Coming soon...

As January comes to a close, things definitely aren't getting any quieter in the world of Dance4!

At the end of next week, the mega excitement that is episodes2010 arrives at Nottingham Playhouse. Our annual youth dance platform for Nottingham and Nottinghamshire, will see over 300 young people taking to the playhouse stage over next Friday and Saturday evening. Some of the Dance4 team have been visiting groups over the last few weeks, having a sneak peak at some of the work being presented and I can assure you that it's an event not to be missed! From superheroes to the Holocaust through an amazing journey of contemporary dance, street, hip-hop and ballet, episodes will be showing the very best of youth dance from across the county.

Get your tickets (very soon as they're selling like hot cakes!) from the Nottingham Playhouse Box Office on 0115 9419 419 and visit www.dance4.co.uk/episodes to find out more details and see who's performing.

Look forward to seeing you there!

Helen

x

Dance4 Presents….an electrifying weekend of performances

The office are currently recovering from a very busy weekend – presenting work in the performance space at the city’s new international art centre, Nottingham Contemporary. The mission: test the performance space.

We kicked the weekend off with Wendy Houston’s Keep Dancing. Where visions of Wendy thrashing around in a very sparkly dress in front of a mammoth projection of fascinatingly old archive footage, are still swimming in my head. The piece made for a very slick first ever live performance in the space.

Saturday saw Nottingham’s public thrilled by Nicola Conibere’s The Beckoning and the Escapades, a playful installation where the entry and exit of audience members to the space prompts the performers to introduce and remove an array of theatrical elements – from disco balls to sunglasses, electrical fans to stage lights.

Day three of the performances saw new ideas and experiments from three artists – New Art Club, Guy Dartnell and Gabriele Reuter. Audiences were taken into their working process through discussion, feedback and sneaky peaks at new work, in development.

In all, a very jam-packed, eclectic and electrifying weekend, which has left my mind reeling and fuelled my urge to both see and to orchestrate more live performance in the city….

Laura Cherry: My week placement at Dance4

So as I am approaching the end of my week placement at Dance4, I am just going to take the time for a reflection of my valuable experience here. Since I arrived on Monday, I have been swept off my feet and really impressed with the amount of hard work and creativity that goes into the organisation of Dance4. It really made me fully aware of exactly how much effort it takes to run an organisation of this scale. Being in my final year of dance performance at Middlesex University, the placement has been really beneficial as it gives a real eye opener as to what goes on in the professional world and all the hard work behind the scenes of the productions. The staff have been extremely welcoming and have given me support whenever needed. I have been really busy organising several things for the performances this weekend hosted by Dance4 at the brand new Nottingham Contemporary. I have been creating and printing programme notes, liasing with artists, calling guests for attendence, and helping with the box office at the weekend.As a fan of experimental dance, I am particularly excited to be working on the show for artists such as Wendy Houstoun and New Art Club. On my return back to London, I feel that I will be taking back a really insightful and beneficial placement which will hopefully aid the knowledge of my future career in dance!

Dance4 Presents

Check out the latest showreel for Dance4 Presents... - Very Exciting!!

Happy 2010!

Hello!

Happy New Year to you all! Hope you've all had a very merry Christmas with lots of lovely food and lots of laughter. After indulging in the Christmas festivities, we are now back in the office, beavering away on lots of exciting projects for this year. Coming up very soon is our January Platform Dance4 Presents... which will be taking place at the new Nottingham Contemporary. Details are on our website - http://www.dance4.co.uk/Dance4presents.php

The office move around has finally taken place and Linzi and Helen are enjoying their new window seats! Although, i think I heard that there was a pigeon lurking outside this morning!! We are now awaiting Laura, our new marketing and communications manager, who will be starting next week. I'm sure everyone has lots for her to do already!

Lets hope 2010 will be a fantastic year for us all!

Kirsten x