested in supporting the development of a sub regional scratch night for dance. This idea has been put on hold for a few different reasons but is something that we will se develop in the autumn hopefully.

There are several opportunities for 'dance in health training' around in the region at the moment. Several sub regional artists have recently been accepted onto ICE's Dance Connections, an action learning set that will take place at the end of the summer - something that would be great to get an insight into through the Dancescape Artist Network at some point (Hayley, Louise?). There will also be the Warwickshire Dance4Health day on Wednesday 16th September, with the opportunity to learn more from Warwickshire County Arts Service's recent research in dance and health projects with 5 different community groups. The day costs just £20 to attend for individual artists. Also, this autumn will see a regional dance and health conference for professionals from both sectors organised by the Physical Activity Network West Midlands and the pilot of Dance Active, a training package for dance artists interested in working with young people within health settings, which is based on the existing training programme Dance Links.

'A blog or something similar to know what artists are doing, where and when' is definitely something we can help with!!

Stay posted & keep connected
The idea is to keep these needs, issues, discussion points in mind when accessing the Dancescape Artist Network and for everyone to provide solutions, give pointers or add to the list on an ongoing basis, so here's your opportunity to do just that - use this network and blogspot freely to stay connected and enrich and refresh your practice. And don't forget to make your requests 'cos you never know what information or answers someone else might have that you can make use of, including Dancescape.

And finally...
The end of the meeting in July consisted of a round up of discussions and a quick information share - most of this information has been included in recent Dancescape e-news emails, so send an email to the address below if you don't already get them.

We look forward to seeing you /hearing from you very soon!

Sarah Jassal, Dancescape
sjassal@solihull.gov.uk

Summer School: Street Dance Sessions

TOXIC TOES

Street Dance Sessions

3rd – 5th August,
10am – 3pm
Atherstone Memorial Hall
Long street, Atherstone
Ages 12 - 20yrs
3 day Course
£10 per person

Please call to book a place. Contact
Kate Wilding,
Youth Worker
Tel: 07970 213590 or
01926 413900 or
Kath Kimber-McTiffen
Tel: 07854 143163

Dance Workshops Summer 2009

Solihull Arts Complex is hosting a range of Dance Workshops in August 2009....

Hip Hop and Funk Style Dance Workshops
For boys and young men aged 15 and over.

These workshops will be delivered by Kashmir, Artistic Director of Smash Bro'z Hip Hop Collective. Smash Bro'z have qualified this year for the World Hip Hop Championships in Las Vegas! Workshops will be held on Thursday 20th and Thursday 27th August from 11.00 - 3.30pm in the Theatre at Solihull Arts Complex. Each workshop is £6 (or book both for £10). Book your place by calling Solihull Arts Complex Box Office on 0121 704 6962.

Check out Smash Bro'z Facebook Group Page!
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=53404645743

GCSE/BTEC Dance Skills Workshop
For ages 13 and over.

Hosted at Solihull Arts Complex by the resident Dance Artist, these workshops are aimed towards young people about to start 1st or 2nd year of GCSE/BTEC Dance course (although anyone with an interest in dance is welcome!) The sessions will focus on improving technique, and developing performance and choreographic skills. Workshops run on Friday 21st and 28th August 2009, from 1.00-4.00pm. Each workshop is £5. To book a place please phone Solihull Arts Complex Box Office on 0121 704 6962.

For more information about any of the above, email hduffield@solihull.gov.uk

Welcome!

Welcome to Dancescape's Blog! This has been created by Dancescape to provide a place to post news and opportunities, link to sites and information, and encourage discussion and debate! We are still learning the ropes, however, so bear with us while we develop the Blog and make it all singing and dancing (hopefully!). Meanwhile, any suggestions you might have for the Dancescape Blog, please let us know!

Back soon!