New work, one night only exclusives and the first Be Moved community dance festival. Entertainment writer Wayne Savage previews DanceEast’s spring-summer season.
Featuring the best new work by some of the best new dance companies, next year sees the return of the One Night Stand series, featuring works from 2Faced Dance, Aakash Odedra Company, Gandini Juggling. James Wilton Dance, Robert Clark and Theo Clinkard.
It’s just one strand of a packed spring-summer season announced by the Jerwood DanceHouse.
Looking to the future is 2Faced Dance’s Dreaming In Code. Fusing dance and theatre, the company pushes the boundaries of the physical via contemporary dance and breakdance moves. Presented by award-winning choreographer Tamsin Fitzgerald and Eddie Kay for Frantic Assembly, it features music by Angus MacRae and Tony-nominated composer Alex Baranowski.
U.Dance East celebrates excellence in youth dance across the East of England and is the chance for performance groups to come together in a series of selected workshops before performing new, devised works in a mixed bill.
DanceEast and Aldeburgh Music continue the hugely successful Snape Dances series with a presentation of cutting-edge contemporary choreographer and Sadler’s Wells associate artist Wayne McGregor’s latest work Atomos.
Atomising bodies, movement, film, sound and light into miniature shards of intense sensation, he’ll be joined by lighting designer Lucy Carter and filmmaker Ravi Deepres along with costumes by the ground-breaking designers of wearable technologies, Studio XO. Music comes from neo-classical ambient composers A Winged Victory For The Sullen. There will also be a masterclass workshop with McGregor at Ipswich’s Jerwood DanceHouse.
The Spring Showcase is an evening of new, devised works from DanceEast’s resident performance groups.
It will feature performances from all-male Boyz United, Dance Unlimited, elders company The Elderberries, Suffolk Junior Dance Company, Suffolk Youth Dance Company, additional needs performance group Spin Off and the DanceEast Centre for Advanced Training.
Murmur and Inked is a new double bill from Aakash Odedra Company. Artistic director Odedra is one of the most sought-after British choreographer and dancers today.
Originally trained in the South Asian styles of kathak and bharatanatyam, he has developed a distinctive movement style following intensive training with some of the most prestigious choreographers in the world.
Diagnosed with dyslexia at a young age Odedra and Australian choreographer Lewis Major delve into the idea of warped and exaggerated realities in the first, exploring how the misconceptions of dyslexia can be revealed through visual design, light, sound and movement.
In Inked, choreographed by Olivier Award-winner Damien Jalet, the body becomes a place of transformation as the figures and drawings made on his own body reveal the inner duality of the dancer on a self-seeking quest.
Following the success of Finding Home in 2014, DanceEast presents another large scale community dance performance project - The Village.
Teaming up with newly-formed company Unit, made up of DanceEast associate artists Tom Hobden and Kate Flurrie, it will play at Jerwood DanceHouse and The Apex in Bury St Edmunds.
Inspired by the hundreds of little villages across England, the cast includes up to 200 performers from local schools, performance group and members of the community - including some who have never danced before.
Danger, the fragility of existence and the desire to survive are the focus of James Wilton Dance’s hotly anticpated new piece Last Man Standing.
Renowned for breathtaking choreography, his work draws on martial arts, breakdancing and capoeira to create raw, earthy and ground-breaking performances. There will be a workshop with the company too.
Wilkie Branson and Sally Cookson present Varmints, the story of one small creature’s struggle to preserve a world in danger of being lost forever as the city grows larger every day.
Choreographed by B-boy and Sadler’s Wells New Wave associate Branson and directed by children’s theatre specialist Cookson, it’s based on the award-winning book by Helen Ward and is a rich visual piece of original dance theatre for youngsters and their families.
There will be a special interactive post-show discussion and family workshop too.
Robert Clark’s Promises of Happiness is billed as a dance show for joy, for simple pleasures, for saying no to people who want to tell us what should or should not make us happy and to endless promises of happiness alluding to a world just out of reach.
The UK-based choreographer is known for his humorous and emotionally charged, intricate and detailed, direct and engaging dance performances.
Chalk and Of Land And Tongue, from Theo Clinkard, puts the audience at the heart of the action.
For the first, he draws inspiration from the cliffs of his hometown. The second sees an accumulation of untranslatable words from foreign cultures brought to life withcompelling, and occasionally hilarious, effects.
New physical theatre show The Spalding Suite from Inua Ellams and Benji Reid is inspired by the UK’s basketball sub-culture. Exploring the battles between the human body and mind in the fast-paced game, six performers mix live beatboxing, hip hop, music, moves and poetry.
Hercules is best known for his incredible strength - but who knew the guy could dance?
Contemporary dance performance meets stand-up comedy as New Art Club - aka Tom Roden and Pete Shenton - bring you a pantomime, a comic take on history and a party all rolled into one side-splitting adventure as part of We Are Ipswich.
Be Moved, DanceEast’s first community dance festival, will include world-class dance performances, classes and course taster sessions, open events and performance opportunities for schools, young choreographers and community groups of all ages.
Four jugglers and four ballet dancers share a stage in Gandini Juggling’s 4 x 4, directed by world renowned juggler Sean Gandini and choreographed by Royal Ballet dancer Ludovic Ondiviela.
Now in its third year, Sadler’s Wells National Youth Dance Company is establishing a reputation for high quality performances. It returns to the Jerwood DanceHouse with a new work created by 2014–15 guest artistic director Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui.
This new commission sees him revisiting moments from his established catalogue of work including Babel(words), Puz/zle, Genesis and TeZukA, incorporating new ideas and movement material from the young dancers.
Again, there will be a workshop with the company too.
The DanceEast Centre for Advanced Training’s End of Year Show includes a mixed bill of original works commissioned by some of the most influential national and international choreographers.
Other events at the dancehouse next year include A Midsummer Night’s Dream In Concert by singer-songwriter Wade Ablitt, The Landseer Players’ pantomime Sleeping Beauty,
the British Red Cross present the Suffolk heat of Dance: Make Your Move, the UK’s largest charity dance competition; and Encore Dance Company – the graduate dance company for Tring Park School for the Performing Arts – performs a mixed programme of choreography.
Brendan Keaney, DanceEast’s artistic director and chief executive, said: “DanceEast’s One Night Stand programme is making a comeback in spring and true to its nature will bring the best new work by the best new dance companies for one night only. After each of these shows audiences can enjoy a half price drink and feedback their thoughts to the DanceEast team. This is a very exciting time and you only have to look at the new season to see what fantastic things we have coming up.”
Do just that at www.danceeast.co.uk
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