Press Release: Sadler’s Wells supports 21 new artists with Summer University

[Jan McNulty]

Sadler’s Wells announces support for 21 new artists with its four-year dance development programme

 

Sadler’s Wells today announces the 21 UK-based dance professionals who have successfully gained a place on the theatre’s Summer University via an open application process. The 21 dance makers and artists form the second cohort of participants attending the Sadler’s Wells Summer University over the next four years.

 

Directed by one of the most respected choreographers working in Europe today, Jonathan Burrows, in collaboration with Eva Martinez, Artistic Programmer for Sadler’s Wells, the first edition of the project ran between 2011 and 2014, supporting 15 dance artists from a wide range of dance styles and practices. This first edition was funded by Jerwood Charitable Foundation, who have continued their support into this second edition.

 

Summer University takes the shape of a two-week intensive period every summer with the same group of artists. Exceptionally, this first year takes place in September.

 

Devised to offer a longer-term approach to choreographic enquiry, the four-year programme is aimed specifically at dance artists who have been active in their field yet are at the earlier stages of their career as dance makers. The artists chosen are therefore all at a crucial stage in their development. Moreover, they have been selected on the strength of their distinctive approach to choreographic practice across a wide range of choreographic backgrounds. As a group, this cohort represent an informed and ambitious gathering of artists that bring their existing experience as performers, teachers, academics and self-producers to a different focus aiming with this course to consolidate and further their contribution as dance makers.

 

The artists taking part are encouraged to extend their perspective on what constitutes choreographic practice and are supported to grow in confidence as artists contributing fully to the dance ecology. The intensive fortnight involves sharing work, hearing talks, exploring methodologies and philosophies of performance making and extending their own practice through peer exchange and focussed interventions. With additional input from international guest speakers and workshop facilitators spanning dance, theatre, visual arts, philosophy and artistic development, the Summer University focuses on compositional and choreographic processes, performance and philosophies and how to sustain a creative career as a dance artist today.

 

The 21 artists chosen for the Second Edition are:

Adrienne Hart, Alesandra Seutin, Alexandrina Hemsley, Antonio de la Fe, Charlotte Spencer, Dan Daw, Eva Recacha, James Cousins, Joe Moran, Katerina Paramana, Katye Coe, Kwame Asafo-Adjei,  Marquez & Zangs (Mariana Lucia Marquez & Emma Zangs), Neil Callaghan, Nicola Conibere, Patricia Okenwa, Pepa Ubera, Stefan Jovanovic, Stephanie McMann, Theo Clinkard.

 

Guest speakers for the first year of the Second Edition include Art Angel Director Michael Morris, Dramaturg and Performance Theorist Bojana Cvejic and Tate Modern Curator, Catherine Wood.

 

Summer University Director Jonathan Burrows says: “In an intensive two weeks the 21 participants will be encouraged to listen, look, study, discuss and reflect upon their own practice and on that of other dance artists, not in an academic way but as a preparation for the making of new work. Rather than experiment, the idea is to clarify what has been done and push that towards what might also be possible. The impact of this work when repeated over a number of years has a greater chance of spreading beyond the initial group of participating artists, and slowly shift approaches to choreography.” 

 

Sadler’s Wells Artistic Programmer Eva Martinez says: “Summer University was born out of Sadler’s Wells’ desire to nurture artists in a more sustained way at specifically crucial stages of their development. Its first edition revealed just how much the artists benefit from an ongoing dialogue with each other over several years and with the theatre also. It has created a real sense of generational change and an unusual peer support network reaching beyond traditional artistic differences, thanks to the unique perspective Jonathan brings to this process. We are now embarking on a new journey with a bright and ambitious group of dance makers, academics and performers stemming from across the spectrum of dance made today, driven by a shared aspiration to expand the confines of our art form.”

 

The Summer University programme is part of a range of initiatives Sadler's Wells offers to support and develop choreographers and dancers at varying stages of their practice. This starts with hosting the National Youth Dance Companywhich, funded jointly by Arts Council England and the Department for Education, draws together some of the brightest young talent aged 16-19 from across the country, to work with the theatre’s internationally renowned Associate Artists.

 

With Wild Card, Sadler’s Wells invites emerging choreographers and producers to curate an evening of work for its Lilian Baylis Studio, offering them production, technical and marketing support as part of the process. Sadler’s Wells’ New Wave Associates programme, established in 2012 and supported by the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, offers the next generation of artists a structured programme of support, by directing them to opportunities that will further develop their careers and through a commitment to commission and show original new work by each of them.

 

Completing the continuum of support, Sadler’s Wells’ 16 Associate Artists, three Resident Companies and Associate Company, are offered opportunities to work alongside collaborators and dancers, and develop concepts and ideas for large-scale productions which the theatre commissions and co-produces.

 

Jerwood Charitable Foundation is supporting the inaugural year of the second Summer University and was the founding funder of the initiative through the successful work of the Jerwood Studio at Sadler’s Wells. This major initiative was launched in 2006 and ran until 2014. Developed by Sadler's Wells in partnership with the Jerwood Charitable Foundation, it has helped to develop artists and their networks to the benefit of the wider arts ecology and audiences all over the world. The full programme came to an end in 2014 leaving a substantial creative legacy, having provided dance artists with the much needed artistic space, support and resources to explore ideas, experiment, take creative risks and form new relationships outside of their scheduled performances and production commitments.

 

As well as the first edition of Summer University, the Jerwood Studio supported over 32 collaborative projects involving a diverse range of artists such as Carrie Cracknell and Lucy Guerin, Martin Creed, Jasmin Vardimon, Carol Ann Duffy, Liv Lorent and Mark Wallinger. Despite the research focus of the programme, most of these projects have subsequently progressed to mid or large-scale production, either by Sadler's Wells or through other commissioning organisations in the UK and overseas, and a wide range of award-winning productions have been born such as Russell Maliphant’s Afterlight, Javier de Frutos and the Pet Shop Boys’ The Most Incredible Thing, and Gallim Dance’s Fold Here.

 

Sadler’s Wells Summer University Second Edition, Year 1 will be held at the theatre from Monday 14 – Sunday 27 September 2015

 

Summer University is supported by the Jerwood Charitable Foundation and is made possible thanks to funding through the Leverhulme Trust Arts Scholarship

 

 

Notes to Editors

 

Sadler’s Wells Summer University graduates from the 1^st edition from 2011-2014 were:

Melanie Ingram, Amy Bell, Vicki Igbokwe, Wilkie Branson, Jamila Johnson-Small, Cameron McMillan, Efrosini Protopapa, Hemabharathy Palani, Danya Hammoud, Alexander Whitley, Valentina Golfieri , Hetain Patel, Gillie Kleiman, Lorena Randi and Matthias Sperling.

 

Guest speakers included Liz Lerman, Ruth Little, David Hinton and James McDonald.

 

 

Summer University Second Edition Student Biographies

 

Adrienne Hart (Choreographer / Artistic Director)

Adrienne initially trained at Swindon Dance, winning a scholarship at the age of 17 to train at London Contemporary Dance School. She now works internationally as a choreographer and as Artistic Director of Neon Dance. Collaboration is at the heart of her practice and she has developed a reputation for working with an array of collaborators, from critically acclaimed composers to award-winning media artists.

 

In 2015, Adrienne became a ‘Dream Artist’ at Pavilion Dance South West signalling two-years of support and investment. She has worked in Russia, Norway, Germany and most recently Kosovo, choreographing the tragic comedy War In Times of Love by Jeton Neziraj. She is currently working on her first full-length work titled Empathy due to premiere in 2016. The production features an original score by the Danish pop band Efterklang and is supported by Arts Council Southwest.

 

Alesandra Seutin

Alesandra is a London-based choreographer, teacher and performer with African and

European roots: born in Harare, raised in Brussels and trained in London (Laban & Middlesex University). Her movement language reflects her cultural roots and is a hybrid of Contemporary, African and Urban dance styles. She champions cross-art forms and is always looking for new ways of pushing boundaries of how people watch and interact with dance both locally and internationally. In 2007, she founded Vocab Dance Company.

 

In addition to the body of work she has built for Vocab Dance Company, she has created work for Phoenix Dance Theatre, 12º North Dance and most recently State of Emergency as an independent choreographer. Furthermore, she has acted as Movement Director for two plays at Theatre Centre.

 

In 2011, she was the only UK-based dance artist to be selected by Germaine Acogny to learn and pass on Acogny’s technique. In 2014, she became an ADAD Trailblazers Champion for her continuous contribution as an artist of the African Diaspora in the UK, bridging the gap

between African and Contemporary dance.

 

Alexandrina Hemsley

Alexandrina is a choreographer/performer/occasional writer. Through her artistic practice she explores ways to make work that aims to celebrate and reclaim her identity as a mixed-race woman and challenge the various cultural frameworks that mark, violate and subjugate her body.

Her approach to her work is mostly through collaborations, such as Project O with Jamila Johnson-Small and Dad Dancing with Helena Webb and Rosie Heafford. Her work has included choreographies for stage, interventions in public spaces, a publication, a performance lecture, teaching and free training - The New Empowering School. Alexandrina also co-edits and writes for BELLYFLOP Magazine alongside a group of independent dance artists. 

 

Antonio de la Fe

Antonio is a Spanish choreographer and performer based in London with a background in physiotherapy. After coming relatively late to dance and initially training in Madrid, he moved to London and completed an MA in performance at The Place in 2010. Since then he has danced for Matthias Sperling, Eva Recacha, Riccardo Buscarini and Jonathan Lunn. His choreographed works include Place Prize finalist 2011 Cameo, an open OPENLAB: a hybrid, Va por Vds. and A void.

 

Antonio is currently recipient of the BBC Performing Arts Fund Fellowship, with support from Independence Dance. During the fellowship he has been researching and developing his Unrehearsed Series in collaboration with producer Martine Painter. He is a Chisenhale Dance Space’s member, where he runs OPENLAB: a space for shared practice for performers. He is also a member of BELLYFLOP and has recently been named Associate Artist at Queen Mary University of London.

 

Charlotte Spencer

Charlotte is a choreographer, facilitator and occasional performer. As artistic director of Charlotte Spencer Projects she works across art forms and predominantly in outdoor environmental contexts. She is an Artist Activator for Greenwich Dance and was associate artist at The Point, Eastleigh 2010-13. She has been working with Siobhan Davies Dance since 2010, as commissioned choreographer and lead artist for their year-long choreographic course for young people, Next Choreography.

 

Commissions include Jerwood Gallery, Turner Contemporary, Brighton&Hove Library, London Contemporary Dance School and Northern School of Contemporary Dance. Charlotte was a priority artist for Dansce Dialogues 2 2012-14, and Tour d’Europe des Choreographes2010/2011. Walking Stories - an audio walk for parks was created in 2013 and will be part of Dance Umbrella 2015. Charlotte is working on a new ambitious production Is this a Wasteland?

 

She graduated from London Contemporary Dance School with a 1st Class BA (Hons) in 2003. 

 

Dan Daw

Dan completed a Bachelor of Creative Arts at the Flinders University Drama Centre (2004) and since joining Restless Dance Theatre (2002) has danced with FRONTLINEdance (2006), Scottish Dance Theatre (2007), Force Majeure (2007 – 2009), Candoco Dance Company (2010 – 2013) and Skånes Dansteater (2013 – 2015). Following his collaboration at Skånes Dansteater with Swedish choreographer Martin Forsberg and designer Jenny Nordberg, Dan commissioned Martin, Jenny and lighting designer Guy Hoare to further collaborate with him on the creation of BEAST, which previewed at the Swedish Performing Arts Biennale in May 2015. A Greenwich Dance & Trinity Laban Partnership Compass Commission, BEAST will have its UK premiere later this year.

Now a Candoco Associate Artist, BBC/South East Dance Performing Arts Fund Fellow and Artistic Associate of his newly co-founded company Murmuration Dance Theatre, Dan continues to work at the forefront of dance and disability in the UK and Australia through his advocacy and performance work.

 

Eva Recacha (choreographer)

Eva studied classical dance in her country of origin (Spain) and later trained at the London Contemporary Dance School (UK). Since 2009 she has been choreographing in the UK and her practice has focused on exploring ways of relating movement and text, creating a blend of poetic, humorous, and nonsensical juxtapositions through the interplay of both mediums. She was a Place Prize Finalist in 2011 with her work Begin to Begin: A Piece About Dead Ends, and again in 2013 with The Wishing Well. In 2012 she was a recipient of the Marion North Mentoring Award.

 

Eva has been commissioned work by EDge, LCDS, DanceXchange, Bloomberg SPACE and the Opera Estate Festival in Veneto. In 2014 Eva curated a Wild Card at Sadler’s Wells, and premiered Easy Rider at The Place as part of the Spring Loaded season. Eva is a Work Place Artist. She lives and works in London.

 

James Cousins

James has been recognised by Time Out magazine as one of the future faces of dance, called ‘a rising star’ by The Independent and described by Matthew Bourne as ‘one of the UK’s most promising choreographic talents’. In 2012, he was the winner of the inaugural New Adventures Choreographer Award, where his work was critically acclaimed as ‘outstanding’, ‘visually breath-taking’ and ‘spellbindingly beautiful’ at a sold out performance at Sadler’s Wells, London.

After the showcase he formed James Cousins Company with producer Francesca Moseley, to act as a vehicle for creating and performing his work, touring to popular and critical acclaim both nationally and internationally from South America to East Asia. As a freelance choreographer James has been commissioned to create work for companies around the world including National Ballet of Chile, Oper Graz, Royal Ballet of Flanders and Scottish Ballet. James is a Work Place artist at The Place and an Associate Artist at DanceEast. 

 

Joe Moran

Joe is a choreographer, dancer and Artistic Director of Dance Art Foundation, through which his performance and curatorial work is produced. His work has been presented in theatres, galleries and public spaces gaining recognition for its ambition, complexity and intelligence. Commissions and recent touring include Block Universe/fig-2 at the ICA (2015), David Roberts Art Foundation (Frieze, 2014), Nottingham Contemporary (2014), Assembly (UK tour, 2014), The Modulated Body (2013) commissioned by Ordovas for its Bacon and Rodin exhibition, and The Place Prize (2013).

 

Associate Artist with Dance4 and Affiliate Artist with C-DaRE (Centre for Dance Research at Coventry University), Joe’s work is informed by his background in improvisation and experimentation which he marries with a fascination with formal choreographic composition and conceptually driven dance. As a dancer, Joe has worked with many distinguished choreographers including Deborah Hay (USA), Siobhan Davies (UK), Florence Peake (UK) and Pontus Pettersson (Sweden).

 

Katerina Paramana 

Katerina is a London-based artist and researcher from Athens, Greece. Her work draws on dance, theatre and the visual arts and takes the form of performances, installation-and lecture-performances. It has been presented in theatres, studios and galleries in the UK, US, Sweden, Portugal and Greece, in venues such as The Place, Gasworks Gallery, The White Building, Toynbee Studios, the Institute of Design (Stanford University), Kultuhuset (Stockholm), Galeria Boavista (Lisbon) and Michael Cacoyannis Theatre (Athens).

 

As a performer, Katerina has collaborated with artists and companies such as Tino Sehgal, Ivana Müller, Bojana Cvejić and Christine De Smedt, Lea Anderson, Liz Lerman Dance Exchange and Simon Vincenzi. She holds a BA in Theatre and a BΑ in Dance from University of Maryland, College Park; a Masters in Choreography from Laban; and a PhD in Contemporary Performance from University of Roehampton, London (funded by the Onassis Public Benefit Foundation).

 

Katye Coe

Katye is a dance artist based in the UK. She has practiced as a performer, curator, choreographer and teacher since 1994. She is a senior lecturer in Dance at Coventry University, and the founding director of Decoda. One of her latest works, ‘(to) Constantly Vent’ was recently presented at the Hayward Gallery, and she curated a Wild Card evening at Sadler’s Wells’ Lilian Baylis Studio earlier this year. Her practice reaches across forms and communities, and is informed by the belief that thinking happens differently when it is located in the activity of dancing or moving.

 

Kwame Asafo-Adjei

Kwame is the artistic director, founder and choreographer of Spoken Movement UK, which he has run for the last three years. A dancer for seven years, Kwame was mentored by Jonzi D and Jonathan Burrows through Breakin’ Convention’s artist development program Back to the Lab. Kwame aims to create awareness through his work in order to challenge reality.

 

Marquez & Zangs

Marquez&Zangs research and implement commercially viable ways to apply choreographic thinking to different industries. Their grand mission is to inspire people to experience life through their bodies as respite from digital-heavy lifestyles. They create content for live events, films, virtual reality experiences, and anything in-between.

 

The duo work with dancers, models and actors on clarifying their performance, attitude and presence for the camera, catwalk or stage. They have worked with Riff Raff Films, Dance Umbrella and Trinity Laban Conservatoire, among others. Current projects include Dance.Club, in partnership with MixCloud co-founder Nikhil Shah. They also run Metaspeech, a company that supplies tech start-up founders with training on upgrading their body language for public speaking.

 

Neil Callaghan

Neil is a dance artist whose work consistently centres on negotiating collaboration and facilitating experience. His current interest is in extraordinary movement which he understands as movement that lies between the everyday and the spectacular. As a dancer he has worked with amongst others: Lea Anderson, Nicola Conibere, Dan Canham, Requardt&Rosenberg, Laura Simi, Doris Uhlich and most recently Meg Stuart. 

 

He is involved in an ongoing collaboration with Simone Kenyon with whom he has made numerous interdisciplinary pieces. Their work has been shown at the Lilian Baylis Studio, The Hayward Gallery, Nottdance and in October will be presented as part of the Fierce festival in Birmingham. His own solo work has been presented at Chisenhale Dance Space, What Now festival / Independent Dance, Undercurrent festival, among others. 

 

Nicola Conibere

Nicola is a London-based choreographer making work for theatres and art galleries. Her work engages choreographic processes to explore the potentials of how bodies relate, investigating states of exchange between people, duration, place and other materials. She is particularly interested in the politics and potentials of spectatorship, and often investigates notions of theatricality, public appearing and social choreography in her work. Her current research is exploring ideas of bodied excess and contagion in relation to the choreographic.

 

Nicola was an Associate Artist with Dance4, 2009-14. She has a practice-based PhD from TrinityLaban and is a Senior Lecturer in Dance at Coventry University. She has participated in residencies and choreographic research projects internationally. Her work has been shown at venues including: Royal Academy of Arts, Hayward Gallery, ANTI Festival of Contemporary Art in Finland, Hepworth Wakefield Gallery, Nottingham Contemporary, Laban Theatre and the Royal Opera House.

 

Patricia Okenwa

Patricia is a choreographer and dancer with Rambert for the past 11 years and now working towards her first main stage commission for the company in 2016. She is also a founder member of New Movement Collective, whose interdisciplinary, site specific productions have earned them a nomination for Best New Company at the 2014 and 2015 Critics Award. Her choreographic style is informed by her need to explore physical extremes and the wish to bring emotional content fuelled by authentic experience to the stage.

 

Most recently she was commissioned to create Ride, a new solo for BBC Young Dancer 2015 winner Connor Scott. II. Void 2015, No.1 Convergence 2014, Solo 2013 and three pieces 2014 are recent studies of specific dynamics, while previous ensemble works includingMemoria 2013 and Hold Me 2010, have given her opportunity to collaborate with composers and designers.

 

Pepa Ubera

Pepa is a freelance dancer, choreographer and curator based in London since 2003. In the summer of 2011 she was awarded a Dance Web Scholarship program at the Impulstanz Festival showcasing her choreographic work in collaboration with the Embassy of Spain in Vienna. She has been an artist in residence at micadanses Paris, Charleroi-danses Brussels, K3 Hamburg, Matucana 100 Santiago de Chile, Teatros del Canal in Madrid, among others.

 

She was a core member of TripSpace Projects and until 2015 she has been one of their artistic programmers, curating nights of performance, professional class and developing her performance practice. She has curated a number of events including The Palest Light: a night of contemporary performance, Trip-tic: a night of improvisations and LIMEN: a two day durational exhibition of performance in collaboration with the Hayward Gallery. 

 

Her approach to curation is deeply informed by her choreographic practice, with a particular interest in social choreography and live art. 

 

Stefan Jovanović

Stefan is an architect and artist from Serbian origins, currently based in London. He trained at the Architectural Association School of Architecture, developing narrative-based projects in collaboration with film-makers, dancers and designers. He has worked with multi-faceted performance, dining, and art collectives in the past, most recently with Astronaut Kawada Architecture, Pret a Diner, LabDORA and Musée de la Danse.

 

His research and work revolve around the integration of performance and dance within architectural design, and the fusing of experimental theatre and event production in the 21st century city.

 

Stephanie McMann

Stephanie is a London-based dance artist who graduated from De Montfort University and went on to gain an MA with distinction in performance from London Contemporary Dance School. She has worked predominantly as a performer/collaborator for many years with artists including Maresa Von Stockert, Hussein Chalayan & Damien Jalet, Seke Chimutengewende, Theo Clinkard, Dan Canham, New Art Club, Sally Doughty, Jonathan Lunn, Joe Moran, Immigrants & Animals, Alex Reynolds (World War Z) and long-term collaborator Roberta Jean amongst others.

 

More recently Stephanie has been working as a performance/rehearsal director (currently for companies including; Nora, mysteryskin andAcrojou), as well as teaching professionally across the UK and France. She is interested in both provoking and sustaining the knowledge and experience of moving and being moved. Her practice is involved with formed presences/states of being that can linger but equally collapse, aiming to be present with thought, memory and experience, increasing ways of knowing and noticing the not yet learnt.

 

Theo Clinkard

Theo is a Brighton-based dance maker, performer, theatre designer and teacher. For 20 years he worked as a performer with many of the UK’s most celebrated choreographers including Wayne McGregor, Matthew Bourne, Siobhan Davies, Leah Anderson and Rafael Bonachela. In 2012, he formed his own 7-strong company to develop a portfolio of eloquent and visually arresting works that explore the communicative potential of the body and the empathetic nature of dance in performance. Since launching, his company has presented two full-length evenings of work through 60 performances across the UK, Switzerland and Chile.

 

He regularly creates commissioned works and is one of the three artists commissioned to create a work for Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch to premiere this September. Theo also teaches internationally for professional companies and open studios and is a Resident Artist at Greenwich Dance and Associate Artist at Dance4.

 

 

About Sadler’s Wells

Sadler's Wells is a world leader in contemporary dance, committed to producing, commissioning and presenting new works and to bringing the very best international and UK dance to London and worldwide audiences. Under the Artistic Directorship of Alistair Spalding the theatre’s acclaimed year-round programme spans dance of every kind, from contemporary to flamenco, bollywood to ballet, salsa to street dance and tango to tap. Since 2005 it has helped to bring over 90 new dance works to the stage and its international award-winning commissions and collaborative productions regularly tour the world. Sadler’s Wells supports 16 appointed world class Associate Artists, three Resident Companies and an Associate Company, including Sylvie Guillem, Akram Khan, Hofesh Shechter, Crystal Pite, Jasmin Vardimon, Russell Maliphant, Wayne McGregor, Matthew Bourne’s New Adventures and ZooNation and nurtures the next generation of talent through hosting the National Youth Dance Company, its Summer University programme, Wild Card initiative and its New Wave Associates.

 

Located in Islington in north London, the current theatre is the sixth to have stood on the site since it was first built by Richard Sadler in 1683. The venue has played an illustrious role in the history of theatre ever since with The Royal Ballet, Birmingham Royal Ballet and English National Opera all having started at Sadler’s Wells.

 

Sadler’s Wells is an Arts Council National Portfolio Organisation and currently receives approximately 9% of its revenue from Arts Council England.

 

 

About Jerwood Charitable Foundation

Jerwood Charitable Foundation is dedicated to imaginative and responsible revenue funding of the arts, supporting artists to develop and grow at important stages in their careers. It works with artists across art forms, from dance and theatre to literature, music and the visual arts.  For more information on Jerwood Charitable Foundation visit: www.jerwoodcharitablefoundation.org

 

[Nina G.]

Fantastic initiative but why is it called Summer "University"? "Summer School" would surely do.

 

University is an institution of high level learning, granting academic degrees made up of an Undergraduate division which confers Bachelor degrees and a Graduate division which confers Master and Doctorate degrees. Years of studying and passing numerous exams as well as doing academic research defines a university education.

 

It does irritate me that the word "university" is used for just about any type of education nowadays. Even a school for fashion modelling is now called Fashion University.