Guest speakers and teachers announced for 2nd LAB at the National Centre for Choreography

Music & Dance: A True Collaboration

This August sees the second Lab at the National Centre for Choreography at the Jerwood DanceHouse in Ipswich. The four choreographers and four composers chosen through application are choreographers: Jennifer Essex, Jean Magnard, Paolo Mangiola and George Williamson. They represent an array of genres and backgrounds which should lead to some fascinating research and composers Christopher Mayo, Anna Meredith, Donal Sarsfield and Charlie Usher who were all selected through an open call for applications.    
                                                                                                      
The LAB will be led by Artistic Director & Choreographer, Kim Brandstrup and Cellist/Producer in New Music, Oliver Coates, who have developed a structured programme whereby four participating choreographers, four composers, dancers and a group of musicians together with a range of guests from other art forms will offer insights and perspectives into the LAB theme, and contribute to discussions and tasks throughout the two weeks. Guest speakers over the two weeks will include musician Leafcutter John along with choreographer Shobana Jeyasingh and guest teacher Marina Collard.

The professional dancers working with the choreographers are Harriet Bone, Jordi Calpe Serrat, Kit Holder, Ruth Janssen, Jesse Karvosky, Andrew McNicol, Rachael Mossom, Katerina Toumpa, Giannis Tsikgris, Renaud Wiser and Jenni Wren and musicians will include Jane Mitchell, principal flute and founder of Aurora Orchestra Alexandra Wood, principal violin of Birmingham Contemporary Music Group.

DanceEast’s Artistic Director & Chief Executive, Assis Carreiro: ‘This is our second LAB and our most ambitious to date, with over 25 individuals taking part from the worlds of dance and music to come together to explore deeply the relationship between dance and music. This is true R&D with no expectations of a final product, and I hope the ‘blind dates’ lead to some fascinating new partnerships and future collaborations.’

Artistic Director Kim Brandstrup said: ‘The LAB is devised to facilitate an  in-depth dialog and collaboration between composers and choreographers offering a unique opportunity  for 4 Choreographers , 4 Composers , 8 musicians and 12 dancers to meet, compare and share compositional strategies.’

Musician Oliver Coates also commented: ‘A group of leading composers, performers and collaborators in new music - notated / improvised; acoustic / electronic - are meeting at DanceEast to work intensively on the relationship between dance and music. To devise and focus on new work with choreographers which finds a structural and aesthetic parity between the art forms is terrifically exciting.’

This exciting initiative fills a much needed gap in international choreographic development. The National Centre for Choreography heralds a strategic move for DanceEast, offering the UK’s only research and development for experienced choreographers to explore new areas and experiment freely with other artists without the pressures of producing a final product.

The first three LABs are generously supported by Arts Council England and The Linbury Trust.


NOTES FOR EDITORS

 
Kim Brandstrup, Artistic Director
Kim Brandstrup studied Film at the University of Copenhagen and Choreography with Nina Fonaroff at London School of Contemporary Dance. He founded his own dance company, Arc, in 1985, forging a narrative style that owes more to his early cinematic training than to classical story ballet or to the kineticism of contemporary dance.

Throughout his career, and at times at odds with current trends, he has sought a theatre of movement that is both powerful and subtle, creating poignant and suggestive narratives that are always intensely human and emotionally revealing.

Since 2005 in freelance commissioned works for a range of international companies including The Royal Ballet, Les Grands Ballets Canadiens, and the Royal Danish Ballet, his narrative approach has found new paths, growing more refined and precise while enjoying a looser, more experimental tone in its storytelling.
 

Oliver Coates, Musician
Oliver Coates is the winner of the Royal Philharmonic Society Young Artist Award 2011. He is an Artist in Residence at Southbank Centre in London and is widely in demand as a solo cellist, chamber musician, principal cellist with orchestras (Aurora Orchestra, London Sinfonietta, London Contemporary Orchestra) and as a producer and collaborator in new music. This season he has given the premiere of Nico Muhly's Cello Concerto with Britten Sinfonia at the Barbican and Mark Bowden’s Cello Concerto with BBC NoW in Cardiff, as well as performances of Jonny Greenwood's Concerto Doghouse at Roundhouse's Reverb Festival and Thomas Adès' Lieux Retrouvés at Southbank Centre.

Oliver curates Harmonic Series at Southbank Centre, a cross genre exploration of new and old music aligned with different art forms, which sold out in its first two seasons and has featured work by Emily Hall, James Blake, Thomas Adès, Micachu among others. The Seafarer, his installation with video artist Netia Jones and sound designer David Sheppard in the boiler room and dark utility corridors of the Royal Festival Hall, ran through the summer of 2011 as part of the Festival of Britain anniversary celebrations.

Oliver has performed concertos and recitals across Europe and the Far East, including a tour of performances of the Dvorák Concerto in the composer's centenary year. He regularly plays the major concertos as well as the core classical repertoire of Beethoven, Brahms and Bach works for cello. He is proud to have worked closely on new music for cello with the most important young composers including Christopher Mayo, Max de Wardener, Larry Goves, Anna Meredith, Matt Rogers, Emily Hall, Charlie Piper, Mark Bowden, David Fennessy, Martin Suckling, Mica Levi and many more. He has worked with composers such as Laurence Crane, Tom Adès, Harrison Birtwistle, Kaija Saariaho, Magnus Lindberg, Helmut Lachenmann, Sofia Gubaidulina and Jonathan Harvey directly on their music. He regularly plays at the major classical music festivals such as the Aldeburgh Festival and BBC Proms as well as festivals such as Latitude, Ether, and In the Woods. Oliver has developed recording and live projects with Seb Rochford, Micachu and the Shapes, Massive Attack, Leafcutter John, Ben Frost, Mara Carlyle, and others. He devises music and improvises for a wide range of contexts, in addition to programming and commissioning, for installations, films and app technology.

 
Jennifer Essex, Choreographer
Jennifer Essex is a Canadian-born dancer and choreographer currently based in London.  

Her work has always had a strong musical influence and she has had the opportunity to collaborate with award winning composer Borisa Sabljic on several projects as well as working with inventor and designer Di Mainstone on Serendiptichord, an instrument that translates movement into sound. Jennifer was the choreographer of FootBall, a stop motion film for Hermès which premiered at Fashion Week in New York.  

Last year she choreographed a ground-breaking interactive music video for Vessels entitled Helioscope as well as working with the London College of Fashion on a new production that premiered at the Cochrane Theatre.  Jennifer's work has been supported by the Winnipeg and Manitoba Arts Councils.  


Jean Magnard, Choreographer
Jean started his dance training at the Conservatoire National de Région in Poitiers before joining the Centre d'Etudes Supérieures de Musique et Danse providing him with a full time professional training. After he graduated, he decided to further his artistic training by travelling to London where he lived for a year whilst participating in various projects involving dance and theatre.

In 2011, the Conservatoire National de Région in Poitiers commissioned Jean to choreograph a piece for third year students and an ensemble of selected dancers.

His time is shared between performing, teaching and choreographing. Particularly interested in creating a bridge between the British and the French dance scene, Jean is an associate artist at company Chameleon, Manchester. Commissions from the Conservatoire National de Région: Le Baron Perché, Tutu (Reloaded. Recent credits include: Le Principe d'Incertitude, (Jean Magnard), Untitled (Company Decalage), Hikinami (Akane Abe), A Tale (Jean Magnard/Company Chameleon), Clichèd (Sebastian Rex Dance Group), The Baron in the Trees (Anton Mirto), Les Ailes de la Gravité (Ingeborg Liptay), Fruits Etranges (Hubert Petit-Phar), Douar (Kader Attou).


Paolo Mangiola, Choreographer
Paolo Mangiola is a dancer and choreographer based in London, currently working with Wayne McGregor|Random Dance. Paolo started his career as a dancer in 2001 with Mauro Bigonzetti at Aterballetto in Italy, spending a valuable 4 years under his tutorship.

In 2005 he moved to Germany to work at the Nuernberg Opera House. He spent 3 years in Germany, enjoying some of the most creative and life changing expereinces of his life to date. He has been fortunate enough to take part in new creations working with choreographers such as Mauro Bigonzetti, Daniela Kurz, Jacopo Godani, Andre Gingras, Jorma Elo ,Rui Horta and Stjin Celis. He also thoroughly enjoyed dancing in existing ballet from William Forsythe and Jiri Kylian.

In 2008 Paolo secured a contract with Wayne McGregor|Random Dance, and hence moved to London to join them where he remains there to this day.

Since 2001 Paolo has both danced and choreographed works, either as part of the companies he worked or as independent projects. He created a number of pieces including Re-cover (2005) which is still in Aterballetto’s rep and The End of Living (2008) for the Tanztheater Nuernberg, and since moving to London he has had pieces performed both at The Place and at Sadler’s Wells Lilian Baylis Theatre.


George Williamson, Choreographer
George Williamson is a graduate of English National Ballet School where he discovered that he had a natural talent for choreography, winning the, school choreographic competition three years running.

He went on to create two ballets for The City of London Festival and other works for New English Ballet Theatre and Polish National Ballet, where he also danced in a number of classical and neoclassical ballets. In 2011 he was commissioned by English National Ballet to choreograph Stravinsky’s Firebird. His Firebird was performed at the London Coliseum to considerable acclaim in March 2012.

George Believes in redefining the timeless techniques of classical ballet for a modern audience and is particularly interested in attracting young audiences to the art form.


Christopher Mayo, Composer
Christopher Mayo is a composer of “poignant” and “persuasive” music (The Independent), whose “attractive and intelligent compositional voice” (Musicworks Magazine) has brought him recognition not only in his native Canada, but also across Europe and the United States. Christopher’s notable projects have included commissions from Carnegie Hall, the MATA Festival, Ensemble Contemporain de Montreal and Rambert Dance Company and performances by the London Symphony Orchestra, the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Nouvel Ensemble Moderne and the London Sinfonietta.

He is the 2012-13 Composer in Residence with the Manchester Camerata for whom he will compose several new works, including a piece for the orchestra’s final concert of the season at Bridgewater Hall in Manchester. Additional future projects include a commission from the London Symphony Orchestra and a performance by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales.

Born in Toronto in 1980, and currently living in London UK, Christopher holds a Master’s degree from the Royal College of Music, where he studied with Julian Anderson and a PhD from the Royal Academy of Music, where he studied with Philip Cashian. He is a winner of a SOCAN Award for Young Composers and the Royal Philharmonic Society Composition Prize.


Anna Meredith, Composer
Anna Meredith is one of the UK's most in-demand young composers. Her music is widely performed around the world and she is a regular judge, guest and commentator on BBC Television and Radio 3 and 4.  

Anna came to prominence in 2008 with her piece forms for the Last Night of the Proms and has since been Composer in Residence with the BBC SSO, the RPS/PRS Composer in the House and a recipient of a Paul Hamlyn Composers Award.

Her most recent piece - HandsFree - a no-instruments piece for the National Youth Orchestra has been called"mesmerising" and "exhilarating" by The Times, "a tour de force" by the Guardian and "wicked" by the Independent and will continue to be performed by NYO throughout 2012 as part of the 20x12 Cultural Olympiad commissions including a performance at the BBC Proms.
Alongside her acoustic commissions, Anna has also turned her focus to performing her eclectic electronic music with her band Horsebox and has already supported These New Puritans, James Blake, Shlomo, Broadcast and Mira Calix, performing material from her debut EP – Black Prince Fury, soon to be released by Moshi Moshi records.


Donal Sarsfield, Composer
Donal Sarsfield (b. 1980) was born in Ireland and studied composition with Piers Hellawell, Philip Grange and David Berezan. He is currently in his final year of a PhD in Electroacoustic composition at the University of Manchester, supported by the Elizabeth Maconchy Compostion Fellowship.

His music has featured as part of the Aberdeen Sound Festival, Printing House Festival Dublin, the International Computer Music Conference 2008, the Ostrava Days Festival in the Czech Republic, the San Francisco Tape Music Festival and the Jerwood Opera Writing Foundation course at Aldeburgh Music. His work Gallivanting was awarded joint first place at the Concours Luigi Russolo Prix 2011 and will be performed in Belgium as part of ISCM World Music Days 2012.


Charlie Usher, Composer
Charlie Usher lives in Toulouse, France, and was born in the UK in 1987. Taught by David Horne (Royal Northern College of Music) with private mentoring by Howard Skempton and Antoine Beuger and a residency at the Banff Centre, Canada,

Recent collaborations with Clayton Marcinak, Katelyn Clark, Dave McCann, Birmingham Contemporary Music Group and the New York Miniaturist Ensemble have led to performances in the UK, France, Canada and the USA. Current projects include half an hour for 2 organs in Toulouse, France, and an hour long mapping of Syria, ‘SYRIA AS IT IS’.


Leafcutter John, Guest Musician
Leafcutter John (b. John Burton), is a Londoner who débuted on Planet Mu (2000). He is strongly identified with processed instrumental & field recordings. His third album, The Housebound Spirit (Jul ‘03, Planet Mu), won one of Prix Ars Electronica 2004’s thirteen honorary mentions & placed in Wire’s 2003 Rewind, top 50 records chart.

He writes his own music software, has given talks and exhibited software across Europe (including the ICA) and is also a regular guest speaker at the London College of Communication. He had also a teaching post at DIEM (Danish Institute of Electronic Music) in Aarhus, Denmark during 2005.

John has also been involved in the Contemporary Art scene, with his latest project at the Serpentine Gallery where he was invited by artist Tomoko Takahashi (short-listed for the 2000 Turner prize) and the Serpentine to produce a live show based on Tomoko’s solo exhibition. My Play-station was performed in the entire gallery where he turned the installation into a sound source involving 3 live sound collectors and the audience.

Leafcutter John plays with the group Polar Bear.

For more details and for interviews please contact:
Emma Brightmore, Head of Marketing and Communications
Direct: +44 (0)1473 295242