Christmas Innocence

 

This coming weekend I will be performing as a guest dancer in Innocence with Scottish Dance Theatre. These will be the last four performances of an intense two-week run at the Macrobert Arts Centre in Stirling.

Based on the poetry of William Blake, this playroom performance was created by SDT's Artistic Director Fleur Darkin in collaboration with Bristol-based musician Paul Bradley. Innocence is specifically aimed at children aged 0-3 and it invites them (and their adults) to dance on an interactive journey of theatre, story and live music.

 

If you want to get one of the last tickets, book them HERE before they fly!

SIN in Madrid

© Manu Lozano - TND

 

My latest creation SIN, for Thomas Noone Dance, was presented last week at the festival Madrid en Danza. The work was part of a triple bill programme with two other works by Noone, which was shown for three nights to full houses at the Sala Cuarta Pared.

 

The piece was recently reviewed by the Spanish dance magzine Susy Q, here's a translation of the article:

 

 Disperse affections

There is a huge amount of (Spanish) choreographers and dancers working outside our frontiers, very often unbeknown to us. It is good news then when they get a chance to present part of their enquiry and artistic practice in their own land. It is the case of Joan Clevillé, invited by Thomas Noone Dance to choreograph a short piece to open the season at the SAT! Teatre, the second dance house in Barcelona: a venue close to the community and to everyday life... This creation talks precisely about this: affections and ties, tenderness and identity. Almost corroborating that distance does no more than enhancing the most authentic experiences amongst everything we live (therefore the everyday objects in the piece). The hanging rail, the clothes dispersed on the floor, or the space of a room subtly drawn on the floor become the site of a danced celebration of desires and hopes sparkled by our encounters with others. Even if it is from such a distance as Scotland, where Clevillé develops his career. Because also there the contradictions of affections are danced. Even if it is, as in this case, as an approximation dispersed in the creative.

Jordi Sora in Susy Q, Revista de Danza (Madrid) no. 46 (November 2013)

With Lost Dog in Cardiff

Next Tuesday 12th of November I will be performing with Lost Dog at the Weston Studio of the Wales Millennium Centre. The program will feature the duet It Needs Horses (piece winner of the Bloomberg Place Prize in 2011) and Home for Broken Turns, Ben Duke's latest creation for the company.

 

This will be the last stop of our Autumn tour, but we will be back for more next January with performances scheduled in Bath and Le Havre (France).

 

 

Teaching in Scotland

After two intense weeks working as a guest lecturer at the Northern School of Contemporary Dance, I will be teaching this coming week in three different Scottish cities:

 

From Monday 4th of November to Thursday the 7th, I will be teaching every evening at Dundee Rep Theatre for Scottish Dance Theatre Creative Learning. I will be delivering a variety of sessions for different ages and levels, from beginners to vocational students:

 

© Matthias Strahm

Mon 7th: Young Creatives

Tue 8th: Adult Technique Class

Wed 9th: SDT Youth Dance Company

Thu 10th: Master Class: an introduction to contact improvisation

 

On Tuesday I will be visiting the 2nd and 3rd year students of the BA Modern Ballet programme at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in Glasgow. And, to round it off, I will be leading a workshop on Thursday morning at Edinburgh College, where I will work with the HND Dance Artist students.

 

If you would like more information on these education centres and the training opportunites they offer for children, young dancers, and adults click on the following links:

 

Nothern School of Contemporary Dance (Leeds)

Scottish Dance Theatre Creative Learning (Dundee)

Royal Conservatoire of Scotland (Glasgow)

Edinburgh College

TUG in Dance Umbrella

 

Next 5th and 6th of October I will be performing with the collective Dog Kennel Hill Project in their site-specific project TUG. The performance is part of the Dance Umbrella festival and will take place along the towpath of Regent's Canal, right in the heart of London King's Cross.

 

This multi-layered performance will feature a specially adapted heritage showboat, as well as incidental performances by different artists along the canal. If you are not lucky enough to get one of the limited tickets on the boat, you can walk along the towpath and download  a specially created sound-score on your smartphone, which will immerse you in the world of the canal, its surrounding environment and the fascinating creatures that inhabit it!

 

Book your tickets and find more information about the show in http://danceumbrella.co.uk/tug 

Dancing Partners in Barcelona



© Manu Lozano - TND

Next Monday 9th of September the platform Dancing Partners kicks off in Barcelona! Hosted by Thomas Noone Dance, this event will be an intensive week of workshops, sharings and performances by dance companies from across Europe and North America, including Norrdans (Sweden), Company Chameleon (UK), Ando Danse (France), Marc Brew Company (UK) and Company E (USA).

 

For the public, this will be a unique chance to see all of these companies in action over three days of shared performances at the Espai Dansat! in Barcelona. On Friday 13th Sep. Thomas Noone Dance will premiére my latest work SIN. Set to an original score by Jim Pinchen, this quartet explores ideas around absence and yearning.

 

This premiére will be a very special occasion for me, since it will be the first time that I will show my own work in the city where I was born and where I first came into contact with dance. I cannot wait to see the piece on stage! In the meantime, here is a beautiful pre-production shot by Manu Lozano.

 

Lost Dog at the Edinburgh Fringe

Today we had our first performance of 'Home for Broken Turns' and 'It Needs Horses' at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. We will be performing at Zoo Southside until Sunday 25th of August.

 

This is my first collaboration as a performer with Lost Dog, the English dance theatre ensemble directed by Ben Duke. I had had the chance to work with Ben previously at Scottish Dance Theatre, when he created 'The Life and Times of Girl A' in 2010.

 

Home for Broken Turns is the kind of place that makes you dream of running away to the circus. But it is also a sanctuary, a place where the few remaining occupants could be described as family. This is the story of a group of women who exist on the outskirts, fiercely protective of each other and ready to savage anything that threatens to break up their dwindling pack.

                                

It Needs Horses tells the tale of a down at heel circus duet and their increasingly desperate attempts to entertain the crowd. The glamour has faded and the performers have forgotten their acts, but the show must go on. The piece was awarded in 2011 with the Place Prize, the most prestigious choreographic prize in the UK.

 

Here is a trailer of the piece with the wonderful original cast, Anna Finkel and Chris Evans. For more information on the performances and to book your tickets click HERE:

 

 



 

Dance UK mentorship

I have been recently selected to take part in Dance UK’s new Dancers’ Mentoring Scheme in Scotland. The programme is organised by Dance UK in partnership with Dancers’ Career Development and is funded by Creative Scotland.

 

The mentoring scheme offers company and independent dancers a paid mentor working in a high level leadership position from the arts sector or beyond. Over eight months, eight Scottish dancers will be able to gain confidence, develop transferable skills and receive guidance on how to transition from the studio into leadership and managerial positions.

 

I will be working alongside Chris Fogg, a freelance arts producer, consultant and evaluator, who has for the last two years been the Creative Producer for South East Dance in Brighton, working on their Associate Artists scheme. As part of his current portfolio Chris is the Creative Producer for the Bonnie Bird New Choreography Award, as well as being an Arts Council Assessor. He has more than ten years’ experience of arts project development and management, as well as running arts organisations. Chris has also worked for many years as a writer and theatre director, and he frequently collaborates with dance artists, offering dramaturgical support and advice. These have included bgroup, Mark Bruce, Darkin Ensemble, Lost Dog, Probe and StopGap among many others.

 

It will be a luxury to work with such an experienced artist and producer, and I can't wait to get started! 

Fiesta premiére

Next Wednesday 31st of July, the young dancers from Project Y will premiere my new short piece Fiesta. The piece will be part of a new programme of specially commissioned work by Anna Kenrick (Artistic Director of Y Dance), Diana Loosemore and Filip Van Huffel.
 
Fiesta is a theatrical and physical journey down the rabbit hole into a nightmarish world where an eccentric celebration is taking place. A world dangerously similar to ours, where its inhabitants seem to have resigned themselves to keep partying until the curtain goes down...
 
For this project, I had the opportunity to work again with designer Matthias Strahm, with whom I have collaborated in several occasions in the past (Dreamt for light years (2010), Love Games (2011) and most recently Achiles I).

After the Glasgow premiére, the Project Y troupe will hit the road on a litlle Scottish tour, visiting Livingston, Stirling and Aberdeen. Check out the full list of dates and venues HERE.
 
 

Thomas Noone comission

I am delighted to announce that I have been commissioned by Thomas Noone Dance to create a new work for the company. The piece will premiere in September during the Dancing Partners meeting in the city of Barcelona.

 

Dancing Partners is a collaboration between TND, Norrdans (Sweden) and Company Chameleon (UK). The philosophy behind it is simple: unifiying energies instead of working alone. Each company will host a residence period full with activities including mixed program performances composed of repertoire from the three companies, cross company interchange activities, pre and post performance talks offering contact between artists and the audience, and workshops for dance professionals and students.

 

Thomas Noone Dance was founded in Barcelona by the British choreographer in 2001 and since then it has grown to become one of the most active and respected contemporary dance ensembles in Spain.The company has received several awards and created a wide reperotire of works by its artistic director and other guests choreographers.

 

I will soon post more information about my new creation. If you want to find out more about Dancing Partners, click HERE.

 

 

A Swedish premiére

My new solo work, Achilles I, will be premiered next 13th of July during the RepNet Hot House programme in the city of Malmö, Sweden.

© Nicole Guarino

 

 

The member companies of RepNet (Skanes Dansteater, Carte Blanche, Iceland Dance Company, Tanzcompagnie Oldenburg and Scottish Dance Theatre) will showcase their inhouse choreographic talent, presenting works made by the dancers in two exciting evenings of new dance.

 

SDT will be presenting works by myself, Jori Kerremans, Julián Juárez and Matthew Robinson.

  

In Achilles I, I set out to explore the limits of my physicality as well as a certain notion of presence. The solo is also informed by the ideas of violence, resilience and perseverance. Achilles I was also a chance to collaborate again with costume designer Matthias Strahm and lighting designer Emma Jones (just click on their names to find out more about them).

 

I am very much looking forward to Thursday's premiére and I hope to have the chance of presenting the piece back in the UK soon. For more information on the RepNet Houthouse performances click HERE.

Going solo

After four incredible seasons with Scottish Dance Theatre, I have decided to leave the company next June in order to establish myself as an independent dance artist.

 

It's not been an easy decision, but after eleven years working as a dancer in repertory companies across Europe, I think it is the right time to move on and step up to new challenges. As an independent artist, I would like to focus on my own choreographic practice, as well as working as a freelance dancer and teacher.

 

Summer is already looking busy with very excting engagements, including a new comission for Project Y in Glasgow and the oportunity to work as a dancer with Ben Duke. I will be performing with his company Lost Dog at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and the programme could not be more exciting: It Needs Horses won the 2011 Place Prize edition, the most prestigious choreographic competition in the UK.

 

I am thrilled to start this new chapter of my professional career, and I am looking forward to meet and collaborate with artists and organisations in Scotland, the UK and beyond. My head is full of ideas and projects waiting to be realised... I can't wait! More about it soon...

This Town première!

The last week of March saw the première of This Town, the latest site specific performance from Dundee Rep Creative Learning.

 

The director, Suzi Morris, invited me to work with members of the Whitfield community, and together we devised a dance scene for the extraordinary environement of the machine hall at the Verdant Works of Dundee. With the help of huge sheets and wooden furniture, we evoked the wards of the old East House asylum, where, according to the local press, the inmates (some of them over 80 years old!) used to dance to the accordion music of Blind Mattie, the legendary street musician of Dundee.

 

During the preparation sessions we used imagery and improvisation tasks to create movement, focusing on different textures and dynamics. We also worked on specific skills such as spatial awareness or movement articulation through body isolations. It was wonderful to see how the participants gained confidence week after week, and how some of them were surprised at finding out what their own body could do!

 

The production, which was sold out every night, invited the audience to explore other stories in the collective memory of Dundee, like the popular 'pea-busters' or the role of the unions in the live of the city. For those who missed it, here are some production shots by Viktoria Begg:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

© All photos by Viktoria Begg

 

 

 

 



Project Y new comission

Next July I will be creating a new work in Glasgow for Project Y, the 2013 performance course of YDance, Scotland's national youth dance organisation.

 

The course brings together 25 talented young dancers and gives them the chance to work with professional choreographers to create an original programme of dance pieces that will be toured around Scotland in the Summer. Besides me, this year the dancers will be working with Filip Van Huffel (Artistic Director of Retina Dance Company), Diana Loosmore (from Scottish Ballet) and YDance Artistic Director Anna Kernick.

 

Working with young dancers  is always very exciting. I hope I can contribute to their artistic development, as much as I am looking forward to their fresh and original creative input. I can't wait to get in the studio and meet the next generation of Scottish dancers!

 

Here's a video from past editions of Project Y. If you want more information about the course click HERE.



This Town

Next January I will start rehearsing with memebers of the Whitfield community for what promises to be the biggest community theatre performance in Dundee for the last 20 years: This Town, directed by Suzi Morris, head of Dundee Rep Creative Learning.

The performance will be devised as a site specific production at the Verdant Works, a former jute mill built in 1833 in the Blackness area of Dundee. Together, we will explore the city through the eyes (and the bodies) of its people, looking not only at stories from the past, but also at the experiences of those who inhabit it in the present.

 

I am very much looking forward to this project, since it will bring together two of my main interests in choreography: site specific work and engagement with the community.

 

 

 Performances will run from 26th to 30th of March 2013. More information on Dundee Rep Theatre's website.

Back in the kitchen...

After a very intense year working on my masters degree, I finally have time to get back to the studio to work on my own! Researching and writing my dissertation has certainly opened my mind and I am curious to see to what extent it has had an effect on my artistic practice.

 

With a couple of potential projects on the horizon but no clear deadline yet, I am enjoying the lack of time pressure and I have the feeling that I am creating just for myself.

 

At the moment, I am working on some solo material where I am playing with the ideas of struggle, violence and perseverance. I am also interested in exploring the relationship between the body as a site of inner and physical experience and the construction of meaning by an external observer.

 

More details to come in the next couple of months!

Love Games at the Pathways to the Profession Symposium

Last January Joan took part in the Pathways to the Profession Symposium organised by Scottish Dance Theatre, in partnership with Dundee Rep, Creative Scotland and The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. Over 200 delegates and speakers from across the world came to Dundee to take part in this two day event, which was aimed to bring about a cultural shift in thinking about disabled people in the performing arts and to move from a place of awareness to a place of action and increase the number of disabled people involved in the arts.

Together with SDT's artistic director Janet Smith and SDT's dance agent for change Caroline Bowditch, Joan presented the results of a casting exploration around his work Love Games. The aim of the inquiry was to explore the possibility of having a disabled dancer as a full time member of a mainstream repertory company like SDT, and the implications that this would have, for instance, in covering existing roles.

Caroline, herself a wheelchair user, learned the part that Naomi Murray originally danced in a duet from Love Games. Together with the dancers, Joan re-worked the duo in just two sessions and then shared it with the rest of the company. Working with the intentions behind the movement (wether emotional or physical) rather than with form, seemed to be the key to translate the movement and the dramaturgy of the dance to a new body.

The new version was presented in a SDT Interactive performance at the Tramway theatre in Glasgow, and then recorded to document the work.If you you are curious to see how the two versions look like next to each other, have a look at this video edited by Vicky Wilson:



The positive results of this little experiment open the doors for future inquires, and present new and exciting questions to be explored.  To find out more about the Pathways to the Profession Symposium click HERE.

Love Games Spring Tour

Joan's work Love Games will be part of Scottish Dance Theatre's Spring Tour '12. The programme will open next 8th of February at Dundee Rep Theatre and will visit, among others, the Robin Howard Theatre at The Place (London) and at the Luoghi Comuni Festival  in Bergamo (Italy).

The programme will also feature works by other company members, the solo My Sweet Little Fur by Israeli choreographer Idan Cohen, and Pavlova's Dogs, a new work created by Rachel Lopez de la Nieta.

Here's a full list of venues and performance dates:

8th - 11th February: Dundee Rep Theatre (Dundee, Scotland)

22nd February: Theatre at the Mill (Newtonabbey, Northern Ireland)

3rd March: Teatro Sociale (Bergamo, Italy)

9th and 10th March: Robin Howard Theatre, The Place (London)

14th March: Corn Exchange, Newbury (Berkshire, UK)

24th March: The MacPhail Centre, Ullapool (Scotland)

28th March: Arainn Shuaineirt (The Sunart Centre), Strontian (Scotland)

28th April: Woodend Barn Arts Centre, Banchory (Scotland)

For more information on SDT's Spring Tour '12 visit www.scottishdancetheatre.com

Congratulations James!

Scottish Dance Theatre's dancer and new Acting Artistic Director, James MacGillivray, was "Mentioned in Dispatches" in the category Outstanding Achievement in Dance Performance by the British dance portal Article 19.

James was praised as 'a dancer of incredible experience and poise' for his performance of Joan's duet Dreamt for Light Years at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

Click HERE to find out more about the rest of winners.

Rehearsal Director

Janet Smith, Scottish Dance Theatre Artistic Director for 14 years, is to take up the post of principal at Northern School of Contemporary Dance (NSCD) in February 2012.

Until a new Artistic Director is appointed next Spring, Rehearsal Director James MacGilllivray will be acting as Artistic Director and Joan will step up as Acting Rehearsal Director.

Interactive performances of 'Love Games'

Joan's latest work Love Games will be performed as part of Scottish Dance Theatre's interactive performances at Dundee Rep Theatre  and the Tramway  (Glasgow) the coming 15th and 24th of November '11.

SDT Interactive are performances aimed at young and new audiences who are not familiar with theatre and contemporary dance. Artistic Director, Janet Smith, SDT dancers and SDT technical team explain and show how dance theatre is made through performances of small sections of the current programme. The audience is then invited to discuss their own ideas about the work and the show ends with a final question and answer session.

If you want to know more about it, check this short video about SDT Interactive:

Scottish Tour of Dreamt for Light Years

Joan's work Dreamt for Light Years will be presented as part of Scottish Dance Theatre's Autumn Tour across different venues in Scotland. The duet will be performed in SDT's Interactive Performances, where Artistic Director Janet Smith will introduce several short works and extracts from SDT's repertory to new dance audiences.

© Cara Pirie

Natalie Trewinnard will be dancing the piece for the first time, alongside Dreamt veteran James MacGillivray. You will have the chance to see them on:

28th October, Ardrishaig Public Hall, Ardrishaig (Argyll)

3rd November, Universal Hall, Findhorn Foundation, Forres, (Moray)

11th November, Howden Park Centre, Linvingstone, (West Lothian)

Click HERE for more information about the performances and SDT's Autumn Tour '11.

More Love Games

After its premiere last Summer, Joan's latest work had two more performances at Dundee Rep Theatre. Love Games featured in the second showing of Scottish Dance Theatre's programme Under Construction 2, alongside works of other company members. Love Games was also invited to this year's Great Big Dance Show at the Rep, organised by SDT's Creative Learning team.

© Fotos by Andreé Freire

Re-views // Inter-views

After a week's run at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, several reviews of Joan's duet Dreamt for Light Years have appeared on printed and digital media. Here's a selection of press quotes:

©Cara Pirie

Broadway Baby: 'It is an intense and engaging work: flowing, varied, perfectly paced and danced with moving tenderness.'

What's on Stage: 'haunting and beautifully evocative'

Edinburgh Guide: 'This exciting and beautiful choreography, danced with superb skill and strength, made tangible the inescapable truth that change is unavoidable and necessary.'

SGfringe: 'This was dance at its best.'

Across the Arts: 'Dreamt for light years left me with a lump in my throat (...) It isn't often that a duet based on a relationship let's you in to their world; I felt involved in the relationship with every step, shift and emotion.'

+ Click HERE to watch Article 19's interview with Joan and Scottish Dance Theatre's Assistant Director, Sally Owen.

Interview with The List

Read Joan's interview with The List's Edinburgh Festival Guide HERE.

Joan's duet Dreamt for Light Years will be performed at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival from the 23rd to the 28th of August as part of Scottish Dance Theatre's programme Matters of the Heart.