Verve follow EDge and Transitions onto Article19 and complete the trio of graduate dance companies from the major dance schools in England. As soon as SSCD sort out their graduate company our collection will be complete.
This particular company, for the moment at least, call the Northern School of Contemporary Dance their home and Verve is the name given to the graduate company staffed out with some of the best dancers from the previous graduating year.
More often than not, graduate companies are the best place to spot the up and coming dancers that will be making their presence felt in companies all over the UK, Europe and, with any luck, the rest of the world. Let’s just hope there are some jobs for them to go to.
Verve has a complement of 11 excellent dancers performing a range of works from a group of six choreographers of which at least five are performed during any given show. Kim Brandstrup, Rafael Bonachela, Glen Wilkinson, Shobana Jeyasingh, Fin Walker and Hofesh Shechter make up the team of dance makers for this particular tour.
For our video feature we have clips from ‘The Self’ by Fin Walker, a duet performed by Kajza Ekberg (pictured above) and Phil Sanger. ‘Bitter Ripples’ choreographed by Hofesh Shechter and performed by the whole company completes our feature.
The company’s next show is at the Richmond Theatre in London on March 26th and they continue to tour throughout the UK for the next few months.
Performers are Kajza Ekberg, Phil Sanger, Ira Siobhan, Sarah Callow, Sarah Eldin, Julia Mazowska, Kelly McClelland, Simon Palmer, Newsha Parvardin, Jennifer Thornton, Elena Zaino. Music in ‘The Self’ is by Ben Parks.
Please note that ‘Bitter Ripples’ contains a brief moment of strong language.
Update: 16/12/07 We have added an additional section of ‘Bitter Ripples’ to coincide with our interview with Hofesh Shechter.