Press Release: Wild Card welcomes Tim Casson to the Lilian Baylis Studio, 18 March

[Jan McNulty]

Wild Card
Casson & Friends
Lilian Baylis Studio, EC1R
Wednesday 18 March 
Performance at 8pm (with pre-show activities from 7pm)
Tickets: £17
Ticket office: 0844 412 4300 or www.sadlerswells.com

Wild Card welcomes dance artist Tim Casson, best known for his record-breaking project The Dance WE Made, and his collaborators to the Lilian Baylis Studio on Wednesday 18 March for a playful evening of unexpected and unique collaborations between artists, machines and the audience. This is Sadler’s Wells’ fifth season of Wild Card evenings, the initiative which opens the stage to an exciting new generation of dance makers, giving rising artists the unique opportunity to curate their own evenings of dance. 

Tim Casson is a London-based performer and choreographer with an interest in interactivity, technology and playfulness. His Wild Card show invites audiences to join performers to explore the wonderful things that can happen when people work together. The evening consists of three pieces, including Casson’s own work and other pieces by his collaborators.

The London premiere of Fiend, Tim Casson’s creation in partnership with video technician Tom Butterworth,uses innovative manipulation of live video to allow Casson to dance with multiple digital replicas of himself. The work uses Vaslav Nijinsky’s iconic ballet Afternoon of a Faun as a starting point, and is set to Claude Debussy’s original score along with new music by Jamie McCarthy. The projected video creates a magical world, where the multiplied performer questions the nature of solo performance. With its themes of connection and voyeurism, the audience watches this character search for a meaningful connection in his virtual reality, provoking questions about what it means to watch and be watched by others in the digital age.

Sonata in Three Movements, choreographed by Cornelia Voglmayr, is a duet between a dancer and a violinist that challenges the preconceptions of which artist should occupy which role, and takes a playful look at the conventions of classical music performances.

Copter, choreographed and performed by Nina Kov, explores ideas of surveillance through a dancer’s interaction with a remote controlled helicopter. The piece, which made the semifinals of the Place Prize in 2012,questions our relationship with machines, in a playful and sometimes unsettling way, and illustrates how an unlikely combination of disciplines can create compelling artistic work.

Also presented is the latest incarnation of Casson’s dance project The Dance WE Made, this time using four performers who will create and perform a new dance piece using ideas and suggestions from the audience.

Increasingly popular with audiences and artists alike, Wild Card evenings are unique experiences providing a rare glimpse of the rich variety of work that makes up the dance landscape today. Wild Card is part of Sadler’s Wells’ programme of support for young and emerging dance talent, alongside other initiatives including National Young Dance Company, the New Wave Associates and Sadler’s Wells Summer University programme. Wild Card is supported by The Andrew Lloyd Webber Foundation and The Garrick Charitable Trust.

Aside from his Wild Card evening, Tim Casson is also currently working as a course leader with the National Youth Dance Company (NYDC) on a newly commissioned piece choreographed by internationally renowned contemporary choreographer Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, to be premiered at Sadler’s Wells in April.



Pre-show activities from 7pm

Casson & Friends is BSL interpreted


Notes to Editors: 

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 and 3 Resident Companies and nurtures the next generation of talent through its National Youth Dance Company, 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 Wild Card
Wild Card is a Sadler’s Wells initiative which opens up the theatre’s Lilian Baylis Studio to the next generation of choreographers and dance makers. 

The initiative aims to bring fresh perspectives to the stage and each time gives emerging artists from different spectrums of the dance landscape the opportunity to curate a mixed bill evening of cutting edge work. 

Wild Card is supported by The Andrew Lloyd Webber Foundation and The Garrick Charitable Trust.

About Tim Casson
Tim Casson trained at The BRIT School and Bird College before completing an MA in Contemporary Dance at London Contemporary Dance School. 

He has performed extensively for Jasmin Vardimon Company as well as for Nigel Charnock and Katie Green among others. He has featured in various music videos, commercials, the movie 'World War Z' and covered the role of 'Puck' in Opera North's production of Benjamin Britten's 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' choreographed by Ben Wright. 

Tim works extensively in education, regularly leading projects for Sadler’s Wells, and other organisations. He is the founder of ‘JV2’ the Jasmin Vardimon Professional Development Certificate Course and is currently the course leader for The National Youth Dance Company.

Tim choreographs for stage, television and opera, is currently a Catalyst Artist at dancedigital, Associate Artist at Pavilion Dance South West and created the World Record Breaking online performance project, ‘The Dance WE Made’.

In 2013, Tim founded his company Casson & Friends to create contemporary dance performance with a focus on collaboration, find out more at www.cassonandfriends.com