Resolution!

SAVE THE DATE: On Sat. 24 of January I will be performing my solo Achilles II in London as part of Resolution! The Place's much loved annual festival is back at the start of 2015. Running from 8 January to 21 February, Resolution! celebrates new choreography from emerging and established choreographers. Previous editions have showcased work by artists such as Russell Maliphant, Wayne McGregor, Charlotte Vincent and Hofesh Shechter.

I will present a new iteration of my solo work Achilles I, which I performed earlier this year at the TanzArt ostwest festival in Germany. I hope this new, extended version will give me an opportunity to de-compress the work and dig deeper in its soul. I will be also experimenting with the possibilities of a new lighting and costume design by Emma Jones and Matthias Strahm.

I am very excited to be sharing the evening with choreographers Jayne Port and Estela Merlos (also a Catalan dance-maker based in the UK!).

Over 28 days, 84 companies will bring works of unique choreographic diversity to the stage, fused with an uncompromising attitude of experimentation. For more information about Resolution! and to book your tickets, click HERE.

 

Footsteps Marking Time premiere

Next Saturday 29th of November we will present the premiere of Footsteps Marking Time, a new full-length music and dance performance created with Glasgow-based composer Matilda Brown.

The production will try to capture the physical and emotional journey of Matilda's solo walk 238 miles across the Scottish Highlands and my simultaneous dance journey in a studio in the remote peninsula of Scoraig in March-April 2014. Footsteps Marking Time will bring our stories together, retold through music, dance and visuals.

Since the walk, Matilda and I have been collaborating and exploring all our findings and stories – our trials and tribulations, the people we met, the trees, the birds, the solitude. Together we have worked in various locations across Scotland – Dundee, Glasgow, Aberdeen and Loch Tay- in a series of residencies organised with the support of Citymoves, Scottish School of Contemporary Dance and Scottish Dance Theatre.

The premiere will take place at The Macphail Centre in Ullapool, a town in the middle point of the Cape Wrath Trail. The performance will feature live music by Matilda's chamber ensemble with some of the most prominent jazz and folk musicians in Scotland: Jo Nicholson (Clarinet/ Bass Clarinet), Mairearad Green (Accordion), Graeme Stephen (Jazz Guitar) and Ruth Rowlands from the Royal Scottish National Orchestra (Cello).

Visual artist Gerard O'Brien has created a digital backdrop for the performance and Jeremy Raison (former Artistic Director of Glasgow's legendary Citizens Theatre) is looking after the dramaturgy of the piece and co-directing the work.

For more information on the project, videos, fotos, and exclusive preview tracks visit the project's website: FOOTSTEPS MARKING TIME.

Book your tickets for the premiere HERE, or if you cannot make it to Ullapool, why not making a contribution on the project's fundraising page: HERE. Thanks for your support!

The Fictitious Truths of Teddington Library

This coming weekend I will be performing with Dog Kennel Hill Project on The Fictitious Truths of Teddington Library, part of this year's edition of the Richmond Upon Thames Literature Festival.

DKHP are Rachel Lopez de la Nieta, Henrietta Hale and Ben Ash, with whom I first worked in 2012 when Rachel created Pavlova's Dogs for Scottish Dance Theatre. Afterwards we collaborated in TUG for the London Dance Umbrella Festival and the research Études in Tension and Crisis which will be developed into a new full-length work in Spring 2015.

The Fictitious Truths of Teddington Library will be a durational performance, spreading over three days (Fri. 14th - Sun. 16th November). It will be a collection of performance curiosities, celebrating a sense of wonder at human evolution, from the hunter gatherers in the primordial forest to the finger tapping media communicators of now. Wondering what could have trodden this ground before us we will place an expansive lens on the site of Teddington Library, imagining the bears that roamed in earlier times, and an exhumed Neolithic Teddington Man that sits surveying one of the greatest symbols of social progress and enlightenment that it is today.

More information about the festival and free tickets for the performances  HERE.

Video and photos of Plan B for Utopia

© Yi-Chieh Chiu



© Yi-Chieh Chiu

© Yi-Chieh Chiu

© Yi-Chieh Chiu

 

© Yi-Chieh Chiu

Last Friday 10th of October we had a public sharing of our two-week research residency for Plan B for Utopia at Scottish Dance Theatre's studio in Dundee. The sharing gave us an opportunity to present a 'scratch' of the show to an audience. I was particularly interested in getting a sense of the potential narrative arch of the work and of the relation of the performers with the audience.

After the sharing, Benoit Egloff, lecturer at Scottish School of Contemporary Dance, hosted a Q&A session, where audience members could offer their thoughts and feedback.

The work will be developed next spring, funding permitting, and then premiered at the Edinburg Fringe festival in August 2015.

Photographer Yi-Chieh Chiu took some fantastic shots of Solène and John's performance, and here there is also a little video of the event.

Residency supported by Creative Scotland and Scottish Dance Theatre.

 





Research residency in Dundee

Next Monday I will start a two week research residency in preparation for my upcoming full length creation Plan B for Utopia. The residency is supported by Creative Scotland and Scottish Dance Theatre, and it will take place at the company's headquarters in Dundee.

Together with dancers Solène Weinachter (SDT, Lost Dog, Jan Fabre, Gecko) and John Kendall (from balletLorent), we will explore the notion of ‘utopia’ and its relation with our everyday lives, both in a collective and a private context. We will be looking at the cycles of dissatisfaction, hope and disappointment that seem to drive our journeys through life (and through history). Finally, we will explore different ways of weaving choreographic and text-based elements, as well as playing with different narrative frameworks for the future work...

As part of this residency, we are offering free professional dance classes during the second week of  the residency: 6th - 10th October. The classes will be also an opportunity to meet and network with other independent dance artists based in Dundee and the East Coast. On Friday 10th of October, there will be a public sharing of the research at 2pm.

Classes will start at 10.30am at SDT's studio at Dundee Rep Theatre. They are free but spaces are limited. If you are interested, book your space on jcleville@yahoo.com 

Last week of 'The Glass Menagerie'

I was recently invited by director Jemima Levick to work as a choreographer for Dundee Rep Theatre's production of The Glass Menagerie.

Based on autobiographical events, the play is set in the claustrophobic environment of the Wingfield's apartment in St. Louis, during the times of the Great Depression. With a cast of only four actors, the work is a deeply personal, touching and profound tale of love and loss, and it is widely regarded as one of Tennessee Williams most powerful and haunting memory plays.

Dundee Rep's production premiered on 3rd of September and  has been received with unanimous critical acclaim:

"Levick's impressionistic and mould-breaking re-imagining of Williams's poetic intentions is an exquisitely poignant construction that breathes fresh heartbreak into one of the saddest plays ever written."
★★★★ The Herald

"three magnificent central performances from Robbie Jack as Tom, Millie Turner as Laura, and the great Irene Macdougall as a robust, creative and passionately maternal Amanda...And they are supported by a splendid cameo from Thomas Cotran" 
★★★★ The Scotsman

"Levick is to be commended for having a serious dialogue with a classic"
★★★★ The Times

"a touching revival of Williams' southern domestic drama"
★★★★ The Guardian

"Seventy years after Williams wrote his semi-autobiographical play, the craftsmanship of his words still has the power to astonish."
★★★★ The List

"Depicted with incredible clarity through these characters, it is a haunting production that, in the pleasant disguise of illusion, gives us the truth of human nature"
The Courier

The Glass Menagerie will be on Dundee Rep's stage until the 20th of September, for more information and to book your tickets click HERE.

 

Good news for team Frida

Team Frida with their Herald Angel Award at Dance Base!

Falling in Love with Frida, the latest creation of Glasgow based choreographer Caroline Bowditch, was recently awarded with a Herald Angel Award during the Edinburgh Fringe festival. The work was received with five stars reviews and a completely sold out run at Dance Base, Scotland's National Centre for Dance.
 
I had the privilege and the pleasure to join Caroline during her research trip to Mexico a year ago, and to collaborate with her and the company as Artistic Advisor during the creative process.
 
Falling in Love with Frida explores the life, loves and legacy of Mexican painter Frida Kahlo (1907-1954). More than a mere 'biopic', the work is also a reclaiming of a disabled artist, and an enquiry into how we shape what we are remembered for and how much can we really control others' memories of us.

Tickets were sold out again last weekend for Caroline's performance at the Queen Elizabeth Hall on the Southbank Centre in London. The work was part of the Unlimited festival, a showcase of the best performance and visual art work by disabled artists in Britain.

A week in Scandinavia

Skanes Dansteater in DOUBLEtake

Last week I was invited as a guest teacher at Skånes Dansteater. Based in the city of Malmö, the company is Sweden's largest independent dance institution and one of the most prominent repertory dance companies in Northern Europe.

At the moment, the dancers are working with Kenneth Kvarnström (one of Scandinavia's most critically acclaimed choreographers) on the creation of a new work for the Malmö Opera stage: DOUBLEtake. The work will premiere on 4th of October and will see the dancers from K. Kvarnström and Co. join the Malmö ensemble.

During my time with Skånes Dansteater I also had the opportunity to cross over to Denmark and visit the freetown of Christiania, a 40 year old community where over 1000 people live in occupied and self-built buildings, and organise themselves through self-governing assemblies. Christiania has been a source of controversy for decades, and is a fascinating example of the challenges and successes of utopian communities.

This visit was part of my research for Plan B for Utopia, a new full length work which is now on its research and development stage, supported by Creative Scotland. Next week, I will be heading down to London for a one week residency at The Place. In October I will continue the research in the studios of Scottish Dance Theatre in Dundee. More information about public sharings and professional development opportunities coming soon!

Residency at Northern School of Contemporary Dance

© Nicole Guarino

In two weeks I will be travelling to Leeds for a one week residency at Northern School of Contemporary Dance.

I will be working with dancers Solène Weinachter and John Kendall as part of the research for my new full-length work Plan B for Utopia, which will premiere during Summer 2015 at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Further R&D residencies will be happening during September and October with the support of The Place, Scottish Dance Theatre and Creative Scotland.

The duet will explore the notion of 'utopia' in its practical and physical dimension, related to our everyday lives, both as individuals and as a collective: 'What do I wish for?', 'Does utopia only live in your imagination?', 'Can we, you and me, repair what failed and build the new?'.

As part of the residency, I will be offering free professional dance classes for NSCD students and external professional dancers. Classes will start at 9.00am from Monday 11th to Friday 15th of August. If you are interested in attending, please book in advance at jcleville@yahoo.com since the spaces are limited.

There will be a public sharing of the research on Friday 15th at 3.00pm

Commonwealth Youth Dance Festival

Last week I was invited to teach a series of choreographic workshops in Glasgow during the first ever Commonwealth Youth Dance Festival, part of the Culture 2014 programme of the XX Commonwealth Games. Organised by YDance, the festival brought together over 400 young dancers from all over the world, who had a chance to take part in a wide range of workshops, to present and watch each other's work and, most importantly, to meet each other and forge new friendships and artistic connections.

During three consecutive nights, Glasgow's Tramway theatre filled to capacity to watch three different programmes showcasing the richness and strength of the dance heritage across the Commonwealth. Companies presenting their work included: National Youth Dance Company of Scotland, Cando2, Wagana Aboriginal Youth Dancers, High Kicks All Girls Dance Ensemble (from India), Blast (the new inclusive youth dance company in Scotland), National Youth Dance Company of England, Canadian Contemporary Dance Theatre, Dalriada Youth Dance Company, National Youth Dance Wales, OYO Dance Troupe (from Namibia), Quicksilver (Rambert's Youth Dance Company) and QL2 (from Australia).

© YDance, Paul Watt

To the Point with bgroup

bgroup's About Around, © Chris Nash

This week I am shadowing choreographer Ben Wright during his research and development residency at The Point theatre in Eastleigh. Ben is researching for his new production Spectrum, which will premiere in 2015. Drawing from a variety of sources, like art theory, literature, optics and free association, we are exploring the physical and emotional resonance of colour, discovering our own personal relation with the spectrum.

Besides directing his own company, bgroup, Ben creates for opera and theatre productions in stages around the world. He was recently appointed Associate Artistic Director of Skånes Dansteater in Sweden, one of the most prestigious repertory dance companies in Northern Europe.

Huge thank you to Ben and the dancers for their generosity and openness, and for allowing me to join them in the studio this week!

More info about bgroup HERE.

Cape Wrath Residency

This coming week I will be working with Glasgow-based composer Matilda Brown on our common production Footsteps Marking Time, The Cape Wrath Music and Dance Project. The residency will be happening at Scottish School of Contemporary Dance in Dundee, where I've been recently appointed Artist in Residence.

The project started last April with an initial three week research. Matilda walked more than two hundred miles through some of the wildest and most desolate landscape of the Scottish Highlands, becoming (as far we know) the first woman to ever complete the trail on her own.

During that time, I was researching in a studio in the peninsula of Scoraig, a place so remote that can only be reached walking or by boat. During these three weeks, we were in contact by phone and shared music and pieces of text. We also collected images, writing and sounds samples that will feed into the creation process.

For a short taste of the work, check out this video from our April research:

 



71 Dancers

 

71 dancers is my latest work for young dancers created in collaboration with Scottish Dance Theatre Youth Company, Dalriada Youth Company, Fusion Youth Dance Company and Macrobert Youth Dance Company.

The work is part of the cultural programme of the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games and, true to the spirit of the games, it has brought together young dancers from Dundee, Argyll, Stirling and Aberdeen to collaborate in the creation of a brand new dance work.

In a series of intensive weekend-residencies, the dancers visited each other's cities and villages, but, most importantly, they got to know each other and learn to think and work as a company. You can see the result this weekend in theatres across Scotland:

Friday 20th June, Go Dance Festival, Glasgow Theatre Royal, BOOK HERE
Saturday 21st June, Macrobert Dance Festival, Stirling.
Sunday 22nd June, Dundee Rep Youth Dance Festival, BOOK HERE

Performances in Barcelona

 

Next Sunday 15th of June my latest work Flors i violes  will be performed at the Teatre Ovidi Montllor in Barcelona. The work was created last February in collaboration with the graduating students of the contemporary dance department of the Dance Conservatoire in Barcelona (Institut del Teatre).

The piece questions the idea of national identity, and the strength and risks that come with it. I was also interested in exploring the tension between collective and personal identity, which I see as a recurring theme in my work. In a way, the piece is a response to the deep political and social crisis that Catalonia and Spain are living at present moment, and the question of how do I position myself as an artist in relation to it.

A further performance of Flors i violes is scheduled for the 18th of June at the Sala La Cate in Figueres. For more info and tickets click HERE.

Achilles I in Germany

© Nicole Guarino

Next Monday 9th of June, I will present the solo Achilles I at the festival TanzArt ostwest in Giessen, Germany. Curated by Tarek Assam and hosted by the Tanzcompagnie Giessen, the festival brings together dance companies from all over Europe, placing a particular emphasis on the exchange of choreographic ideas between artists from Western and Eastern Europe.

Achilles I is a meditation around the notions of struggle, violence and resilience. The solo explores the notion of 'hero' and the ambivalent character of the figure of Achilles, related to both strength and vulnerability, to public and private spheres.

This is the second time I visit the TanzArt festival. In 2011 I was invited to present the duet Dreamt for Light Years. For more information on this year's edition and to book tickets click HERE.

50 DAYS TO GO to the Commonwealth Youth Dance Festival



© Nicole Guarino



© Paul Watt



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From 10th to 12th July 2014, Glasgow's Tramway will be buzzing with electric atmosphere as 400 talented individuals will come together to share skills, develop their technique, and present their work to a Glasgow audience.

During these three days I will be teaching choreographic workshops for the participants, together with Australian choreographer Mark Brew.

  

With a blend of talented individuals, aged 12–21, from from Australia, Canada, England, India, Malta, Namibia, New Zealand, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, The CommonwealthYouth Dance Festival is a chance for each young person to grow, develop, learn, perform, make friends and build networks for their future career as a dancer.

The Cape Wrath Project

A view of Beinn Ghobhlach in the Scoriag peninsula.

For the last three weeks, I have been researching in the studio for a new dance and music project with Glasgow based composer Matilda Brown: Footsteps Marking Time, The Cape Wrath Music and Dance Project.

I met Matilda a year ago, during the creation of This Town, with Dundee Rep Creative Learning. We were immediately drawn to each other’s practice and we were soon determined to collaborate again in the future.

Footsteps Marking Time will go beyond the usual scope of music and dance collaborations: it will, literally, burst out of the studio walls and go into the wilderness. The work will be inspired by two simultaneous endurance experiences: Matilda’s walk of the Cape Wrath trail through the Highlands and my own voluntary ‘confinement’ for three weeks in a studio in the community of Scoraig, a remote peninsula on the West Coast of Scotland.

During this first stage of the process Matilda, who is an experienced mountaineer, is walking over 200 miles between Glen Finnan and Cape Wrath, the top North West corner of the UK. It is a journey that no other woman – as far as we know – has undertaken alone and in one go.  For the last weeks, Matilda and I have been constantly in contact, sharing our experiences and thoughts, as well as pieces of text and music.

Our research has been directed both outwards and inwards: on one side we are exploring our relationship with the environment and those who inhabit it; on the other, we are confronting ourselves with questions about our sense of self and personal identity, and its transformation (at physical, emotional and spiritual level) through endurance and struggle.

Matilda is due to arrive to Cape Wrath in the next couple of days, when my time in Scoraig’s studio will also come to an end. The finished piece, a new full length dance and music composition will feature Matilda’s chamber ensemble and solo dancing by myself. The première will be at the MacPhail Centre in Ullapool in Autumn 2014. More information about touring dates around Scotland soon.

Improvised performance in Glasgow

Collective Endeavours presents a music/dance group improvised performance with

Solène Weinachter, Jer Reid, Brian Hartley, Joseph Quimby, Joan Clevillé, Rachele Rapisardi, Luke Sutherland
 

Towards an end to the Aristotelian notion of 5 senses. How to feel the physicality of music - not necessarily with large volume, to fill architecture with human movement, to re-imagine the function of a building, to reconstruct that idea of 'functionality'. A triangulation of the physicality/ space/ tone of sound, movement, architecture.

How to get along? How to reconnect to old ways and find new ways. Beyond consumer capitalism. Without words. How was your day? Here's how my day was, my week, my year and so on. Without words.

 

Performance starts 5:00pm prompt. Really. And will last approx 40 minutes.

A fringe event of Counterflows festival.
 

Tickets £3.50, book online HERE 

Langside Halls, 5 Langside Ave, Glasgow G41 2QR

Professional class at The Place

This coming week (31st March - 4th April) I will be teaching the professional class at The Place, (London Contemporary Dance School).

Classes start at 9:00am and are open to professional contemporary dancers and recent graduates. Drop in classes are £4, or you can buy a 10 class card for £35 (just £3.50 per class). You can book your place and find more information HERE.

Creating in Barcelona

For the last three weeks, I have been creating with the graduating students of the contemporary dance department of the Institut del Teatre, Barcelona's Dance Conservatoire. I was invited by Keith Morino, the director of the school, following the premiére last September of SIN with Thomas Noone Dance, also in Barcelona.

 

The Institut has recently celebrated its 100th anniversary and is one of the most significant cultural institutions of the city. Since 2000 the school has been located at a new state of the art building on the mount of Montjuïc, in the Ciutat del Teatre (City of Theatre) complex, home to several theatres, the School of Drama, the Dance Conserva-toire, a Documentation Centre and the Museum of Performing Arts.

 

The work, Flors i violes, questions the idea of national identity, how do we a build a notion of group, and the strenght and risks that come with it. I was also interested in exploring the tension between collective and personal identity, which I see as a recurring theme in my work. The piece originated from the need to respond in some way to the deep political and social crisis that Catalunya and Spain are living at present moment, and the question of how do I position myself as an artist in relation to it.

 

Flors i violes will be officially premiered next June at the Teatre Ovidi Montllor in the Conservatoire, before going on a small tour to the city of Figueres. More information on times and venues closer to the date.

Sharings of 'Etudes in Tension and Crisis'

For the last week, I have taken part in a research residency at The Basement gallery in Brighton with the collective Dog Kennel Hill Project. With one more week to go, this is part of a series of residencies, events and sharings under the title of Etudes in Tension and Crisis.

 

 

© DKHP

Inspired by territorial disputes, trade, invasion, occupation, treaties, conflict-resolution and genocide, the research will ask how we rank and distribute significance in the affaris of a small collectivity within dance and performance practice. A series of absurd, experimental, and theatricalised situations will be designed with the aim of generating distinct and discrete scenes of tension and potential crisis.

 

Join us for one of the the upcoming sharings at The Basement on Thursday 13th and Friday (16:30) 14th of February (14:00). They will be an opportunity for audiences to meet the creative team and to discuss the work and the role that audiences play in bringing their own values and expectations to the situation. You can book on dkhp@fussy.net

Other upcoming events part of this research will be:

26/02/14 19.00 Tension and Crisis sharing 3 at Camden Arts Centre, London. Booking and info HERE

27/03/14 19.30 Exorcism in the usual off-centre quarter of the way back performance with screening of Diabolic, a new video piece with as part of Wild Card
Lilian Baylis Studio, Sadlers Wells,London. Booking and info HERE 
 

Like Rabbits in France!

2014 started with a residency with Lost Dog at the Centre Corégraphique Caen / Basse Normandie. I was working as a rehearsal director for the company's new production, Like Rabbits, a duet devised by Lost Dog's Artistic Director Ben Duke in collaboration with Lucy Kirkwood, Ino Riga and Cris Tandy.

The work,  based on the short story Lappin and Lapinova by Virginia Woolf, was previewed last Summer at the Almeida Theatre in London and will have its official premiere this coming Spring.

But before that, I will be performing again with the company in the double bill Home for Broken Turns and It Needs Horses. The programme will be presented at the University Theatre of Bath Spa University on 24th of January and then in Le Havre (France) in the frame of the Pharenheit festival.