HOT NEWS!!: Up coming residencies

We have six trip residencies this year (Aug. 2015 to Aug. 2016).

First up:

Saturday August 15th 2015 11am to 1:30pm

(Middlesex University dance studios, Hendon)

This residency will be with Adesola & Helen. They are continuing their work exploring choreographic ideas using Rhythm and Relationship as starting points. The residency will start with a short contemporary based dance warm-up followed by choreographic exploration. (Please RSVP via the trip email.)

Here is an overview of dates for the whole year. (For details on choreographers and workshops watch this space or visit our blog.)

January February 2016 - trip on the move: We are planning a trip residency in the Midlands.

April 2nd & 3rd (Middlesex University dance studios, Hendon)

June 7th & 8th - trip on the move: We are planning a trip residency in the home counties.

June 20th & 25th (Middlesex University dance studios, Hendon)

trip residencies give artists and choreographers an opportunity to work together at the beginning stages of ideas, share the devising exploratory process of working, or develop existing work in new directions. The goal of The trip Project is an exchange between dancers and choreographers supporting professional development and Professional Practice. If you are not already in the trip dancer pool please contact us. We also welcome choreographers with ideas they want to explore for residencies. See you August 15th !!

Adesola in Manchester!!

Residency with Jamie Warburton - November 15th

 Jamie's residency will explore: The Jazz Dance Origins a journey into Jazz Dance and how it has evolved historically. Specifically investigating its West African heritage and Jazz Dance’s relationship with Ballet amalgamated into contrasting exercises and routines.

Jamie has been working on this choreographic journey as part of his MA and will be sharing his process and findings so far. Looking forward to seeing you there…

November 9th Residency with Kristina Dimitrova and Edy Samuels

Please email to confirm a place…

Trip Residency, 9^th of November 2014, London Hendon

Choreographers: Kristina Dimitrova and Edy Samuels

Theme: MSC (Movement-Sound Conversation) in Performance

MSC (Movement-Sound Conversation) is a new improvisation technique inspired by Authentic Movement and 5Rhythms practices. It investigates the present moment in the conversation between movement and sound; between musician and dancer, through live interaction and improvisation.

We often use the metaphor of elastic to explain how the Movement-Sound Conversation works: it feels like the musician(s) and the mover(s) are holding both ends of “elastic” and are constantly stretching it and loosening it between each other, testing the limits; they are dependent on each other`s actions and at the same time dependent on their personal decisions. The score of the MSC practice includes the ideas of the leading and following; listening, feeling, responding, and sensitivity; resisting, sustaining and reacting; being honest, patient and respectful; building connections; and giving each other space.

During the one day residency we will use MSC to investigate the present moment by series of improvisations. We will observe, reflect and work on creative tasks and choreographic compositions, derived from our findings. We will take risks, play with and develop the results. Eventually we will finish the day with the creation of mutual piece, using the learnt improvisation techniques as well as the discoveries and the new choreographic ideas we have come to within the collaborative process.

Ideally we will have participants interested not only in dance, but in music too. Those, interested in music are kindly asked to bring with them whatever portable instruments they would want to work with and explore the possibilities of in the interaction with moving bodies. If you are interested in both, music and dance, you will have the opportunity to fuse them or work on each separately.

We look forward to meeting you soon,

Edy and Kristina

September 26th residency with Victor Fung

we are excited to have Victor with us for
Friday September 26th (2-5pm)

In this workshop, Victor will share some of the choreographic processes used in creating his latest full-length work L'Étranger. Dancers will explore movement in relation to cinematic technique as well as the embodiment of artificiality.

For more information on L'Étranger, please visit www.victorfungdance.com

  

Up-coming trip residency (September 14 to January 15)

We are excited to announce the up-coming events for our trip residency project.

September 26^th & 27^th  - Victor Fung 

Nov 9th  – Kristina Dimitrova

January 3rd - 6th  - TBA

January 24^th – Adesola Akinleye & Helen Kindred

We will be posting a little about each Choreographer in future blog posts. We wanted to give you an overview so you can get all the dates in your diaries asap. 

Looking forward to an exciting and creative end to 2014 and beginning of 2015.

'Light Steps' at the Turner Contemporary

'Light Steps' - 4 more days to go!

Successful rehearsal and first day of filming at Margate Turner Contemporary today! 

Also revealing our little charmer ‘Alex’ for the 1st time! 

Alex will also be performing along side the dancers - inspired by the students design of year 5 from Bromstone Primary School. 

Designed by our Scenographer Shelby Newport.

Hi Alex! :)

Come and see our show ‘Light Steps’ this Sunday 10th August.

Performances at 11am and 3pm.
Suitable for audiences ages 3+

Dancers: Alice Cade, Anna-Kay Alicia Gayle, Irisz Galuska
Composer & Performer: Jacob Shirley

Perfect for a day out with the family!
For more information click here 

Hope to see you then!

Created and Choreographed by Adesola Akinleye of Dancing Strong.

(All pictures taken and edited by Kat Leung)

'Light Steps'

'Light Steps' is a production for children, choreographed and directed by Adesola Akinleye. The piece is inspired by Spencer Finch’s current exhibition in the Turner Gallery 'The Skies can't keep their secret'. Finch’s work explores the changing colours during the course of the day which emerges through natural light, which 'Light Steps' draws upon.

The production’s concept derived from a two week residency which took place at Bromstone Primary School in Kent. Where children of year 5 contributed to the creative development of ‘Light Steps’ - exploring the different parts of the day.
The children also participated in the design of two characters - which belongs to an imaginative world which lies parallel to reality - taking place within the production.
The characters (in a form of puppetry during the performance) would narrate the path of events that transpire during the course of each day.

The production will capture the essence of 5 moments taking place during each day, by using different colour lights (inspired by Finch) within the performance to represent which point in time these moments take place. 

Our rehearsal process is currently underway!

Photos taken and edited by Kat Leung

Pictured: Choreographer: Adesola Akinleye  Dancers: Alice Cade, Anna-Kay Alicia Gayle, Irisz Galuska  Music Composer & Performer: Jacob Shirley

Bear: Our current understudy of Alex!! 

Here we will update you on the latest creative progress and news on our new exciting children’s production - to be performed exclusively in Margate Turner Gallery on the 10th August, 2014.

Performances at 11:00 and 15:00
A great production for families - suitable for ages 3 and up.

Created and Choreographed by Adesola Akinleye of Dancing Strong

For more information click here
*Free entry

Summer: July 10th & 11th Residency

July 10th and 11th we will be holding our Summer residency: Exploring themes of Rhythms and Relationships, Adesola Akinleye and Helen Kindred are leading a two-day residency for trip dancers in July.  This is a collaborative research project bringing together their individual choreographic interests in order to delve into new shared methodologies for making and communicating dance.

Helen and I have been working on ideas about time and space and what that means in terms of dance and dance research. The residency will follow on somewhat from Helen's residency last year. This residency is the beginning of a larger/longer project that Helen and I are developing together.

To register please email Christina Binney. 
Places will be limited and be held on a first emailed basis so get in contact soon.

Audition May 29th

WORKSHOP AUDITION

London Audition Date: May 29^th 6pm – 8pm

One Audition Workshop: Two projects – we will be holding auditions for two up-coming projects

Light Steps & The trip Project on May 29th!!!!

The audition workshop is suitable for dancers with professional training of 3 years or more and/ or three years of professional experience.

Please book a place by emailing your CV to info@dancingstrong.com

1) Audition for LIGHT STEPS

Adesola Akinleye/DancingStrong will be holding a workshop audition for a new children’s production Light Steps. The aim of the workshop is to select dancers to be part of the paid creation and performance of the work.

The work will be created in June & July, with two performances in August.

Existing trip Pool dancers will be given priority booking for this project www.dancingstrong.com

2) ALSO AUDITION for The trip Project.

The trip Project is an opportunity for Freelance professional dancers. As a member of the pool you will be invited to residencies with choreographers across the year. Trip provides opportunities for:

Networking - showing choreographers how you work and what you bring to the rehearsal situation, and becoming familiar with the creative process of different choreographers.

Continuing professional development – to work in company style setting and hone techniques for working with a range of artists and choreographers.

Employment opportunities: to be in on the ground floor for the creation of new work. Employment might include working as a dancer but also in other roles such as choreographers assistant on funded projects.

Membership: Membership in the trip dancer pool is dependent on audition (next audition is May 29^th).

Read more http://www.adesola@dancingstrong.com/trip.html

Residency with Leroy Dias Dos Santos, April 22nd 2pm-6pm

We are very excited to have guest artist Leroy Dias Dos Santos hold a one day residency this April. Trip dancers please email info@dancingstrong.com to register. See you there!

April residency - Watch this space.

We have an April residency coming up with Leroy. We are really excited to be working with him. We are finalising dates so keep April 22-24 in your diary. We will confirm days and times in the next couple of days. Look forward to seeing you all.

Film excerpt of our summer 2013 project in Margate

Click here for film: Reflections in Dance on Dan Graham's Pavilion

Reflections in Dance on Dan Graham’s Pavilion was commissioned by Turner Contemporary Museum, Margate in June 2013 as part of Love Architecture Week. Responding to the Museum’s Summer exhibit of Dan Graham’s Two Cubes, One Rotated 45, Adesola Akinleye explores the relationship between architecture and those who inhabit it. In creating a dance work for Dan Graham’s pavilion she was especially interested in how the pavilion investigates the act of seeing oneself reflected and at the same time watching others beyond the glass.

The choreography uses the reflected body to explore the multilayers of the Self’s, discursive identity: the many bodies we inhabit as we move from situation to situation. Adesola is interested in how place, and how we are ‘witnessed’ in place (re)creates our sense of our physical Self.

The choreography interrogates the relationship between the ephemeral body and the physical body. Adesola took this as a focus using the phrase “I see myself in you when…’ as a choreographic idea.

Adesola’s choreography asks the audience to witness the sensation of being present in ones own reflections: asking the audience to witness the sensation of seeing through the many reflections of Dan Graham’s installation.

This short film shows an excerpt of the work.

trip project: October residency

Saturday October 5th is our next residency 11am to 3pm. We will have guest choreographer Michael Tulloch sharing his work and process. (Kenzi Irelands workshop is being rescheduled.) We are really excited to be working with Michael who is in the process of creating some work for performance later in the year....more soon... see you Saturday

About Michael Tulloch
Michael interest in dance begun at the age of 13 years old during, which he attended my local community dance classes. Michael specializes in many techniques Contemporary, African, Street and Bollywood. His has worked extensively in the dance industry as a freelance dancer.

trip project: September residency with Helen

The trip project had a great residency with Helen Kindred in September. Here are some photos: