dance for young audiences

Something is moving in England, especially in the field of TYA-dance!

context

Wasn't England the country with a long tradition of text theatre, classics and repertoire? But, let's be honest, much less into dance for young audiences?

Let's stay honest, that has seriously changed. For a number of years we have been seeing more and especially beautiful dance performances for young audiences from England, and we have been getting to know new choreographers and makers such as Takeshi Matsumoto, Neve Harrington, Anders Duckworth, Xenia Aidonopoulou, Rosie Heafford, and others.

How has the landscape of English dance for young audiences changed in recent years? What has driven this strategic development and how is that work developing an audience at home and around the world?

It was certainly not a coincidence. For example, the Little Big Dance project, which was started as a partnership between DanceEast, Take Art and Yorkshire Dance in 2019, structurally supports dance makers to further deepen certain skills and build experiences so that a high-quality and diverse dance landscape can be developed. become.

We invite some inspirers, passionate people who support the development of dance for a young audience. This morning is also an ideal time to meet the artists presenting work at this year's festival and those currently developing new dance work.

The session will be introduced by Gerhard Verfaillie, artistic director Krokusfestival and led by Claire Summerfield, Tandem Works.

program

• Introduction to the dance for young audiences scene in England
  
  
• Presentations on key national strategic projects by Cath James, Artistic Director South East Dance, Lucy Baylis Head of Creative programmes DanceEast and Christina Elliot Head of Programming and Producing, The Place covering:
  • MOKO Dance
  • Little Big Dance
  • Shape It/Rural Touring Dance Initiative
  • StreamDANCE

• Presentations by artists’ at Krokus Festival
  •  Takeshi Matsumoto
  • J Neve Harrington
  • Anders Duckworth
  • Xenia Aidonopoulou
    
    
• Collaboration and connection - discussion and time for questions

who is who?

Cath James, South East Dance

Cath has had a career in dance for over 40 years, with a wealth of experience as a performing artist, a producer and a leader. Currently Artistic Director at South East Dance, Cath works closely with Rachel Gibson, Executive Director to lead the team to set and deliver the organisation’s vision, and sustainability. Cath oversees the development and maintenance of South East Dance’s strategic partnerships and networks both nationally and internationally. 

Cath was previously Director of Dance at Take Art in Somerset, and producer for bgroup, a dance company based in the UK and directed by Jerwood Award-winning choreographer Ben Wright. Her performing career began in Australia with Expressions Dance Theatre (now Australasian Dance Collective) and Dance North (Townsville) before moving to the UK to become a leading dancer at Rambert Dance Company under the direction of Richard Alston. She was a founding member of Siobhan Davies Company, and on retiring from fulltime performance, went on to become their Company and Tour manager and finally Head of Special Projects before leaving to join Take Art.

She has curated independent dance festivals for the Royal Opera House Clore Studio Programme and Southbank Centre and written articles for international dance magazines. Cath co-created the UK’s first dance information and directory website danceservice.co.uk in 1994. 

Christina Elliot, The Place

Christina Elliot is Head of Programming & Producing at The Place, London’s creative powerhouse for dance development, which has been leading the way in dance training, creation and performance for over 50 years. The Place is a dance ecosystem unlike any other in the world, home to London Contemporary Dance School, an extensive theatre and artist development programme, education projects, a range of classes and courses and a nationwide touring programme. 

Christina oversees the programmes with artists & audiences and has worked closely on the development of the new producing & touring programme. Prior to working at The Place, Christina was a producer at Fuel, a pioneering producing organisation based in London.

Lucy Bayliss, DanceEast

Lucy has been working in the arts sector for the last 20 years, across dance participation, programming ,and training, and is passionate about arts engagement and access for people across life stages and abilities. She leads the Creative Team at DanceEast, which programmes, commissions and delivers the offer at the Jerwood DanceHouse in Ipswich and across the East of England, including programming events and festivals. Lucy also supports a number of cultural placemaking initiatives, and commissioning and education partnerships. 

A particular focus for DanceEast over the past ten years has been growing a regular audience base, with a consistent focus on work for children, young people and families. This includes leading MOKO Dance, and partnering on Little Big Dance and STREAMDance, as well as investing in a series of high profile commissions. including Akram Khan’s Chotto Desh and Chotto Xenos, Arthur Pita’s The Little Match Girl, and Protein Dance’s The Little Prince.

As DanceEast’s lead on project and partnership development, Lucy works across the cultural sector and in voluntary roles as Trust Governor for Chantry Academy,  Industry Champion for Nesta’s Policy and Evidence Centre, and a Board Member of Locus, the parent company for the Business Improvement District in Ipswich. Lucy joined the Clore Fellowship as the 2019/20 Dance Fellow, supported by the Linbury Trust and the Clore Duffield Foundation (Clore16Lucy is also DanceEast’s lead for new technology, developing work with Augmented and Mixed Reality, Volumetric Capture and 5G connectivity.  

Claire Summerfield, Tandem Works

Tandem Works has supported artists to create and present dance at some of the leading international festivals and venues including Edinburgh International Children’s Festival, Lincoln Centre, Education (NY), Sadler’s Wells (London), Belfast International Children’s Festival, Tanzmesse (Germany), IPAY, March on! (Singapore), Krokusfestival (Belgium) and Xintiandi Festival (Shanghai). 

Our artists are some of the leaders within their specialisms, and have won the Oxford Samuel Becket Theatre Trust Award (mars.tarrab), the Total Theatre Award for Innovation and Experimentation (Rachel Mars), Best Production, Theatre and Technology Awards (Tom Dale Company), the Arts Foundation Children’s Theatre Shortlist Award (Second Hand Dance) and been presented as part of the prestigious British Council Edinburgh Fringe Showcase (Tom Dale Company ) and Horizon Showcase (Rachel Mars & Takeshi Matsumoto). 

Our current portfolio includes: Second Hand Dance, Rachel Mars, New Art Club, Anatomical, Takeshi Matsumoto and Neve Harrington. Claire is a Deputy Chair of PYA England, sits on the Assitej UK board, and through her role as Co-Director of Second Hand Dance acts as an Artistic Advisor for Sadler’s Wells Family Programme.