Inside Winter 2012
Photo: Benedict Johnson
The summer of 2012 will be remembered for years as a beacon of hope, aspiration and achievement. The Olympic and Paralympic Games achieved something extraordinary, not only in terms of our medal success, but in the way they bound the nation together in a spirit of unity, optimism and pride.
“ Our education system is currently undergoing reform that will have serious implications for the arts and culture. It has the potential to affect our communities, our wellbeing and our sense of individual and national identity. We will have fewer artists, creative professionals and audiences. We will be creating a generation without the essential skills, knowledge and understanding to lead a workforce fit for the 21st Century. We will not have the collective imagination and resource to celebrate, explore and challenge our national culture in the way we did during the London 2012 Olympics.” Cultural Learning Alliance, November 2012
This is a time of year when many of us welcome good news stories that bring cheer and warm the heart, while outside temperatures drop and days shorten. Forgive me if I share some concerns rather than more good news. You may be aware of the current furore around the planned changes to the National Curriculum and the introduction of the English Baccalaureate. There has barely been a week in the last six months that the issue of the EBacc has not come up in conversation with colleagues in the sector as a matter of great concern. Concern also stretches beyond those of us directly involved in arts and education. So what’s at stake? As a result of the plans announced by the Secretary of State, Michael Gove, Drama will be removed from the Primary National Curriculum and Dance is vulnerable. Currently there are no arts subjects in the new EBacc. The Government says they are giving schools more choice, but the fact is that young people will no longer have statutory access to these subjects in schools. There is a very real danger of a two-tier system being created, in which arts subjects could become the preserve of those who can afford them. The Cultural Learning Alliance, who have done much to argue the case for arts in schools, note that there is already evidence
of a decline in the number of young people studying the arts from age 14. As a direct result of the EBacc, schools are cutting drama, dance, art, design and technology courses. EBacc is designed as a performance measure through which the Government hopes to show it is delivering better results, yet few if any experts in education accept these proposals as an inclusive or holistic learning model. We are heading in the wrong direction. I find myself frequently talking to colleagues outside the arts, and asking them one simple question: “how important is the role of creativity within your field?” Regardless of area, and particularly with scientists and mathematicians (two of the Government’s priority areas), time and time again the response is that creativity is way up at the top in terms of importance. There is plenty of evidence to demonstrate the effectiveness of the arts in nurturing reflective thought and creative practice. The arts have a vital role to play in developing these skills. A wide range of people, including the Confederation of British Industry, are calling for the arts to be included as a sixth pillar within the new EBacc model, alongside the five proposed ‘core’ subjects (English, maths, a science, a foreign language, and one or other of history or geography). It is a request which so far has fallen on deaf ears. It’s hard not to feel gloomy, especially given the existing challenges within Higher Education, with the huge increase in undergraduate fees that came into place this autumn and the continuing uncertainty at postgraduate level.
Each of these things represents their own distinctive challenge but collectively, the sum of all these changes is extremely worrying. For dance and the arts there could be a shrinking of the talent pool to one that is less inclusive. Looking at the wider picture, many believe these changes we will simply fail to create the conditions for the future success of our nation, or equip young people with the broad range of creative skills and talents they will need to thrive in tomorrow’s world. How are we responding? At the beginning of 2012, in response to the exodus of GCSE dance from the menu of many schools, we started our own GCSE dance course. We begin working with a second cohort of students in January 2013. Through hard work to ensure the right messages reached prospective vocational students, we have been able to maintain the numbers in our new intake of undergraduate students. We are concerned, however, that the increase in fees will prevent us from continuing to attract a diverse cohort of talent from a broad range of backgrounds. Dance and the arts are being squeezed from all sides. Local Authority funding is under enormous pressure, with some Councils already making moves to cut their entire budgets for arts and culture. We are in a place where we can no longer take for granted the access to the arts and culture that we have all worked so hard to achieve. In relative terms, public investment in art and culture is tiny. Including the
There is so much at stake. Do please stay attuned to these issues and talk to family, friends, colleagues about them;
if you share my concerns, you can write to your local MP and talk to those in positions of influence about them. For a fuller brief on the ways you can support Arts in Schools in particular, visit the Cultural Learning Alliance website: http://www.culturallearningalliance.org. uk/news.aspx?id=93 Please be assured that I and my colleagues across The Place will do all we can to help protect and advocate for dance and the arts, and with your much needed support we hope we can together continue to build a vibrant and exciting future.
Kenneth Olumuyiwa Tharp OBE Chief Executive
Pupils from a London primary school developing literacy through movement. Photo: Philippa Gedge
contribution from the National Lottery, it is well under 0.1% of Government spending. It underpins a significant part of our economy, effectively providing the Research and Development of the wider cultural sector. The creative industries contribute 6% of GDP, employing over 2million people and exporting over £16bn annually, a figure expected to grow 33% by 2020. This is in large part driven by talent nurtured through the subsidised sector, so there are strong arguments for maintaining public subsidy. Philanthropy also plays a vital role – all of us in the arts rely on and value our private benefactors – but it is proven that public funding levers private support.
Jeannie Steele performing Merce Cunninghams’s Biped
The Bride and the Bachelors Cage, Cunningham, Johns, Rauschenberg, Duchamp! 14 February - 9 June 2013 Barbican, London www.barbican.org.uk The Bride and the Bachelors exhibition explores the interwoven lives, works, and experimental spirit of Marcel Duchamp and his impact on four great contemporary artists – John Cage, Merce Cunningham, Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg. It is the follow up to the recent exhibition Dance Around the Bride at Philadelphia Museum of Art, USA. The exhibition will include objects, stage sets, musical compositions, videos of dance, and live dance and music performances in which visitors can explore the creative world of these artists and experience diverse aspects of their work firsthand. Jeannie Steele, Lecturer in Contemporary Dance Technique and Repertoire at LCDS is curating the live dance component of the exhibition with performances in the
Barbican gallery space every Saturday and Sunday (12pm-5pm) and Thursday evening (6.30pm-9.30pm) during the exhibition. The performers will include third years from LCDS’s current cohort along with recent graduates and RADC Company members. Alongside the regular performances will be two larger pieces and include Question and Answer sessions. Both of these events are ticketed.
Rainforest on March 27 will be performed by dancers from Rambert with a Q&A from Mark Baldwin on Cunningham’s relevance to the British Dance World In Event will be performed on 29 May by Richard Alston Dance Company followed by a Q&A from Richard Alston.
Alumni Awards 2012 The Fund for Excellence allocates awards to talented students at London Contemporary Dance School who are experiencing financial difficulties and who might otherwise be prevented from completing their studies. The Alumni Awards were established in 2010 as a way of allowing former LCDS students and anyone associated with the School the chance to contribute directly to the wellbeing of current students.
£2,000 for the Alumni Awards 2011 as part of the Fund for Excellence. We hope to be able to exceed that figure this year when we hold our week long campaign commencing Monday 10th December.
Receiving financial support can make a real difference, as one student explains “This year I faced considerable financial challenges and the help I received from the Fund for Excellence quite literally enabled me to remain enrolled and dedicated to the programme. Without this support I don’t think I would have made it to the end of the academic year.”
Applications to the Fund have increased markedly in recent years and by making a donation you will be helping us to support the next generation of dance artists.
Students in class. Photo: Hugo Glendinning
Thanks to the generosity of our Alumni and friends, last year we were able to raise
If you would like to make a donation and support the Alumni Awards you can do so online using your debit/credit card www.theplace.org.uk/donate or donate £10 simply by texting AWAD12 10 to 70070.
Scatter, Photo: Stephen Berkeley-White
Scatter Adult Dance Company One day I was talking to Tory East, the then performance project leader and now rehearsal director of Scatter, about the difficulty adult participants have in committing to a project that takes place twice a week, but also about their enthusiasm and energy when they performed in front of the general public. We realised that we were missing a trick. Why couldn’t recreational adult dancers who are passionate about dancing also have opportunity to perform like our youth dance companies do? We wanted to give Classes & Courses participants who love dance, performance opportunities that are normally reserved for young people; to give them the sense of what it is like to be in a dance company, but also to explore their imagination allowing them to be part of the creative process with the guidance of expert choreographers and teachers. Just like the Youth Dance Companies Shift and Shuffle, Scatter holds an
annual audition to select its members. The company of about 20 dancers work together in a weekly 3-hour session with the rehearsal director who leads their technique class and then with the choreographer, who this year is Cai Tomos, creating a piece that is performed both inside and outside The Place. Last year the Company performed in the Bloomsbury Festival and Lift Off Festival as well as in the Company Evening and joint Birkbeck/Classes and Courses sharing at The Place. This year we will be spreading our wings even further as Scatter have been invited to perform at the Dance Shed, a new dance festival dedicated to adult performers in Didcot, Oxfordshire. So if you love to dance but never had the chance to perform, maybe now is the time. Remember, it’s never too late. Anna Helsby Director of Recreational and Prevocational Dance (Maternity Cover)
Photo: Martin Franklin
Martin Franklin Digital Co-ordinator After being in the role for a year now, Digital Co-ordinator Martin Franklin talks to Victoria Heath, Development Officer, about what his job entails.
As the Digital Co-ordinator, what does your job involve?
You’ve been here a year now, what do you feel your impact on The Place has been?
Practically speaking, my time is often taken by a range of production and coordination duties - producing promotional videos for our web and Front of House outlets, coordinating the team of highly skilled video directors and camera operators (who record performances in our Theatre), manage various video editing and production jobs for internal and external partners, and leading on the delivery of live streaming. On a broader level I hope to bring ideas and technical skills to The Place which will ultimately help us make best use of the opportunities provided by digital platforms. These will obviously respond to the needs of the organisation and artists whose work we support and present, but could include ideas about crowd-sourcing and viral distribution of moving image content.
I’m a very modest person, so that’s a hard question for me to answer. I see our digital production facilities as forming a real core resource for the building and a foundation for many future developments, so I’m very happy to see investment in upgrading our video production facilities to a modern standard. This provides many opportunities for growth and development as well as being able to offer super high quality HD material to our artists. I’ve tried to use my production skills to enhance the quality of work shown on the Front of House screens and we now have great original moving images to sell our shows. I have begun a series of audio podcasts where we speak with artists each season and help give listeners anywhere in the world a greater understanding of the work we programme here.
Live Stream Camera. Photo: Martin Franklin
What projects are you currently working on? We’ve been working on a written training course for new Camera Operators and we are about to start a collaboration with the Roundhouse, where trainees, aged 19-25, come from their Media Training course to The Place for additional practical training in filming dance performances. I’m doing production duties on the live stream of the EDge rehearsal with James Cousins as part of an initiative to make the creative processes that happen within the School visible to a wider audience. My team of video editors are producing performance edits and new promo trailers for RADC, for the company Lost Dog and documentation video for Choreoroam artists and partners, plus in-house promotional tools to build awareness of the Fund for Excellence student support scheme.
What will having updated filming and editing equipment mean for your role and The Place? This is a huge step for us. The new Mac Pro that we use as our main production computer for video in the building is much more powerful than the computer we had previously. As an opportunity for our performing companies, we are now delivering our unique performance recording service with such high standards that it’s a pleasure to see how people we interact with are impressed. Working with clients who are so excited about the work we’ve done for them is fantastic. We’ve dispensed with magnetic tapes now, so have a complete digital workflow. This means that we’ve economised on the high annual cost of buying 1000 hours of DVCam tape, but we now need lots of hard drive space to hold all of the large video files we’re creating. Plugging in to this digital workflow means we can easily produce something for use on YouTube or for live streaming on the Internet. Very few venues anywhere have these capabilities, so The Place can be proud that it’s ahead of the pack in this area too.
Richard Alston Dance Company Update Richard Alston Dance Company was delighted to be invited to perform as part of the Design Museum Ball for London Design Festival on Friday 21 September 2012. The event took place amongst the Digital Crystal: Swarovski exhibition.
Digital projections and huge arrangements of Swarovski crystals provided a dramatic backdrop against which the dancers performed. It was very well received by the Swarovski Foundation, the guests and the dancers who were unanimous in their opinion that the event was, overall, a very enjoyable experience.
Design Museum with Crowd. Photo: Luke Hayes
One of the Company’s dancers Hannah Kidd described the dance she was performing as a ‘re-worked extract from Shimmer’. She explained that the most difficult part of the preparation of the event was fitting the already choreographed pieces into a venue with
limited space, already full with over 3000 valuable Swarovski Crystals. Zeynep Kepekli, Company Production Manager, reinforced the point that the most worrying thing about the event was the prospect of any breakages. Thanks to hard work and many visits back and forth to the exhibition, the performance was a complete success, and as they say in Production, ‘a technically clean show’. The audience, instead of treating the show as an exhibition, were attentive as an audience would be at a conventional RADC performance in a theatre. They followed the dance from room to room, watching
Nathan Goodman in Julien Macdonald’s costume for Shimmer, at the Design Museum Ball. Photo: Luke Hayes
at least one complete cycle of dance before moving on. The event acted as an exciting prelude before the Company’s At Home season at The Place in early October. RADC return to the USA In other news, the Company is very excited to be returning to the USA in December. They will be performing in the beautiful (hopefully) snowy state of New Jersey, as part of Peak Performances at Montclair State University. The Peak Performances 2012/13 Season will also see Benjamin Millepied, Jasmin Vardimon and Kronos Quartet (with Laurie Anderson), so RADC finds itself in good company. The programme for Peak Performances will contain Roughcut, Unfinished Business and A Ceremony of Carols. The ten members of the Company will be joined onstage by two additional dancers, Chloe Mead, formally a student at London Contemporary Dance School, and Alistair Goldsmith, an LCDS student currently on exchange at SUNY Purchase College, New York. In the premiere at the Marlowe Theatre, Canterbury, the Company performed alongside The Canterbury Cathedral Boys Choir. In contrast, the performance at Peak Performances will be accompanied by an all-female choir conducted by Montclair State’s Heather J. Buchanan with Harpist André Tarantiles. The performance of Ceremony will feel like the end of a long journey for the piece, which was co-commissioned by Peak Performances @ Montclair State University alongside The Marlowe Theatre and Sadler’s Wells. The piece is completing a cycle in another sense; RADC will provide the final instalment in a transatlantic journey of ideas - A Ceremony of Carols was written in 1942 by British composer Benjamin Britten, who was at that time living and working in America.
During a trip home to England, Britten happened upon a collection of mediaeval English verse in a second hand bookstore in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Back in his cramped and overheated cabin on board the freighter on which he was travelling, he wrote settings of these mediaeval carols. He produced music full of power and elation, deploying superb skill in its expression of images from the Christmas story. Richard has portrayed the poetic imagery of the mediaeval words in this piece, which he is now returning to North America; where Britten found the inspiration to in-turn inspire him.
Photo: Jessica Adda
Alumni Profile Pernille Charrington 3 years Certificate in Higher Education (1980)
Alumni Network London Contemporary Dance School www.theplace.org.uk/alumni
Former London Contemporary Dance School student and alumni member Pernille Charrington, who graduated in 1980 takes a few moments to tell us about her time at LCDS and why she is involved with the Peggy Hawkins Scholarship Fund.
about having respect for others and in return they will have respect for you. I was one of the youngest students to start training at London School of Contemporary Dance as it was then called, and the care and support from all the teaching staff and students was very special.
Do you have any particular memories of studying at The Place you would like to share? I have so many memories! In particular Robin Howard watching the students in class and always having an air of authority but great kindness and support to the students. It was a wonderful opportunity to be taught by such gifted and experienced teachers.
You’ve been a member of the Alumni Network for more than 30 years now, what are some of the key things you have been doing since graduation? Firstly I joined English Dance Theatre Company, directed by Ross Mckim, which led to dance experience in New York and Canada. But for the most part I have been teaching dance within London studios for adults and children, including children with special needs, the elderly and those with Parkinson’s. In 1989 I formed the School of Creative Dance with Peggy Hawkins.
It was great having London Contemporary Dance Theatre resident in the building and the wonderful opportunity of having Robert Cohan teach class and reminding us to leave our ‘baggage outside the studio’. I learnt
At the School we introduced children to dance exercises that not only strengthened their bodies but were fun and made them aware of the space around them, rhythm and even silence.
Photo: Mike Gaynor
With Place Patron and choreographer Anthony Van Laast, you have set up the Peggy Hawkins Scholarship Fund, what made you want to be involved and what does the Fund mean to you? I wanted to form the Peggy Hawkins Scholarship Fund with Anthony Van Laast in honour of his late mother, Peggy Hawkins, who gave so much to me and others within the world of dance and music. I would not be where I am today if it wasn’t for Peggy. It is for this reason that I would like to try and give back what I was so fortunate to receive and help the Students of LCDS to fulfill their dreams. The Place is where I started my training and having gained and experienced so much, I feel passionate to help others discover their full potential.
Pernille Charrington and Anthony Van Laast with recipients of the 2012 Peggy Hawkins Scholarship Fund, Image Tim Hawkins
It was wonderful that Anthony embraced the idea to form the Fund and to support and mentor the students. We hope that the fund will grow from strength to strength. What top tips would you give to current students about training at LCDS? I think it is very important for students to find something special within every day of their training and be confident, as everyone has something special to offer either as a dancer or as a teacher. It is important to always try your best and go to the full extreme of your ability but not be afraid to seek help when needed. Finally, when you dance, dance for you, because there is so much to discover within the world of dance and one never stops learning.
What’s On... Highlights from our forthcoming performance programme for 2013.
Tue 8 Jan – Fri 15 Feb Resolution! 2013 81 new works for the new year in the world’s biggest dance platform event
Unless otherwise indicated, all performances are at 8pm in The Place’s Robin Howard Dance Theatre and are priced at £15 (£12 concessions).
Wed 6 Feb, 2.30pm & 5pm Questions & Dancers Imogen Knight & Levantes Dance Theatre Questions & Dancers is a project created especially for eight to eleven year-old children and their families. Presented by The Place, Sadler’s Wells and the acclaimed Company of Angels, young audiences are given a chance to enjoy new dance and movement-led works and are then asked to tell us exactly what you think. Don’t be shy! Levantes Dance Theatre’s Duck Man tells the tale of a boy with a surprising family history … come on a journey that will float you to the bed of the ocean in a deep filled bubble bath. Dance, music, animation and a pinch of your imagination will take us there … and back to dry land!
OMG! by Imogen Knight is inspired by a range of popular children’s books, including Scribble Boy. It’s an energetic, funny journey about losing your voice and the hunt to find it again. This special event started two years ago when choreographers from around the UK were invited to submit ideas for the Choreography for Children Award. The winners collaborate with a professional team of dramaturgs and composers to create two 20-minute dance works, which are performed by graduatingyear students from London Contemporary Dance School. Tickets: £6
Resolution! 2013 Photo: Benedict Johnson
Box Office: 020 7121 1100 Online: www.theplace.org.uk
Sat 16 Feb ReFresh An evening of fresh work from some of London’s best youth dance companies. The youth companies will present their pieces on stage at The Place in collaboration with a professional lighting designer and each group will receive support and mentoring from Kerry Nicholls, an experienced dance artist.
Thu 7 & Fri 8 Mar 8pm Scottish Dance Theatre A double bill of commissioned works choreographed by Victor Quijada and Jo Strømgren Tue 12 & Wed 13 Mar 8pm Tavaziva Dance Greed Bawren Tavaziva’s company create contemporary dance inspired by African cultures
Tickets £12 (£9 conc) Mon 18 - Tue 19 Feb London Contemporary Dance School BA3 Projects and Workshops Improvised and choreographed work by final year undergraduate students Fri 22 & Sat 23 Feb 2Faced Dance Company Out of His Skin The new work from Tamsin Fitzgerald’s urban contemporary dance company Tue 5 Mar 8pm Franko B Because of Love version 2 The Place debut of the internationally acclaimed artist with the new multi-disciplinary performance solo, Because of Love version 2. Drawing upon memories of vivid moments and experiences of art, film and dance from different stages in his life, it’s about life, childhood, humanity, inhumanity, love and grief. Tickets: £15 (£12 conc)
Fri 15 & Sat 16 Mar 8pm bgroup Just as we are Five exceptional dancers invite you to share the moment in Ben Wright’s latest show Thu 21 & Fri 22 Mar London Contemporary Dance School Postgraduate Performances Works by choreography students and the debut performances of EDge, ahead of its 2013 tour Wed 27 & Thu 28 Mar London Contemporary Dance School BA3 Projects Creative projects with Igor Urzelai and Moreno Solinas and Sasha Roubicek, and repertoire by Richard Alston
Fri 5 Apr Jasmin Vardimon presents JV2 Tomorrow Jasmin Vardimon’s company of new dancers performing specially commissioned works Wed 17 - Sat 27 April The Place Prize for dance sponsored by Bloomberg The Finals Commissioned works by Riccardo Buscarini, h2dance, Rick Nodine and Eva Recacha compete for the biggest prize in British dance Coming soon…save the dates
Cover image: Resolution! 2013, (Botis Seva, Far from the Norm), Photo: Ben Johnson
Compiled and edited by the Development Department at The Place. Registered charity number 250216
The Place 17 Duke’s Road London WC1H 9PY Development: 020 7121 1050 www.theplace.org.uk/development