Twenty one year old Hannah Rotchell is a ready and eager to admit that her mother probably sent her to her first dance lessons at the age of three in Tunbridge, Kent for a very straight forward reason. To get the hyperactive youngster out of the house and into a place where she could expend a lot of energy before returning home, presumably to take long naps on the couch.
Hannah’s ebullient personality is apparent even when she’s sitting still in a chair getting ready for an interview, an interview that is taking place in the main studio of Jasmin Vardimon Company where Hannah has been working for several months within the post-graduate company JV2. Hannah’s energy level and enthusiasm are even more impressive having just witnessed the company working over a two day period, an almost relentless process involving class, rehearsal, notes, more rehearsal and run throughs.
When Article19 visited the company the dancers, 14 in number, had just returned from a short holiday and they were immediately tasked with a physically demanding movement class from their course leader Marelina Dara. No tendus, demi-pliés or brushes, just onto the floor and start moving. Slowly to begin with then build to big movements and shifting across the floor in the space of 90 minutes.
Hannah’s beginnings as a youngster, she explains, were at the Geraldine Fox Theatre Arts Academy, also in Kent. She then races through a potted history encompassing her journey through modern and tap classes, introductions to contemporary dance at secondary school, the Laban CAT and professional training at London Contemporary Dance School. For our purposes however, we need to dig a little deeper.