The Latest News
Twitter SMS Backtrack
Wednesday, 27 August, 2008
Twitter, the service Article19 has been using to send SMS updates for auditions, have turned off that particular feature from their service.
In explaining their decision Twitter stated that the cost of sending SMS messages to phone numbers in the UK was becoming prohibitive.
At the moment there is no alternative or pay for method that Article19 can use to send out SMS updates via Twitter.
We will keep posting updates to auditions through the service and you can continue to follow those updates using numerous other Twitter clients for both computers and mobile phones.
When or if the situation changes we will let you know.
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Ashford Aerowaves Goodbye!
Monday, 11 August, 2008
John Ashford, the resident snowy haired AD of The Place in London, is moving on to pastures new after 20 years helming the "[place] for world class dance", if you believe the hype that is.
Mr Ashford will be switching his efforts to develop Aerowaves which is not a new wireless device from Apple, although with a name like that it probably should be. Aerowaves is part of the annual Resolution festival that concentrates on international dance makers.
During his time at The Place he was responsible for creating Resolution (a good thing) and The Place Prize (perhaps the worst capitulation to corporate sponsorship/populist pandering in the history of the arts or at least since the arts last capitulated and pandered to something or other!)
The press ramblings credit Mr Ashford with sowing the seeds for the career development of Lloyd Newson, Jasmin Vardimon and Hofesh Shechter, amongst others. We feel, here in TheLab™ that their careers and subsequent success are firmly rooted in their considerable talents but we digress.
Boilerplate statements from Kenneth Tharpe, CEO, born circa 1845, said;
"John has changed the dance map. He has made The Place the home for new British choreography, and played a key role in establishing London as a world dance capital. Without his vision, passion and tenacity for over 20 years, our cultural life would be much poorer."
Wayne McGregor, AD of Random Dance Company (or at least he was the last time we looked, he may well be the Prime Minister for all we know) said;
"John Ashford's imprint on the British and International dance scene is indelible. He has not only championed very young choreographers early in their careers but continued to nurture and support them throughout their choreographic development with insight and honesty."
Article19's Editor, who declined to be named, said; "if you write a news story about this you're fired!"
Mr Ashford will leave The Place in July next year and the world will never be the same again, apparently!
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Jasmin Yesterday
Wednesday, 6 August, 2008
During the summer things are always a bit quiet for dance. Apart from the occasional outdoor festival and large scale outdoor performance the dance companies are usually hunkered down in their studios making up new stuff for the coming Autumn, we're looking at you Hofesh!
Jasmin Vardimon Company are making preparations with their new work that will prove, once and for all, just how dull many in the London Dance Mafia have become (the company are based in Brighton).
'Yesterday' is, if you will, a recreation of several of the best bits from past shows, mixed together with some new movement material, digital video, animation and some Unicorns. (we might be making up the stuff about Unicorns though.)
The press release tells us this
"Award-winning dance theatre choreographer and Associate Artist of Sadler's Wells, Jasmin Vardimon marks her company's 10th anniversary with a retrospective new work entitled YESTERDAY.Revisiting some of the most striking moments selected from the company's repertoire over the past decade, Vardimon integrates new choreographic material with live video and animation to create a new and exhilarating production stamped with her daring theatricality and contemporary social relevance."
Hand on heart, we can say that Ms Vardimon is one of the best dance makers in the world with a company of dancers to match and anybody who disagrees with us, here in TheLab™, should feel free to meet us outside at 6pm and we'll be more than happy to go round and round with you.
'Yesterday' premieres at the Brighton Dome, in Brighton bizarrely enough, on September 2nd at 8pm followed by a national tour. There should be European touring this time out and if not we'll be having a few words with our mainland contemporaries to see what's up!
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Verve Take A Bow
Tuesday, 29 July, 2008
Graduate Dance Company Verve, based at the Northern School of Contemporary Dance (NSCD) in Leeds, have picked up an award in Holland for "Best International Production" following their performance at the 'ITs' festival in Amsterdam.
The famously prickly Gurmit Hukam, the schools director, says in the press release;
"The ITs Award is a fantastic achievement for Verve 08 and the School. The 11 young dancers who make-up Verve and the team behind them have worked extremely hard during the year and this prize acknowledges the high performance standards and professionalism we have reached."
We have a hard time believing he actually said it in that way but that's probably the gist of it. Verve share the award with P.A.R.T.S the ultra hard core training centre for dance in Belgium.
Verve is made up of young dancers, not necessarily from the NSCD, and tours every year with a line up of work from various dance makers. They begin touring again, with a new set of dancers, in February 2009.
You can see two previous productions from Verve right here on Article19 at the links below. More info on the company via NSCD at their website.
[ Verve 07 on Article19 ]
[ Verve 08 on Article19 ]
[ NSCD Website ]
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DanceUK Takes Steps
Thursday, 17 July, 2008
DanceUK, the dance lobbying group, has taken a short step toward establishing 'The Dancers Health Pilot Scheme' with an £80,000 donation from the Jerwood Foundation in London.
The pilot project will provide 100 dancers with comprehensive health insurance as well as funding a small team of medical research specialist who will conduct a detailed study of dancers injuries and recovery over a two and a half year period.
Following the pilot project DanceUK hopes to set up a permanent "National Centre for Dance Health and Performance" to provide access, for dancers, to specialist medical care as well as health insurance, self referral to specialists and other resources.
DanceUK is currently the only dance orgnisation in the country that treats dancers medical care with any degree of seriousness.
£500,000 is needed to conduct the pilot project and if you want to make a personal donation then you can at the link below.
You can read more about the project on Article19 at the link below or by visiting DanceUK's website.
[ Donate to the Project ]
[ Broken Bones Healing Hands ]
[ DanceUK ]
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Forbidden Dance
Sunday, 8 June, 2008
It would appear that, for now, festival season is over for dance and we can settle down and enjoy the coming summer which, thanks to global warming, should actually feel like summer, in the UK at least!
So it would be a great idea if some dance makers were putting together works that can be watched outside, in the stunning countryside which does exist in this country if you look hard enough.
'Forbidden - A Tale of Love' and War is one such project that is being prepared in the leafy locale of Herefordshire. Created by Helen Parlor, of Motionhouse fame, and featuring dozens of youth performers, professional dancers, aerial work and horses (yes, you read that correctly) it should be a enjoyable way to spend a warm summers evening.
The publicity prose tells us this much;
"Forbidden is inspired by the true story of Alice Birch and Charles Clifford, lovers from opposing sides of the Civil War who escaped Goodrich Castle during the Roundhead siege lead by Colonel Birch, Alice's father. They fled on horseback during a heavy storm and reached the swollen banks of the River Wye, only to drown in their desperate attempt to be together."
So there you have it. The show runs from Thursday July 10 to Saturday July 12, 7.30pm with a Saturday matinee at 2.30pm. More details on the producers website and keep your fingers crossed that the weather holds out!
Below is a video interview with the shows creator along with some rehearsal footage.
NB: Article19 is involved with the media production on this project.
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Impulse Power
Tuesday, 22 April, 2008
OK, this is absolutely, and with no exceptions, the last festival that we are going to write about this year. Is that clear? Good, then let's move on because Impulstanz 2008 is on the horizon and those crazy kids in Austria are looking for some publicity!
The annual fun fair of dance is held in Vienna and combines a massive workshop programme with not one but two dance festivals. There's the big festival for the big kids with acts like Rosas, The Forsythe Company, Akram Khan and Company, Robyn Orlin and much more.
Then you have the festival for the little kids (those new to choreography) called 8:Tension. Here you can see Matjita Ferlin, Pere Faua, Olivier Dubios, Ayse Orhon and others. Never heard of them have you? Well that's the point, they are presenting work on the big stage for the first time and they may or may not be worth checking out.
Complementing this heaving mass of dance is the workshop programme with over 200 separate classes to take part in. Covering everything from contact improvisation to jazz and classical ballet. If you want it, you can probably find it. The teaching staff are far to numerous to even think about mentioning
If that's not enough you also have the chance to take part in so-called 'Coaching Projects', week long intensives with one teacher where you spend the whole day learning how to be a tree or something! Or you might learn something practical, you never know!
Impulstanz is unique in so far as they gather hundreds of dancers in both a workshop and performance context for an entire month in one place. If you want to know what's going on in Bulgarian contact improvisation then Vianna is the place to be in the summer. Workshops cost about €115 if you're a professional dancer. The more you do the cheaper it gets. As ever, we recommend a week of workshops before you move on, otherwise it can start to grate a little.
Impulstanz 2008 runs from July 10th until August 10th in Vienna, Austria. More info on their website.
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On A Mission
Tuesday, 15 April, 2008
If you're planning a dance festival can we ask one thing of you? Please leave it until the end of the year to launch the thing because if any more dance festivals get under way in the next few week then somethings going to give!
The Big Mission, organised by State of Emergency, is a bi-annual gathering of the best and the brightest black dance makers from across this small yet festival packed island.
Not content with simply having performances there will also be a basket full of master classes, debates (we love a good shouting match! Ed!), seminars and lot's more. State of Emergency say of this festival;
"The Big Mission Festival '08 is a unique three-day national and international dance extravaganza, packed full of cutting edge performances, master classes, debates and networking opportunities. Celebrating the range and diversity of black talent, this vibrant festival gives promoters, artists and dance enthusiasts the chance to watch, participate, create and discuss some of the best professional dance around."
Kicking off the whole affair is a speech by the former Olympic athlete and "star" of Strictly Come Dancing, Colin Jackson. Since we've never heard of him we shall move swiftly along.
Some of the folks presenting their work include; Irven Lewis Dance Theatre, Freddie Opoku-Addaie/Jagged Antics, ACE Dance and Music, Bawren Tavaziva and Bakari Lindsay and Karensa Louis.
If you want to know more then hit the link below and all will be revealed. The Big Mission runs from May 8th until May 10th in Swindon. Ticketing information is available from their website.
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Dancing Planet
Sunday, 6 April, 2008
The UK is becoming increasingly full of dance festivals. Just this year we have had, Resolution, BDE 08, and Spring Loaded. Still to come is the International Dance Festival Birmingham, The Big Mission and Dance Umbrella. Not to mention to many, many smaller scale festivals and gatherings of dance companies that happen throughout the year.
Now we have 'Dancing The World' (DtW), to be held in Newcastle upon Tyne and various other places around this particular region from May 2nd.
In keeping with the ongoing theme of internationalism and what not the DtW festival will feature a number of UK based companies and several from various parts of the globe.
A brief glance on the UK side of things reveals the presence of two heavy hitters in the the wacky world of contemporary dance. DV8 make a return to UK performing with 'To be Straight With You' a no holds barred look at intolerance, religion and sexuality. See how clever the title is?
Next we have Phoenix Dance Theatre with 'Cattle Call' a work alluded to in our recent interview with the company's director Javier De Frutos and featuring music by Richard Thomas. This particular work should be of great interest to all dancers because it's all about auditions, which we know more than a few of you are familiar with!
On the international side of things there will be shows by Rui Horta, Rennie Harlin, Aracaladanza, Zero Visibility Corps and Corpus from Canada. The latter company's work features the dancers pretending to be sheep, replete with sheep costumes, and will be performed live, outdoors at Carlisle Park in Morpeth. If you miss that you'll definitely be missing out!
The entire festival features more than 20 performances from straight up dance theatre to the more bizzare musings of the aforementioned sheep show!
Dancing the World runs from May 2nd until May 24 in and around the North East of England. More information and a full list of participating companies are available from the website link below.
[ Dancing The World ]
[ Interview with Javier De Frutos ]
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Septic Frogs
Friday, 4 April, 2008
Twenty dance makers, count 'em, apparently with too much time on their hands, have been selected to take part in the dance competition that never ends, The Place Prize.
The eventual winner of this particular competition has about as much to do with the will of the people as a Presidential election in Zimbabwe but there it sits, like a frog on a water lily floating on the septic pond of life.
When it's all over, after innumerable rounds, votes, glad handing and back slapping, the "winner" gets £25,000 and not a lot else. If they spend more than that making the work then too bad, at least they'll have the memories.
In no particular order the participants are:
Temitope Ajose-Cutting, Aletta Collins, Robin Dingemans, Charlotte Eatock & Rachael Mossom, Simon Ellis, Victoria Fox, Philine Janssens, Darren Johnston, Kyoung-Shin Kim, Saiko Kino, Adam Linder, Jelka Milic, Chisato Minamimura, Colin Poole, Mickael Riviere, Bettina Strickler, Dam Van Huynh, Jose Luis Vidal, Anna Williams and Ben Wright.
The competition gets under way some time soon and keeps going until the fat lady sings, near the end of the year probably. If you need to know more then follow the link, if you have any sense you'll go outside and sit by a lake, relaxing in the spring sunshine with a cool breeze tickling your skin, contemplating better things!
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Dangerous Dance
Wednesday, 26 March, 2008
The up and coming dance festival in Birmingham, suitably titled the International Dance Festival Birmingham, will feature a couple of performances where the creators appear to have taken leave of their senses.
First up we have those crazy kids from Karas, in Japan, with Suburo Teshigawara at the reigns performing the work 'Glass Tooth' (to give it the Japanese title). At first glance it all looks pretty normal. Dancers, choreography, music, sound, lights, etc. Then you take a look at the floor and notice their dancing on a carpet of broken glass!
If you've ever dropped a wine bottle in the kitchen and nimbly stepped around the fragments while you clean up the mess you'll know how hard it is not to cut yourself at least once. Multiply the glass fragments by about 10,000 and choreograph an hour long dance work on it and you'll get some idea of just how mad this work is. Should be worth watching then eh?
Next we have Cas Public, from Canada, with their work 'Diary (Journal intime)'. Although slightly less with the crazy than Karas, this company have decided to test the patience of the technicians by having 1,000 tiny tea lights on stage, all of which will be alight.
The works itself is all about love and relationships and is specifically aimed at teenagers (how sweet, Ed!) but you just know that the person who has to light all of those candles is muttering unpleasant incantations under their breath every night.
You can catch both shows in May during the festival, full details from their website.
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ACE Litigation
Wednesday, 26 March, 2008
Arts Council England's troubles are beginning to multiply as another organisation prepares to take possible legal action over the funding monoliths decision to remove their annual subsidy.
The Waterman's venue in London is claiming that ACE's funding decisions were "flawed and illegal" and they are seeking a judicial review to try and have the funding reinstated.
News of impending legal action follows ACE's announcement that a formal investigation is to take place into their actions leading up to and throughout the entire funding review process.
Union Dance Company are also looking into the possibility of taking ACE to court to review their loss of regular funding.
The theatre lost £416,000 of subsidy and if that funding is not put back in place by March 28th then it's off to the courts.
In a statement on the theatre's website they say;
"We shall use the full force of the law to appeal. Our lawyers have advised us that we have a clear case as there is no foundation to the reasons given for the grant to be cut."
These particular cases are certain to be watched with interest by more than 180 organisations that also lost their funding. If legal action were successful, which is a very long shot at best, and ACE were ordered by a court of law to reinstate funding then the flood gates would undoubtedly open.
Subsequent funding meetings between the two would also be more than a little bit uncomfortable we imagine!
ACE's funding review cut regular subsidy to 194 arts organisation, including 12 dance related organisations and companies, 17 of those decision were subsequently overturned. The decisions that were overturned may provide fuel for Waterman's and Union Dance's legal fires should things go that far.
In a statement, ACE denied being completely useless, or words to that effect.
[ via The Stage ]
[ Waterman's Theatre ]
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What's Going On Here?
Tuesday, 18 March, 2008
The more astute among you, and even those half asleep, will have noticed that Article19 has changed somewhat over the last week or so into its new clothes.
Our latest re-design is version number 9 in our short and somewhat notorious history of delving under the skin of the rather bizarre world of contemporary dance. We only change things around to make things better for you, our dear readers, and easier for us when it comes to publishing new material.
Developing a site of this size, there are more than 1000 pages on here these days, is no small undertaking. With new designs and new code come browser compatibility problems especially with older versions of Internet Explorer (version 6 and below).
Some things may be out of place or just plain weird and if you are using Internet Explorer 5 we can only pity you because what you are looking at right now must be truly horrific.
We'll squash bugs as and when we find them and if you notice something awry then let us know. Here's a list of changes and why, just so you know we don't do this re-building stuff for a laugh!
- Fixed Centred Layout: Keeps content in an easier to read position and reduces blank space to the right of all content.
- Graphics: Unnecessary images, icons and other graphics removed to improve clarity and layout.
- Font Size and Line Height: Larger type and greater line height to ease reading especially on higher resolution monitors.
- Footers: Randomly cycled footers to give access to latest content from all sections of Article19 including Auditions and Shout Posts
- Video Pages: Completely blacked out to enhance viewing experience and pave the way to possible future upgrades to HD sourced video material.
- Internal Feeds: Using Simplepie XML parser to remove need for Feedburner feeds. Improves layout aesthetics and speeds up page loads.
- CSS: Hundreds of lines eliminated from style sheets to improve load times and bring consistency to page layouts.
- Reviews: Archived and removed from main navigation bar.
- Photos: Added to main navigation bar. Photo pages altered to match video pages.
- Search: Moved to consistent location on all pages, it's up there at the top incase you missed it.
- Ad Graphics: Consistent typefaces and layout altered to improve aesthetics, and reduce intrusion with the content.
Other changes have been made under the hood to make life easier for us. The entire site should be converted to the new design by the end of this week. Don't panic if a page pops up still in its old threads, it will be dealt with shortly.
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ACE Investigated, Denies Being Useless!
Friday, 14 March, 2008
The Stage newspaper is reporting that Arts Council England (ACE) is to be formally investigated over the perceived bungling of their recent funding review.
Baroness Genista McIntosh (stop laughing at the back), a member of the UK's House of Lords, has been asked to look into the matter by ACE's new Chief Executive Alan Davey.
The funding giant came under increasingly heavy, metaphorical, fire for some, if not all, of the decisions they made to remove 194 arts organisations from the regular, 3 year funding programme. One funding cut, that was later overturned, was a plan to stop funding The Exeter Northcott Theatre. This decision was made all the more puzzling following a £2.1Million refit partially funded by ACE themselves.
Sadly, there will be no formal, televised questioning of the protagonists under oath like we see from the US House of Representatives. Everything will take place behind closed doors so the most incompetent people can protect their anonymity, their jobs and we can all pretend ACE is still competent "so those consulted are able to speak in confidence", according to The Stage.
We should point out that this investigation has actually been called in by ACE and ACE will report the final results sometime in the summer. The House of Lords are not elected by anybody to do anything are are pretty much accountable to nobody. It's all about transparency, openness and responsibility readers!
For their part ACE denied that they were completely useless, or words to that effect.
The report will be published, in part, sometime in the summer.
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The Bonnies
Sunday, 17 February, 2008
As annual awards go the Bonnie Bird Awards are not up there with the Oscars or even the thoroughly pointless Critics Circle Awards but they do at least serve some practical purpose for the recipients.
This time out the winners of the £1,500 choreographic development funding are Anais Bouts, Katie Green and Matthias Sperling. To our chagrin we have yet to encounter the first two dance makers but Matthias Sperling's new Work 'Riff' is available for previewing on this very website.
Although the press release sates that the funding is "to support and nurture new and emerging choreographers in the UK." that basically means these guys can pay rent while working on their dance making, at least for a few months.
In addition to the choreography awards there is also the 'Marion North Mentoring Scheme', won this year by Sean Graham. He will spend the next year being mentored by Robert Hylton of Robert Hylton Urban Classicism, the company that was just stripped of its Arts Council England RFO funding! Ouch.
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