Programme
New works by Gregory Maqoma Rose English Yaara Dolev Ben Duke Darren Ellis
www.mapdance.org
Photography by Chris Nash
SPRING TOUR 2011
SPRING TOUR 2011 Celebrating its 5th year, mapdance is one of the leading postgraduate dance companies in the UK. Recruiting dancers nationally and internationally mapdance commissions new repertoire from renown and upcoming contemporary choreographers and directors. This year the company has commissioned works by Rose English, Yaara Dolev (The Tel-Aviv Dance Company), Ben Duke (Lost Dog) & Darren Ellis (RADC & Random) as well as restaging Gregory Maqoma’s powerful work Zola Station. Ranging in style and emotion, mapdance’s programme offers a diverse and refreshing mixture of dance theatre, lyrical choreography, punchy physicality and intriguing humour. It is a mixed bill that offers something for everyone.
WORKS Gregory Maqoma: Zola Station Zola Station takes its inspiration from this notorious area in Soweto. You need to constantly watch your back when you are in Zola. It is a meeting place for the feared and respected but also for the innocent ones that wait for trains to take them to work. The work is about waiting and in the waiting, relationships develop. It is is an adrenalin rush, the morning and afternoon rush, the rush for cover and safety. Rose English: Further Fervour Before it was possible to archive and record pioneering dance on film and video, often the only tangible remaining traces of a dance or a dancer's work were photographs, and the fragments of a written testimony from those who had witnessed it. What is the legacy of these written descriptions and visual traces, and what can they possibly evoke today? In this work, the dancers explore this archival heritage in movement and in stillness, and in plumbing their own histories and daily practice. In these sustained enactments of physiological memory, they show themselves to be, in dance, 'keepers of the flame.'
Yaara Dolev: Blossom Blossom is about experiencing the force of nature. A force that makes things emerge with great beauty, blossom, grow and die, in order to re-emerge. The piece is about us drowning and drifting in the flow of this mighty force, discovering ourselves as part of nature, seeing us humans as a herd, discovering our need to hang on to each other, our need for love, and at the same time, trying to draw our individual selves out of the herd, our body as a flower, blossoming from a definite centre and reaching out. Ben Duke: Fifteen minutes too long Fifteen minutes too long is about our relationship to fame and attention. Why do some of us crave it and what are we willing to do to achieve it. The piece looks at the things some of us are willing to offer up on stage or screen in order to grab attention and it asks, as audience, are we interested in the ordinary or the extreme, and is it talent or volume that is most persuasive? Darren Ellis: Rumble, Rocks and Hard Knocks Rumble, Rocks and Hard Knocks takes its inspiration from the female rockabilly music movement of the 1950's. For a few brief moments, these women burst onto a predominantly male scene with a musical message of female power and assertiveness.
CHOREOGRAPHERS Gregory Maqoma A contemporary African dance maker, born and bred in Johannesburg, Gregory Maqoma is regarded as a visionary in his country of birth, South Africa. Pundits describe his work as 'cutting edge contemporary work to emerge from Africa'. Maqoma is founder and artistic director of Vuyani Dance Theatre in Johannesburg, South Africa. He received his training both in South Africa and Belgium. As a choreographer, teacher, dancer, artistic consultant and creative director, he has taught and presented work in the Netherlands, United Kingdom, Sweden, Switzerland, Mexico, Finland, Burkina Faso, Austria, Nigeria, France, Senegal, Norway, Belgium, Germany, USA and in South Africa. He has won several awards, accolades and nominations in South Africa and internationally including the FNB Dance Umbrella Choreographer of the Year, Standard Bank Young Artist for the Year and Gauteng MEC Award for Choreography. He's been a Rolex Mentor and Protégé Award Finalist as well as a Daimler Chrysler Choreography Award Finalist. Maqoma also serves as Associate Artistic Director for Moving Into Dance and as Artistic Director of The Afro Vibes Festival in the Netherlands. He was Creative Director for Gauteng Carnival in 2007 and is founder member of MUiSA (Multi Arts Initiative of South Africa). Rose English Rose English has been writing, directing and performing her own work for over thirty years in venues as various as Tate Britain, Royal Court, Queen Elizabeth Hall, the Adelaide Festival and Lincoln Center, New York. Her productions feature a diversity of co-performers including musicians, dancers, circus performers, magicians and horses. Rose’s shows range from her site-specific collaborations of the 1970’s including Berlin and Rabies, her acclaimed solos of the 1980’s including Plato’s Chair and The Beloved to her large-scale spectaculars of the 1990’s including Walks on Water, The Double Wedding and Tantamount Esperance. Her internationally celebrated solo with a horse, My Mathematics was produced by Michael Morris’s Cultural Industry and a series of vignettes
with horses were presented by The Banff Centre, Canada and The Serpentine Gallery, London. The Long Time Ago Story – a collaboration with composer David Sawer was commissioned for BBC Radio 4 in 2003. Ornamental Happiness - a show in song and circus opened the Liverpool Biennial of Contemporary Art in 2006 followed by Flagrant Wisdom commissioned by National Glass Centre in 2009. Lost in Music - the full length sequel featuring flying, glass, singing and fire is currently in development with producers Reckless Moments, Crying Out Loud and Shanghai Acrobatic Troupe of China. Rose’s performance works of the 1970’s featured in the exhibition WACK! - Art and the Feminist Revolution at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles and toured museums in the USA and Canada throughout 2009. As an actress Rose has appeared in a wide range of theatre, film and television productions, working with directors including Richard Jones, Sally Potter, Nic Roeg, Nick Philippou, James Ivory and Neil Jordan. Rose co-wrote and designed the feature film The Gold Diggers in 1983 directed by Sally Potter. The Gold Diggers was digitally remastered and released on BFI DVD in 2009. Rose's work with dance includes choreographing Ariadne auf Naxos at the Munich Staatsoper, directed by Tim Albery and her collaborations with choreographer Matthew Hawkins, including Angels and Exiles at the Royal Opera House. Rose’s awards include the Time Out Performance Award, the Wingate Scholarship and the Paul Hamlyn Award for Artists. Curator and writer Guy Brett is working on a full-length monograph about her work entitled Abstract Vaudeville to be published in 2012. Yaara Dolev Partners both on and off the stage, Yaara Dolev & Amit Goldenberg established the critically acclaimed Tel-Aviv Dance Company in 2000. Through intensive physicality their work penetrates the shell of modern society and touches on existential questions of being human, our basic need to contain and give. Their work incorporates powerful and original movement while addressing ideological and political issues facing Israeli society today.
The company consists of eight dancers and tours throughout Israel and internationally, presenting over 100 performances and workshops per year. The company also offers a two–year professional training programme. Born in 1974, Yaara trained at the Bat Dor School of Dance and at Kibbutz Hatzerim Center for Dance. She worked with Anat Danieli and the Bat-Sheva Ensemble where she performed works by Ohad Naharin, Yiri Kilian, and Inbal Pinto. She won the 1998 Adami Dancer award, as part of the Bagnolet Choreography Competition, Paris, France and the Israeli Culture Ministry award for Young Choreographers. Together with Amit she has created 9 productions for her company alongside numerous works for children and family audiences. Ben Duke Ben trained at the Guildford School of Acting and London Contemporary Dance School. He cofounded Lost Dog in 2004. For Lost Dog Ben has created; It Needs Horses, which has been selected for the Place Prize Final 2011, Salvage, Hungry Ghosts, The Drowner and Pave up Paradise which won first prize at the Burgos International Choreography competition, second prize at the prestigious Hanover choreography competition, and was bought and toured by Phoenix Dance Theatre as part of its Stories in Red 25th anniversary mixed bill. Ben has also created work for Scottish Dance Theatre, National Theatre of Scotland, The Gate Theatre, Oily Cart children’s theatre, From here to Maturity, Intoto, EDge, Transitions, Devon Youth Dance, and Gloucestershire Youth Dance. As a performer he has worked with The Hofesh Shechter Company, The Gate Theatre, the National Theatre of Scotland, Punchdrunk, Maresa von Stockert and the Darkin Ensemble. Darren Ellis Darren trained at Rambert School (1987-90). He has danced for many different companies including Random Dance Company, Mathew Bourne, Mark Bruce and most recently Richard Alston where he was also Rehearsal Director (2005- 2007).
Darren has choreographed two pieces for his own Company Darren Ellis Dance, Romeo Error and Good To Go and for Richard Alston Company, Tempt My better Angel and No more Ghosts. In 2008 Darren was invited to be part of the research project choreoroam at the Place, out of which came sticks and bones, a solo for himself which was first shown in Spring Loaded 2009 and is currently touring. Darren has also made work for various youth companies, C.A.T, Edge and Intoto Dance. Other work includes Reassemble, a collaboration with film maker Filipe Alcada and as movement director and actor in Venus in Eros, a new film by Takoko Imai for Cannes festival 2011. Darren is currently making a new solo commissioned for The Place Prize 2010 and has recently been appointed an associate artist at Dance East.
DANCERS
Kayleigh Anne Crook Kayleigh Anne Crook completed a National Diploma in Performing Arts at Bridgwater College (Somerset, England) and has recently graduated from the University of Chichester with a First Class BA Hons in Dance. During her time at Chichester Kayleigh travelled to Toronto, in Canada, where she studied and trained for an eight month period. On her return, Kayleigh became a member of Chichester’s third year Dance Company, ‘3Fall’ and embarked on a national tour with the company in 2010. Kayleigh has worked with a range of companies including; Influx, Jasmin Vardemon, Bedlam, and Lila Dance. She also works as a freelance artist in the South and South West of England, teaching in local communities and schools. Kayleigh is an aspiring choreographer and recently received the ‘Leah Anderson award for Choreographic Excellence’. Kayleigh is looking forward to challenging and broadening her artistic horizons this year, as a member of MAPdance Company. Tomomi Kosano Tomomi was born in Chiba, Japan. She began training in classical ballet from the age of 11. In 2007, she travelled to the UK to pursue a BA in dance at Roehampton University, where she received a first class degree. The training and performances at Roehampton provided Tomomi with opportunities to experience a diverse range of ideas through process to product. This inspired her to join mapdance, where she has been strengthening her skills in dance performance to pursue the role of performer, in preparation for professional practice. Monica Nicolaides Monica originally trained in Cyprus up to the age of eighteen. She graduated from the University of Chester with a BA (Hons) in Dance with Fine Art: New Media in 2009 and then continued her training obtaining the Diploma in Dance Studies from Laban in 2010. She is currently at the University of Chichester doing the MA in Performance and is part of mapdance. Monica is also working towards gaining her teaching diploma in Cecchetti Ballet. In the future she hopes to gain more experience and follow a career in performing as well as teaching dance.
India Pearson India has just completed her degree in dance at the University of Chichester. During this time India danced for West Sussex Youth Dance Company, the University’s Chichester Collective, and the third year touring dance company 3fall. Whilst studying for her degree India developed a keen interest in screendance, and had the opportunity to be a panel member for SouthEast dance 'Moving Voices' youth screendance festival. During her second year at the University she spent 6 months training at Danshogsgkolan, University College of Dance, in Stockholm. She has recently finished a four month internship with Hofesh Shechter Company with a focus on working for administration in the development of the new work ‘Political Mother’. Along with completing her MA, India currently works in Company Development for Udifydance Company assisting in promoting their tour and future projects. India is excited to be in MAPdance and looks forward to learning new skills touring with the Company. Serafina Romano Serafina trained at Roehampton University where she was a member of Third Row Dance Company. She undertook the performance and repetoire module gaining opportunities to work with many professional choreographers. She is currently doing an MA at Chichester University researching into dance as a method of non verbal communication. After completing the MA, she would like to develop a career in dance including performance and teaching. Aimee Symes Aimee graduated from Laban, where she received a BA Hons in Dance Theatre. Whilst studying there, Aimee worked with a range choreographers including, Rosemary Butcher, Tom Roden (New Art Club), Zoi Dimitriou, Mark Bruce and Darren Johnston (Array Dance Company). Aimee has also participated in a Swedish exchange at Balettakademien, Stockholm, allowing her to experience another country culturally and in terms of its dance context. This year, Aimee welcomes the collaborative challenge of mapdance and the opportunity to strengthen her performance skills.ls. Robyn Thwaites Robyn was first introduced to contemporary dance at the age of 15 when she joined Berkshire Youth Dance Company. During the same period, Robyn also trained with NYCDC, Cult Dance Company and Combinations Dance Company. Robyn gradated from Chichester University in 2010 where she developed a keen interest in Improvisation within performance and Choreography. During her training she performed in numerous choreographic works with 3fall Dance Company as well as undertaking a work placement with Hofesh Shechter Company. As well as joining mapdance this year, Robyn is also working with Jerrel Jackson and Dougie Evans on their new work, performing in Resolutions in January 2011. She is very pleased to be a part of map and is looking to furthering her skills as a dance performer.
Natalie Todman Natalie has been dancing since the age of nine. She trained at Louise Ryrie School of Dance and Drama and Panache Freestyle Dance School in Crawley taking part in ballet, modern, jazz, tap and freestyle. She has participated in professional pantomimes, English Youth Ballet Productions and other various productions around the South East and in London. At college she was introduced to contemporary dance, representing her college in the Barcelona Dance grand prix as well as being a part of New Ground Dance Company. Natalie graduated from Chichester University in 2010, where she performed in Chichester Collective and as a member of 3fall Dance Company. She is now pleased to be part of mapdance, and with this opportunity hopes to strengthen her performing skills. Hannah Waters Hannah graduated from Laban in 2010 with a BA (Hons) in Dance Theatre. Prior to this she completed a year at London Contemporary Dance School with the C.A.T training scheme and was a member of Hampshire Youth Dance Company based in Eastleigh for 4 years. During Hannah's time at Laban she worked with various choreographers including Zoi Dimitriou, Tom Dale, Simon Vincenzi, and Rosemary Butcher. Hannah undertook a work experience placement with New Art Club in her second year. Hannah feels blessed to have been awarded this opportunity to work as part of a company and get a taste of what it would be like to be a professional dancer. She hopes to continue pursuing dance as a career when she finishes her postgraduate studies, and is interested in the collaboration with visual art.
PRODUCTION TEAM Yael Flexer - Artistic Director Winner of the Jerwood Choreography Award, and associate artist with Woking Dance Festival, Yael is artistic director of Yael Flexer, Nic Sandiland/Dance & Digital Works (formerly Bedlam) and mapdance. Yael formed her company as Choreographer in Residence at The Place Theatre, London in 1993 and has since created 11 full-length productions touring throughout the UK and internationally. Commissions of choreographic, site-specific and digital works include: Sadler’s Wells, The South Bank Centre, Woking Dance festival, The Arts Depot, The Circus Space, E-Werk International Tanz Festival, Scottish Dance Theatre, Ludus, Edge, Laban Centre, Loop, Influx and Lila Dance Companies. Recent company projects include an international tour of the 2010/2011 production The Living Room, exhibitions of the gallery-based installations Orbital and Gravity Shift, and the high street shop installations Everything Looks Beautiful in Slow Motion and Bystander. Yael has also received a bursary from the University of Chichester towards a practice-based PhD. Detta Howe - Artistic Director After training at Laban, Detta formed Ginger Dance Theatre in 1994, Hampshire's first professional contemporary dance company. She has made over 25 touring works for the company, and has worked extensively in community dance, creating numerous pieces for people of all ages. Detta was an Associate Lecturer at The University of Chichester for 14 years before becoming a Senior Lecturer in 2008 with joint responsibility for directing, managing and touring mapdance. She continues to develop her performance work and is currently working on a new solo commission with Matthias Sperling. Holly Murray - Costume Designer Holly’s background is fine art and she now works predominately as a costume designer. Her costume work envelopes many disciplines, including dance, theatre, film, fashion and art. Dance collaborations have included costumes for live performance with Liz Aggiss and Billy Cowie, Virginia Farman, Gravity and Levity, Lila Dance and High Spin. Costume for dance film include Motion Control, Anarchic Dance, Four Men In a Wall, and films with Shelly Love, Alex Reuben and Silke Mansholt.
Martina Trottmann - Costume Designer Martina trained as an haute couture and theatre dressmaker in Switzerland and graduated as costume designer from Wimbledon College of Art in summer 2007. She works as a designer and maker for theatre, film and dance as well as in profession related education. Credits include Sweet at Laban by Shahar Dor 2008, The Faerie Queen by Cilgwyn Theatre Company 2008, Lost and found by Katie Green 2009, Way through the Woods by Cilgwyn Theatre Company 2009, Die Nacht Historical Project for Laban 2010, …No...No for Transitions Dance Company by Colin Pool 2010 and Splinter for Stop Gap Dance Company 2010. Natalie Rowland - Lighting Designer Technician and Lighting Designer, trained with the Association of British Theatre Technicians and the Emergency Planning College, Natalie has worked extensively in Dance, Musical Theatre and has specialised in outdoor productions. Recently she was Technical Manager for the Malden Theatre (Washington) as well as the training provider for Martin Professional, delivering courses and workshops in intelligent lighting.
MAPDANCE COMPANY 2011 Artistic Directors: Yael Flexer & Detta Howe Costume Design: Holly Murray & Martina Trottmann Lighting Design: Natalie Rowland Photography: Chris Nash
TOUR MANAGEMENT Joe Bates: email joe@mortonbates.com
ADMINISTRATION Miranda Labuschagne: email m.labuschagne@chi.ac.uk tel +44 (0)1243 816470
www.mapdance.org