Press Release: World Premiere of On The Habit of Being Oneself by Joe Moran / Dance Art Foundation in September

[Jan McNulty]

Joe Moran / Dance Art Foundation
On The Habit of Being Oneself
World Premiere
Lilian Baylis Studio, EC1R 
Thursday 28 & Friday 29 September at 8pm
Tickets: £17
Ticket Office: 020 7863 8000 or www.sadlerswells.com

Choreographer Joe Moran and Dance Art Foundation present the World Premiere of On The Habit of Being Oneself in the Lilian Baylis Studio at Sadler’s Wells on Thursday 28 and Friday 29 September. The production is an arresting new work encouraging the audience to pay attention to what dancing does. Moran creates work concerned with dance’s potential as a contemporary art form and has worked extensively in the visual arts, in both in theatres and galleries, and is currently a Sadler’s Wells Summer University artist.



On The Habit of Being Oneself places full-bodied, unmediated dancing under the spotlight. On a stripped back stage, seven dancers perform relentless dancing over 50 minutes inviting audiences into a direct and accumulative performance encounter. Dancers engage in perceptual and conceptual puzzles in ways that problematize or complicate their subjectivities, making visible their thinking and practice of dancing. Whilst the dancing is complex, the relentless single activity unfolding on stage builds through time in a way that quietly and yet insistently provokes the audience’s attention.

The production was created and developed in residence at Delfina Foundation during Moran’s public performance exhibition, Live Creations, with research aided by guests including the sculptor Phyllida Barlow and writer and dramaturge Martin Hargreaves. The production also collaborates with BAFTA-award winning composer Kaffe Matthews and filmmaker Sam Williams, with costume design by theatre and opera designer Tom Rogers.

A film installation created in collaboration with Sam Williams and Indefinite Article, a new solo, open the evening. Indefinite Article offers a focused, witty and individual counterpoint to the multiple bodies and relentless motion of On The Habit of Being Oneself. The piece is performed by the acclaimed dancer Andrew Harwridge, who has previously collaborated with choreographers Tino Seghal and Boris Charmatz.

Joe Moran, Artistic Director of Dance Art Foundation, said: “My work is informed by a background in experimentation and improvisation that I marry with a fascination with formal choreographic composition and conceptually driven dance. I am interested in the critical significance of dance’s recognition as a contemporary art form, and the knowledge and discourse fostered by dance and its dialogue with other disciplines. Questioning of dancing as a redundant or exhausted medium saw my work explore choreography as a discipline distinct from dance and dancing; in turn, leading to return to dancing within a deconstructive choreographic frame, and choreography as perceptual practice. On The Habit of Being Oneself develops my use of perceptual inquiry as a generative choreographic devise within a frame relentless motion, moving to unmediated dancing as a strategy by which to question dance’s terms and potential.”

Joe Moran is a choreographer, dancer and Artistic Director of Dance Art Foundation, through which his performance and curatorial work is produced. A Dance4 Associate Artist, Sadler’s Wells Summer University artist (2015-18) and Delfina Foundation Associate (2016), He has a wide ranging practice incorporating touring theatre and gallery work, lecture-performance and curatorial projects tackling contemporary propositions in dance, performance and critical thought. Commissions and recent performances include Whitechapel Gallery (2017); New Art Gallery, Walsall (2017); Delfina Foundation (2016); Block Universe /fig-2 at the ICA (2015), the first step in an ambitious collaboration with sculptor Eva Rothschild; David Roberts Art Foundation (Frieze, 2014); Nottingham Contemporary (2014); Assembly (UK tour, 2014); and The Place Prize (2013).  As a dancer, Moran has worked with many distinguished choreographers including Deborah Hay, Siobhan Davies, Florence Peake and Pontus Pettersson. He trained in theatre at Bristol University and in dance and choreography at London Contemporary Dance School. 

Produced by Dance Art Foundation and supported by Cockayne - Grants for the Arts, The London Community Foundation, and principal private patron, A summerday. Developed with support from Arts Council England, Delfina Foundation, Sadler’s Wells, The Place and TripSpace Projects. 

Free post-show talk: Thursday 28 September

NOTES TO EDITORS

ABOUT SADLER’S WELLS
Sadler's Wells is a world-leading dance house, committed to producing, commissioning and presenting new works and to bringing the 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 130 new dance works to the stage and its award-winning commissions and collaborative productions regularly tour internationally. Sadler’s Wells supports 16 Associate Artists, three Resident Companies, an Associate Company and three International Associate Companies. It also nurtures the next generation of talent through research and development, running the National Youth Dance Company and a range of programmes including Wild Card, New Wave Associates, Open Art Surgery and Summer University.
Located in Islington, 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 SADLER’S WELLS SUMMER UNIVERSITY
Launched in 2010 through an open call, Sadler's Wells Summer University supports the development of professional dance artists interested in extending their practice. The first edition of the project ran successfully in 2010-2014 and Sadler’s Wells is now mid-way through the second edition which runs 2015-2018. Summer University offers dance professionals the chance to take part in a four year project, meeting for two weeks each year to share work, hear talks, explore methodologies and philosophies of performance making and extend their own practice through self-study and focussed interventions. The current Summer University artists are: Kwame Asafo-Adjei, Neil Callaghan, Theo Clinkard, Katye Coe, Nicola Conibere, James Cousins, Dan Daw, Antonio de la Fe, Adrienne Hart, Alexandrina Hemsley, Stefan Jovanovic, Stephanie McMann, Joe Moran, Patricia Okenwa, Katerina Paramana, Eva Recacha, Alesandra Seutin, Charlotte Spencer, Pepa Ubera and Marquez Zangs.


ABOUT DANCE ART FOUNDATION
Dance Art Foundation extends the boundaries of dance asserting its vital contribution to international culture, health and public life. www.danceartfoundation.com
Dance Art Foundation incubates new ideas in dance that it takes out into the world in fresh and imaginative ways. Performances are bold and progressive, often transgressing art form boundaries and in dialogue with other disciplines. Its Critical Dialogues projects drives dance forward, fostering fertile debate that challenges artists and widens public access to new thinking in dance. In social engagement, Dance Art Foundation is an international leader in dance-in-health.
Dance Art Ltd, Dance Art Foundation’s sister creative collective taking its artists' work into fashion, music, events and film, was launched in 2015. Projects include Giles Deacon (SS16), Paul Smith (AW16-SS18), RCA (Graduate Fashion 2015-17) and Mr Hare (AW13). www.danceart-ltd.com