Annual Report April 2017 – March 2018
Year in Review
@PhoenixLeeds /PhoenixDanceTheatre /phoenixdancetheatre
Celebrating a Year of Diversity in Dance
More BAME Dancers on Stage
April 2017 – March 2018 was the year Phoenix Dance Theatre championed, celebrated and demonstrated the value of greater diversity within the organisation and the wider dance sector. Diversity is the foundational principle on which Phoenix was established 37 years ago, and therefore continues to be the cornerstone of our programme of work.
Our artistic mission to increase BAME representation on stage was achieved this year with the staging of Windrush: Movement of the People. We recruited two qualified BAME dance students to participate in our dancer apprenticeship programme in partnership with Northern School of Contemporary Dance. We also appointed Nafisah Baba, the BBC Young Dancer of the Year 2017, as a guest dancer with the company.
Melt by Sharon Watson. Photo: Brian Slater Front : photo by Richard Moran
Photo by Richard Moran
Championing Female Choreographers and Creatives Phoenix-At-Home 2017 celebrated the female choreographic talents within the company. We commissioned an exciting female composer to create original music for Windrush: Movement of the People. We saw this mission bear fruit with Sandrine Monin, Phoenix dancer and emerging choreographer whose first professional dance work Calyx was commissioned as part of our 2017 Mixed Programme, winning two national awards in 2017 from One Dance UK: the Mentoring Programme award for mid-career dance artists and the Observership Award for choreographers.
The Inaugural Nadine Senior Awards Phoenix Dance Theatre and Northern School of Contemporary Dance launched the Nadine Senior Awards on March 8, 2018, International Women’s Day to commemorate the achievements of the late Leeds based dance educator and advocate. Nadine Senior (1939-2016) was the Founding Principal of the Northern School of Contemporary Dance (NSCD).
Our Achievements in Numbers Dance For All
More Awards
14,170 people saw the company perform
67% increase in audience members
Our Access and Education department rolled out its No Bounds programme which provides dance lessons only for boys to address the low number of male dancers participating in contemporary dance. We are especially proud to acknowledge our South Leeds dance provision for older people, the Morley Movers. The enthusiasm and support of the participants helped to make this project self-sustaining as dance has become more than a way of staying active, but also an important social activity for this group.
Our year of working to break down barriers and widen access culminated in our Artistic Director, Sharon Watson, winning an award for Contribution to Arts and Culture at the English Women’s Awards-North 2018, a celebration of British Women’s achievements.
39 performances at 28 venues
21% of our theatre audiences identify as BAME
This has been a remarkable year of new diverse voices in dance and it has shaped a refreshed vision for Phoenix Dance Theatre that will have resonance for years to come.
Approx. 8.2 million viewers and listeners across broadcast media and online platforms Over 180 online and print media features
4,460 unique education participants 1250 dance education sessions 3 sell-out Youth Dance Platforms
Touring Diversified
Photo by Brian Slater
It was also the year, we took a scaleddown version of our main national tour to smaller venues, not just within rural areas but also within an urban setting, as one way of ensuring our audiences are diverse and have greater access to the dance arts.
Sharon Watson Artistic Director
Mark Hollander Executive Director
Touring Rural Tour This is a scaled down version of our mixed bill of works, which is specifically curated for smaller stages especially rural venues. We performed to near sold out audiences at Skipton Town Hall in rural North Yorkshire, Hebden Bridge Arts Festival in rural West Yorkshire and two performances at Seven Arts in Chapel Allerton - a small suburban community arts venue in the heart of Leeds.
Mixed Programme 2017 April – November 2017 Featured works: Calyx by Sandrine Monin ‘Sensual… Best Premiere of 2017’ (Dance Europe)
Until.With/Out.Enough by Itzik Galili Never2Still by Sharon Watson Bloom by Caroline Finn NightLife at the Flamingo by Edward Lynch Phoenix at Home The Stanley & Audrey Burton Theatre September 27 – 30, 2017 This 7th annual showcase was entitled ‘A Celebration of Female Choreographers’.
Beast by Douglas Thorpe
Featured works:
Maybe Yes Maybe Maybe No Maybe by Aletta Collins ‘Quirky and mischievous’ (The Times)
Calyx by Sandrine Monin Elemontary by Tracy Tinker Page 24 by Carmen Vazquez Marfil Kerenza by Vanessa Vince Pang Windrush: Movement of the People, 20-minute preview by Sharon Watson
Edinburgh, York, Buxton, Bridlington, Malvern, The Civic, Barnsley
* Kerenza was created for our Youth Academy dancers; all other works were performed by the professional company.
‘Phoenix return to Edinburgh with a different triple bill, and again the dancers simply crackle with a versatile energy while the works now jigsaw into a thoroughly watchable showcase of company strengths.’ The Sunday Herald, April 2017 Photos by Brian Slater
Phoenix Dance Theatre’s professional company of dancers delivered a total of 39 performances at 28 middle scale venues and events across the UK and in two European countries, reaching a total audience of 14,170.
The programme was a thrilling mixed programme packed with solos, duets, trios and quartets plucked from some of Phoenix’s most popular recent work, featuring excerpts from:
Touring
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Photo by Richard Moran
February – March 2018 Windrush: Movement of the People by Sharon Watson, Artistic Director ‘World premiere to mark the 70th anniversary of the arrival of the SS Empire Windrush… an incredibly creative and life affirming narrative piece.’ (Eccentic Traveller Blog)
Photo by Richard Moran
Mixed Programme 2018
5 stars – North West End 4 stars – The Observer 4 stars – Yorkshire Post 4 stars – The Independent Shadows by Christopher Bruce ‘Emotive, traumatic and weighted with memory.’ (The Times) Calyx by Sandrine Monin
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‘A fascinating intelligent textured exploration of love…coercion… and jealousy’ (Blogger) West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds* Theatre by the Lake, Keswick / Everyman, Cheltenham / Cast, Doncaster / Curve, Leicester / Schrit_tmacher Festival, Aachen, Germany (4-night run sold out) * Maybe Yes Maybe Maybe No Maybe (Aletta Collins) was performed instead of Calyx at this venue
Special Performances: Our dancers delivered 11 additional performances at 10 events put on by other organisations where they performed excerpts of the company’s repertoire. These included two performances in Cannes, France at the MIPIM Fair.
01Maybe Yes Maybe, Maybe No Maybe 02 Windrush: Movement of the People 03 Shadows 04 Calyx 05 Windrush: Movement of the People
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Costume designs by Eleanor Bull
New works “Stories of the Windrush generation of Caribbean immigrants...are movingly told by Phoenix Dance Theatre… powerfully but economically” The Observer, 4-stars “Muscular and lithe choreography … a real life journey” North West End, 5-stars “Great show in Cheltenham last night. Windrush is a fantastic new piece…compulsory viewing. 5-stars.” Audience member “Windrush – challenging, emotional and ultimately uplifting. What a rush! 5-stars” Audience member
Windrush: Movement of the People Windrush: Movement of the People is Phoenix’s most ambitious work in a decade. This 55-minute dance work, choreographed by Artistic Director Sharon Watson, was created to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the arrival of the SS Empire Windrush with over 400 Caribbean migrants, marking the dawn of multicultural Britain. The R&D process involved meeting with Alford Gardner, the only surviving Jamaican man to have travelled over on the SS Empire Windrush and settled in Leeds, as well as listening to the migration stories of the Windrush generation from the Leeds Black Elders Association. The dance work featured original music by Leeds based composer, Christella Litras and live musical performances within the piece by the band, Caution Collective, during premiere week at the West Yorkshire Playhouse. Windrush: Movement of the People received the Linbury Prize for Stage Design 2017, and enabled Eleanor Bull to realise an ambitious set and costume design. Windrush: Movement of the People goes on tour for the rest of 2018 to record breaking audience numbers.
Photo by Richard Moran
Elemontary Elemontary, choreographed by Tracy Tinker, Phoenix’s Rehearsal and Tour Director, presents a dancer mid-audition. Created for Phoenix at Home 2017 this new piece takes a satirical view on what can be an impersonal and intimidating process, where the dancer is expected to show who they are and what they can do in a just a few hours. Page 24 Page 24 by Carmen Vazquez Marfil, one of Phoenix’s senior dancers, was also created for Phoenix at Home 2017 to celebrate the works of female choreographers within the company to highlight the underrepresentation of female choreographers at the highest levels in the dance sector. Centred around the idea of a moving and ever-changing self-portrait, Carmen explains, ‘my piece is a conversation with someone unknown, about myself and my life.’ Photo by Pete Huggins
New works
performed to audiences of just over 4,800. The Youth Academy excelled at the Fresh 2018 regional dance competition earning themselves a spot among the top three most outstanding dance performance teams. Leeds Youth Academy students performed on the same bill as Phoenix professional dancers at Phoenix-At-Home and two students were part of the cast of Troy Games which was performed at the Nadine Senior Gala. Phoenix Youth Academy North East (PYA) completed its first full academic year and attracted 20 registered students. PYA delivered seven performances throughout the year at events in Newcastle, Northumberland and Coventry. The Academy’s programme is delivered in partnership with Gateway Studios. Saturday School
Access & Education Phoenix’s Access and Education department delivers a range of activities that are designed to increase participation and break down barriers to arts engagement.
The Access and Education department delivered 1,281 sessions nationally to 4,640 unique participants, with engagement as high as 34,539 (repeat users) to a wide range of participants of varying abilities, cultural, socio-economic and geographical backgrounds. The young people from our Youth Academies and dance education projects had the opportunity to perform to audiences of over 10,000 people. We saw a 4% increase in the total number of sessions delivered this year. Youth Academies Our Youth Academies in Leeds, West Yorkshire and Gateshead, Newcastle delivered prevocational dance provision for young aspiring dancers. Exceptionally talented students received bursaries funded by the Leverhulme Trust to help with their fees. Youth Academy Leeds enrolled 55 students ages 13-18 who participated in over 200 sessions with engagement of over 5,000 and
The Saturday School programme delivered 128 sessions last year to 79 participants ages 3-16 and provided foundation dance training for young people in creative and engaging ways. Saturday School remains a gateway to our Youth Academy for those who are superbly talented. School Partnership Scheme Our School Partnership Scheme focused on working with two city wide colleges and ten local schools in the most disadvantaged areas of Leeds delivering over 250 sessions to over 400 students with engagement (repeat users) of just over 3,000. We provided GCSE and BTEC tuitions, in-school delivery, after school provisions and taster sessions for some of our dance projects. Over 190 participants attended the Open Dress Rehearsal for our Mixed Programme 2018 at the West Yorkshire Playhouse in February 2018. They were young people from 7 schools and the older people’s dance project, the Morley Movers.
Youth Dance Platforms We delivered three sell-out dance platforms which brought together our Youth Academies, Saturday School, partner schools and youth dance groups to perform to appreciative audiences. Each year we host a Youth Dance Platform in the Spring, the Restec in the Winter and over two days in the summer the final Youth Dance Platform to mark the end of the school year and to celebrate and showcase the achievements of our education participants. Professional Intensive We held a Professional Intensive in the summer opened to UK-based and international dance artists, final year and recent graduates to build their contemporary dance practice under the tutelage of Artistic Director Sharon Watson and award-winning choreographer, Henri Oguike with support by Phoenix dancers.
We expanded our Illuminate Dance project for young people with disabilities (funded by Leeds City Council Shortbreaks), with additional sessions held off-site at Dance Studio in Burmantofts. Two holiday schemes were held during the winter and autumn half-term breaks for Illuminate participants.
GCSE Dance module, Shadows Our digital resource for the GCSE Dance module on Shadows sold very well to schools across the UK. We delivered CPD workshops for selected schools around the country. Access and Education hosted a pilot one-day programme, Inside Phoenix, which is an immersive and intensive set of sessions on the Shadows GCSE Dance module. This was attended by over 90 students from five schools in the north of England, who watched a live performance of Shadows by Phoenix dancers in the Stanley & Audrey Burton Theatre and took part in workshops delivered by company dancers. Dance for All Our Access and Education programmes are designed to ensure those who do not normally have access to dance provisions and the arts in general are able to participate.
We ran the Catalyst Young Carers Project, a creative arts performance project for young carers to provide them with respite from their caring responsibilities at home delivered in partnership with Barnardos and First Floor. Rough Gems creative education project also works with a group of vulnerable young adults and is delivered in partnership with Foundation UK, using dance to develop lifelong skills which help with their re-integration into society. Rough Gems was funded by D’Oyly Carte Charitable Trust and The Evan Cornish Foundation. Our older people dance programme, which evolved out of the Young at Arts multiorganisation project, is now a core activity within Access and Education’s schedule. Self-named, ‘The Morley Movers’, this committed group of elders based in South Leeds were keen to work with Phoenix to ensure this project remained sustainable and met their needs.
Photo by Brian Slater
After a series of taster sessions, our twoyear boys only dance project, No Bounds (funded by Paul Hamlyn Foundation and Awards For All) are being delivered in two cities in West Yorkshire: Leeds and Bradford. The project aims to break down the social and gendered barriers that prevent boys from participating in contemporary dance.
Collaborations Access and Education worked in tandem with other organisations to deliver innovative and cross disciplinary arts projects. We were the lead dance provider on the Carnival of the Animals, a BBC national project to encourage primary school children to listen to classical music. As the sole dance provider on the project within the region, we worked with 170 students in five primary schools across Yorkshire. Following on the success of the project last year, Access and Education were codeliverers on the Jazz Music and Dance Collaboration project part of the ‘Let’s Get Together’ Festival.
We worked with 100 students delivering six dance sessions in six different school groups from five secondary schools in Leeds. The results were six choreographed dance works performed by the students to live jazz music played by students at the West Yorkshire Playhouse. Access and Education also worked in partnership with NSCD, DAZL and Leeds City College to deliver the Kick Off project, which is the city’s collaborative approach to encourage boys from the mid to lower end of socio-economic spectrum to participate in contemporary dance provision.
Nadine was a Yorkshire-born visionary and dance teacher, first known for her dance classes for middle school children in the multicultural, inner city community of Harehills. She later became the founding principal of the Northern School of Contemporary Dance (NSCD, and was Chair of the Board of Trustees for Phoenix Dance Theatre.
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The Gala highlighted Nadine’s lasting legacy which inspired a number of high profile dance artists and choreographers such as Akram Khan, Darshan Singh Bhuller, Paul Liburd MBE and Sharon Watson. The Gala brought together past and present from NSCD and Harehills Middle school, with performances from dance organisations run by her ex-students and from leading dance artists. Phoenix Dance Theatre performed a new interpretation of Robert North’s 1974 seminal dance work, Troy Game, which was Nadine’s favourite piece. The One Show (BBC One TV) aired a special feature on the Gala and the legacy of Nadine Senior with live interviews from special guests such as Sharon Watson, Darshan Singh Bhuller and Paul Liburd, which was viewed by an estimated audience of 5 million.
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Photo by Richard Moran
Photo by Brian Slater
Phoenix Dance Theatre in partnership with Northern School of Contemporary Dance celebrated the life and work of the late Nadine Senior by staging a Celebration Gala for Nadine Senior at the West Yorkshire Playhouse on October 8, 2017. Donations and proceeds from the Gala were used to launch the Nadine Senior Awards on March 8, 2018, which is a scholarship for talented young people ages 16-22 to pursue higher education in dance.
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01 Left to right: Julian Moss, Paul Liburd, Darshan Singh Bhuller, Namron (front), Kenneth Thorp, David Hughes 02 Darshan Singh Bhuller performing The Path 03 Northern School of Contemporary Dance, Ocean 04 Phoenix Dance Theatre, Troy Game 05 Janet Smith, Principal, Northern School of Contemporary Dance
Photo by Richard Moran
Nadine Senior Gala
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New Developments
Christopher Bruce’s Shadows in San Francisco Our Rehearsal and Tour Director, Tracy Tinker, visited the SFDanceworks in San Francisco, USA, as the répétiteur for Shadows by Christopher Bruce CBE, which was originally choreographed for Phoenix Dance Theatre in 2014. Exhibition at the Town Hall More than three and a half decades of dance history were on display at Leeds Town Hall with Phoenix mounting a photographic exhibition of the company’s dance choreographies. The exhibition lasted for three months and was viewed by an estimated 4,000 visitors.
Artistic Director, Sharon Watson (1st from right, 1st row) and Executive Director, Mark Hollander (3rd from left, 2nd row) with the Lord Mayor of Leeds and her delegation in China. Photo: Kristina Assmann-Gramberg
Diverse Futures Capital Programme Phoenix successfully raised £197,464 from the ACE Small Capital Grant and a match funder for our capital project to replace our obsolete touring, studio, digital and other office equipment. Arts Business Matters In November 2017, Phoenix Dance Theatre brought together over 20 Leeds-based businesses for a working breakfast to discuss the level of interest they have in investing in the cultural life of the city. The event was called Arts Business Matters and it was held under the aegis of Cllr Judith Blake, Leader of the Council and Tom Riordan, CEO of Leeds City Council; it was an opportunity to build new connections with businesses within the city. Phoenix will launch a new Corporate Support and Partnership Scheme in the new financial year.
China and Hong Kong Trips Phoenix’s Artistic Director, Sharon Watson and Executive Director, Mark Hollander, visited Hangzhou in China, a sister city of Leeds as part of a Leeds City Council delegation, including the Lord Mayor, to discuss touring opportunities. Whilst in China, they also travelled to Shanghai and Honk Kong to forge new relationships. The trip was supported by the Department for International Trade and by the Leeds 2023 bid as it was then. The visit enabled Phoenix to better understand the business and artistic culture in China and has led to a booking in Hangzhou for September 2018. Taking A Position Phoenix’s Artistic Director, Sharon Watson and Professor Stephen Coleman from the University of Leeds collaborated to create a unique dance that explores the public’s opinions and emotional reactions to the politically divisive issue of Brexit. They worked with talented students from the Northern School of Contemporary Dance (NSCD), drawing on interviews conducted by Professor Coleman with ‘leave’ and ‘remain’ voters.
Financial Overview
Company Details April 2017 - March 2018 Patrons Robert Cohan CBE David Lascelles, Earl of Harewood
1 April 2017 – 31 March 2018
Income £949,436 £490,260 Turnover £490,250 Public subsidy (Arts Council and Leeds City Council) £103,047 Earned income £155,822 Access and Education income: £200,307 Project Grants/Donations/Misc
Expenditure £945,520 Total Expenditure £138,951 Artistic production £75,399 Access & Education £579,851 Staffing and Overheads
Reserves (Unrestricted) £76,572
Photo by Justin Slee
Photo by Pete Huggins
£151,379 Marketing/Administration/Other
Board Keith Evans (Chair) Susan Coffer (Vice Chair) Stephen Derrick Brian Daniels Andrew Fryer
Simon Kamstra Heather Paul Matthew Roberts Bobsie Robinson Suzanne Robinson
Directors Artistic Director: Sharon Watson Executive Director: Mark Hollander Company Rehearsal & Tour Director: Tracy Tinker Technical Manager: Luke Haywood Company Stage Manager: Hayley Smith (until Oct 2017) Deputy Stage Manager: Taisa Stefanska Wardrobe Manager: Emma Louise James Dancers: Natalie Alleston Nafisah Baba (from Dec 2017) Carmen Vazquez-Marfil Carlos J. Martinez Michael Marquez (from Dec 2017) Sandrine Monin Sam Vaherlehto (until Dec 2017) Vanessa Vince-Pang Prentice Whitlow Apprentice Dancers: Aaron Chaplin Mayowa Ogunnaike Access & Education Director of Access & Education: Charis Charles Access & Education Officer: Stacy Wraith Access & Education Officer: Phillipa Kyle Access & Education Officers: Sam Broadbent, Jerome Wilkes (until Aug 2017) Youth Academy Co-ordinator: Antonio Borriello Access & Education Administrator: Sophie Wyatt Administrative Support: Kendall Mackenzie Administration Marketing Manager: Anna Ferris Development Co-ordinator: Melody Walker Finance Administrator: Alison Parkinson (until Feb 2018) Finance & Office Administrator: Catherine Goode PA to the Directors: Bev Ibbetson Company Assistant: Lesley Blades Associate Artists Warren Adams Ana Lujan-Sanchez
phoenixdancetheatre.co.uk Phoenix Dance Theatre St Cecilia Street, Quarry Hill, Leeds LS2 7PA 0113 236 8130 Core Supporters The Liz & Terry Bramall Charitable Trust, The Emerald Foundation, John Ellerman Foundation, Charlotte Bonham-Carter Charitable Trust, William Adlington Cadbury Charitable Trust. Production Funders Garfield Weston Foundation, Foyle Foundation, PRS Foundation, The Linbury Prize for Stage Design 2017, The Leche Trust, The Fenton Arts Trust, The Radcliffe Trust, Hinrichsen Foundation, Leeds Inspired. Capital Funder Arts Council England Small Capital Grants. Access & Education Supporters The Leverhulme Trust, Big Lottery Fund (Awards for All), Leeds Short Breaks Partnership, Schools Partnership Trust Academies, Paul Hamlyn Foundation, The D’Oyly Carte Charitable Trust, The Evan Cornish Foundation, Ernest Cook Trust, Ann MaGuire Fund. Corporate Supporter Unilever
Individual Donors Many thanks to all our friends and supporters who have donated to our Sponsor A Dancer campaign.
In Kind Supporters Addleshaw Goddard Boardside Employment Law
Phoenix Dance Theatre Principal Funders