Contemporary Negotiations: Presenting in Athens September 2015
I am really pleased and excited to have been invited to present my paper
Contemporary Negotiations: Dramaturgy, Turbulence and Breaking Conventions with UK Hip Hop Dancers in the Space of Theatre
at the 'Institutions, Politics, Performance' Conference in Athens September 24th-28th 2015
Many thanks to the artists who have been working with me on this research so far, sharing their practice and thoughts: Jonzi D, Benji Reid, Lee Griffiths, Botis Seva and Samriye Aden-Dirie
Botis Seva is auditioning for dancers
AUDITION NOTICE!!!!!!!!!!
Botis Seva is seeking dance artists to join him for a two week creation period in August for his Sadler’s Wells Wild Card evening ‘InNoForm’ on Thursday 24th September alongside his company Far From the Norm.
The selected artist will be required to join Botis and Far From the Norm on a full time two week research and development period as part of the creation process for his upcoming night at The Lilian Baylis in September.
Ideally the dance artist will have fundamental skills and knowledge within hip hop dance and an understanding of a contemporary practice. Also, the dance artist must have a strong ability in improvisation and experience with responding to creative tasks.
This is a paid position.
Audition will be by invitation only. Shortlisted applicants will be invited to a workshop on Thursday 23rd July 2-5pm. Recalls will be held on Monday 27th July 7-10pm.
Please send a cover letter, current CV and showreel/footage to farfromthenorm@hotmail.co.uk
Dates:
Creation Period:
Monday 3rd August – Friday 7th August - 10-6pm
Monday 10th August – Saturday 15th August - 10-6pm
(Flexibility in August/September is preferred)
Performance week commencing Monday 21st September
The Start of a Documentary
The start of a documentary:
I have been fortunate to spend time recently, interviewing Botis Seva (Far From the Norm), Lee Griffiths (The Company) and Benji Reid for my research. Having the time to talk in depth, to debate, and to discuss ideas and the process of making work in the UK with artists who evade and challenge categorisation has been a blessing.
More to come.....
Into the studio and 'Surviving The Crash'
Looking forward to investigating turbulence, failure and surviving the crash in the studio at the University of Chichester next week with B'boy Samriye.
Just Us Dance Theatre Platform this Friday & Saturday
Really looking forward to going to this on Friday. It promises to be an inspiring event!
Just Us Dance Theatre presents an evening of hip hop,contemporary dance, spoken word and DJing bringing some of the UK’s freshest and emerging talents to The Place.
See Just Us Dance Theatre’s newest duet It’s Between Us, an emotional piece on original score by emerging hip hop composer Orin Norbert.
The programme will also premiere works by the Let's Shine Mentorship scheme along with the New and Notable artists Gianna Gi, Haseeb Hearn and Lee Griffiths (The Company) and a new duet created by Ricardo Da Silva and Botis Seva (Far From The Norm) and special guest Dickson Mbi who will also be performing.
Times: 8pm
Venue: at The Place
Unfinished Business perform It's Like He's Knocking
This is a unique show and experience. Intimacy in an age of homogenisation, a small group of individuals sharing the same small space for a short soulful time. This show, out of the many things I have seen and experienced in the past few years, stays with me. So try to experience it if you can and I promise you will leave with more joy than you arrived with. London, June 12th and 13th, details on source link below.
Dancing (trans)national memories: June 20th, Senate House, London
The symposium will include presentations from Dr. Cecilia Sosa, Prof. Theresa Buckland and Prof. Danielle Robinson as well as opportunities for dialogue in consideration of the following key questions:
- How and why have popular dance forms become nationalised? What happens to ‘pre-national’ memories in this process, and how are new national memories constructed?
- What are the relationships between states, individuals and communities in the construction of national memories via popular dance forms?
- What is the relationship between popular and high art forms when constructing nationality/nationalism?
- In performing national memories, whose memories become nationalised?
- What are the relationships between national memory and racialized identities? How are these performed?
- What determines the gendering of national memory/identity? How is this embodied?
- How are national memories constructed across empire?
- When/why are national memories constructed as embodied forms, as opposed to non-embodied representations?
- (How) do popular dance forms carry national memories across generations?
- What are the politics of the choice to validate, or not to validate, popular dance forms as intangible cultural heritage?
- What is the difference between cultural memory, ‘tradition’ and ‘heritage’? What if any of the pitfalls associated with those much debated terms are hidden in the notion of embodied cultural memory?
- How are national dances employed in relations with other countries? Is national memory deployed/transformed in these interactions? E.g. tourism, cultural diplomacy (e.g. Cold War), World Fairs/Expositions.
- How are popular dance forms employed for mnemonic purposes in diasporic and postcolonial contexts?
- How are cultural memories and popular dance forms transmitted across the ruptures inherent in transnational/postcolonial/diasporic situations?
- How does popular dance act as a site of resistance for marginalised groups? How does this engage bodily memory?
- How are popular dance practices associated with transnational/postcolonial/diasporic contexts archived? Do they fall in the gaps between national archives?
The New Collective from Tblisi in Georgia: Young artists not rich enough to be allowed into this country.
I wanted to post this message to support the Flare Festival and also because I think the behaviour of the Immigration agency a little paranoid and prejudice.
Hi all,
The New Collective from Tblisi in Georgia, selected to perform at the Flare International Festival of New Theatre in Manchester 13-18 July, have had their visa applications refused by UK Visas and Immigration, on the grounds that their financial situations at home are not sufficient for them to resist the temptation to become illegal economic immigrants when they get here.
They are basically young artists not rich enough to be allowed into this country.
As a new young theatre company, they were very excited to have been selected, and are devastated by this decision.
Please sign the petition to Theresa May, accessible by clicking the link below…
Thank you!
Neil
Neil Mackenzie
Axis Arts Centre/Flare Festival
Department of Contemporary Arts
Manchester Metropolitan University
Crewe
Cheshire CW1 5DU
United Kingdom
Dance Film Festival UK: Professional Development Programme
A great opportunity to learn with some knowledgeable and creative professionals.
Starts on Monday!
Douglas McPherson: A critic's plea: stop all arts funding now
Had to post this clumsily written and ill informed rant from the Telegraph critic. His previous articles for the paper include 'Why we should have animals in the circus' where he uses arguments such as 'the animals enjoy it' and 'children love to see animals in the circus'. In this one he makes general observations that include:
"You don’t need a grant to write a West End smash. You just need talent, dedication and something worth saying."
and he goes on to highlight his shallow grasp of socio-economic conditions and privilege in the UK, saying that:
"Historically, many great talents have come from impoverished backgrounds without any government help and achieved fame and fortune in a commercial world that rewards artists for what they can do rather than where they come from."
It would be too easy to unpick this rant and I have more productive things to do with my time. You can read the rest of it via the link.
Well done Yami, ADAD Trailblazer!
Yami Löfvenberg, Rachael Nanyonjo, Nathan Geering and Mbulelo Ndabeni have been selected as the four winners of ADAD’s Trailblazer Starters Fellowships for 2015-16.
The ADAD Trailblazers Fellowship is an annual professional development programme that supports UK-based dance artists, practitioners, performers, choreographers, dance teachers and researchers working in the field of dance of the African Diaspora.
I have been lucky enough to work with Yami and she has an honesty and integrity that is hard to find and it reflects in her work. She is also one of the hardest working artists I have come across. A well deserved award!
Far From The Norm in Plymouth
May 28th & 29th: If your In Plymouth you can catch Far From The Norm - NORMADS as part of the Plymouth Fringe Festival at the Barbican Theatre. For me, one of the most exciting young companies out there and at the forefront of hip hop theatre.
Blurring Boundaries Conference May 18th
This was a part of LDIF 2015 and I spent a good day listening, learning and sharing thoughts about hip hop dance and the ongoing negotiation with contemporary dance, theatre and institutionalisation. Rob Hylton, Ivan Blackstock and others contributed to a healthy debate and I met some interesting artists and researchers. Thanks to Serendipity for organising this.