features

BRIAN SLATER

2issue no. 464

DANCE FEATURES

While the majority of our readers will be dance teachers and performers, there are many ways to use your knowledge of the dance world to pursue a career as a journalist, lecturer, photographer, producer,

movement therapist, costumer or administrator specialising

in dance among others.

In the first of our occasional series on dance careers, we

talk to three inspiring professionals working within the dance

industry in a variety of roles.

Kiki Gale MBE

Artistic Director/CEO East

London Dance (ELD)

Whoweresomeofyour

earliestdanceinspirations?

My first dance teacher

was Anne Cornock-Taylor,

a passionate advocate of

Margaret Morris. I especially loved the end of the class when

we were simply invited to move spontaneously in response

to the music it gave me a sense of freedom and a belief

that anything seemed possible.

My mum, who was also a dancer, often took me to sit

in the gods at the Royal Opera House and Sadlers Wells.

Companies and artists who especially stand out include Alvin

Ailey American Dance Theatre (especially Judith Jamison), Lyn

Seymour, Margot Fonteyn amongst many others. I was also

fascinated by Isadora Duncan.

Howdoyouthinkthedanceindustryhaschangedinyour

twodecadesatELD?

I think the dance industry has grown in confidence, both as

an art form and in the breadth of contexts in which dance

takes place. We now have vibrant and successful dance

development organisations of all kinds across the country

and our audiences continue to grow. There is greater support

and recognition for the diversity of dance practice and

aesthetics and a growing interest in the magic that can be

made between artists and communities.

Whydoyouthinkitissoimportantfordancetobe

accessibletoallpartsofthecommunity?

I came across Gina Levete, the founder of Shape, in the

seventies. I was inspired by her approach, and convinced

that it was simply right to create opportunities for anyone

to have access to dance (and the arts) if they so wished. I

am committed to the belief that creating compelling and

effective contexts for individuals and groups to participate

in dance can not only be exhilarating and inspiring but can

develop talent at every level. Why would we exclude anyone

from that opportunity?

Whatadvicewouldyougiveaspiringartisticdirectors?

Be open and generous and ask questions, both about how

you structure projects and about style and content, about the

balance between skills, creativity and context. This also means

asking questions of those we seek to work with, about what is

important to them, about how we can create the conditions

in which they can participate and make the dances they want

to, about how we can connect this up to the broader world in

which we live. And we need to create multiple entry points to

support the diversity of those who want to take part.

Whatdoesthefutureholdforyou?

I want to create space for reflection and for the possibility of

new inspiration, ideas and projects.

Careers CornerKiki Gale MBE, Laurretta Summerscales and Anne Walker MBE tell DANCE about their diverse dance careers

I want to create space for reflection and for the possibility of new inspiration

issue no. 464 3

DANCE FEATURES

Laurretta Summerscales

English National Ballet Company

Member

Laurretta makes her debut dancing the role of

Odile/Odette in English Nation Ballets Swan

Lake at the Royal Albert Hall in June 2013.

Whohavebeenthebiggestinspirationsto

youinyourcareersofar?

When I was about 13 I was infatuated by

Svetlana Zakharova. Darcey Bussell has also

been a huge inspiration I think to every

English dancer she has helped them believe

in ballet and reaching for the stars, not just

into space! As I got older I didnt really find

just one person inspiring. I either found every

dancers best bits or the best roles that they

brought to life.

Howdiditfeeltodancetheprincipalrole

ofMyrthainGisellesosoonafterjoining

theENB?

Well, words cannot really describe that

feeling, even to this day. I have always been

trying to re-create it. I was flying, one of the

best moments in my life.

YoustartedTapdancingattheageoftwo.

Doyouthinkitsimportantfordancersto

experiencearangeofstyles?

I think for ballet its not 100% necessary,

because its so structured, but I believe it is

good to have been trained in other styles as it

makes you different and more versatile. Also

if you are put into a position where you have

to combine two types of dance, you wont feel

out of your comfort zone and therefore look

more confident, and then you are more likely

to get a job or a specific role. These days with

the lack of jobs, the more strings to your bow

the more valuable you become, not in just

dance but in any field!

Whatdoyoulookforwardtomostwhen

performinginavenueliketheRoyal

AlbertHall?

The music, atmosphere and the grand scale

of it all. Its one of the best places to perform!

Especially Swan Lake, such a beautiful classic.

Even just performing one of the swans, it

makes you feel you can open up your heart to

the whole world!

Whatadvicewouldyougivetoaspiring

dancers?

There are peaks and troughs in life but

especially in this business. All I can say is

you may be in a trough for a very long time

but the peaks are well worth it when you get

them, so if you have the talent and passion,

dont give up. Its so easy to give up. You must

be strong, not necessarily hard but you need

guts and a supportive family behind you,

or someone to boost your batteries when

theyre running low. Go for it!

The more strings to your bow the more valuable you become, not in just dance but in any field!

DANA FOURA

S

Above: Laurretta Summerscales

4issue no. 464

DANCE FEATURES

Anne Walker MBE

Founder and CEO of

International Dance

Supplies Ltd

When I was eight years old

my mother took me to see

Sleeping Beauty at the Royal

Court Theatre in Liverpool. I

was mesmerised and begged

to go to dance classes. Soon

afterwards, I started lessons

and dance became my hobby, then my life and I can honestly

say all these years later, it is still my passion.

I very quickly realised I wanted to be a dance teacher and

so left my convent school (much to the disgust of the nuns

and horror of everyone except my incredibly supportive

mother) at 16 to attend the teachers course at Shelagh Elliott

Clarke College in Liverpool, where I studied ISTD Modern, Tap,

Imperial Ballet, Greek and National Dance (my favourite). By

17 I had started teaching in my local church hall with eight

pupils and Walker School of Dance was born.

The school grew quickly and soon I had my own premises

and we had staged our first school show. Always a stickler for

discipline and correct dress codes, I hated the baggy nylon

leotards and ill-fitting ballet shoes many of my students wore.

I persuaded a local retailer to supply me with dancewear

at a discount and started to sell them on to my students. I

also had to make all the costumes for my shows and often

enlisted the help of parents. One day a friend and I decided

we should try and make a leotard so we drew round her

daughter, who was also one of my first pupils, made a pattern

out of newspaper and then cut out a leotard from some

shiny new stretch fabric. It was the birth of Lycra and also of

International Dance Supplies!

Originally IDS was called Harlequin Dancewear and we

operated out of my friends attic bedroom. All the leotards

and unitards were named after my students and we always

had a very impressive show finale with several hundred

students lined up in their fabulous leotards. My friends were

all dance teachers and when they saw my show they asked me

to make leotards for their school too. Eventually my mother

lent me 50 to buy a very ancient industrial sewing machine

and the business started to grow.

By 1985 I moved the dancewear business to Dawlish in

Devon. Although still mainly manufacturing, we started

to add shoes to our range and eventually costumes and

accessories, at which point Harlequin became International

Dance Supplies. I continued to teach dance in Devon and have

always been very involved in a number of dance associations

which ensured IDS always understood dance teachers

requirements for their schools and businesses. Supported by

a growing number of staff at our purpose-built offices and

warehouse, IDS now sells to dance teachers and retailers in

over 50 countries worldwide.

In 2012 we were delighted to be appointed the sole

manufacturer of the approved ISTD uniform for the Tap,

Modern, Classical Greek and National Dance Faculties and are

thrilled to be adding Imperial Classical Ballet this year. My

colleague and fellow ISTD member, Ami Martin, has worked

tirelessly with the faculties to ensure a great range of products.

My life in dance has been, and continues to be amazing.

And always remember you cant ever grow bigger than

your dreams!

My life in dance has been, and continues to be amazing. And always remember you cant ever grow bigger than your dreams!

DANCE CAREER RESOURCESThe International Organisation

for the Transition of Professional

Dancers (IOTPD) is a network of

organisations worldwide dedicated

to helping dancers establish new

careers when they have retired

from their performing careers.

They include Career Transition for

Dancers (USA), Dancer Transition

Resource Centre (Canada),

Dancers Career Development

(UK), and Association Suisse Pour

la Reconversion des Danseurs

Professionnels (Switzerland).

www.iotpd.org.

Dancers Career Development

(DCD) offers a comprehensive

range of specialist practical,

psychological and financial

retraining and career support

services to all professional dancers

in the UK www.thedcd.org.uk.

Dance UK provides guidance

on all aspects of a career in dance,

including a publication called

Moving on Opportunities Beyond

Your Performing Career

www.danceuk.org.

Youth Dance England offers

a wealth of career resources,

including a Guide to Careers in

Dance, which offers information

on the range of professions in the

dance sector and is available online

www.yde.org.uk.

issue no. 464 5

As dancers are constantly looking for new and innovative choreographic ideas, location now has a large part to play in achieving this innovation. Whether its dancing at iconic landmarks, on public

transport or hanging off JCB diggers, pop-up dance knows no

boundaries. It is spontaneous in nature and may be marketed

in similarly creative ways. For example, IJAD Dance Company

put up white sheets and a sign saying Shhh in Brick Lane

for their In-Finite project, which got many members of the

public asking, What is all this shhhing about? Site-specific

dance is all the more important as the arts continue to face

uncertainty and funding cuts, forcing dancers to think and

perform outside the box!

So what is site-specific dance? Whilst it appears to just be

the latest craze with flashmobs taking the world by storm, site-

specific dance can be said to date back to the 1960s and 1970s,

when Anna Halprin and Trisha Brown experimented with

outdoor dance. As Debra Lowen stated: A work is site-specific

when everything, including your inspiration, comes from the

location, so that the material couldnt be done somewhere

else. Its not about choreographing something in the studio,

then trimming the edges to make it fit someplace else. Site-

specific dance explores the relationship between the body

and the setting as well as the history of that site. It may also

explore the memories and feelings a place can evoke and the

choreographer often wants to share this relationship with the

Pop-Up DanceWe take a look at why pop-up dance has become so popular

DANCE FEATURES

ALISA

BOANTA

/JACO

PO M

ICELI

Tim Casson rehearsing for

The Dance WE Made

6issue no. 464

DANCE FEATURES

audience by moving them throughout the site

to view different sections of the dance from

various perspectives. The choice of movement

may change with each new setting.

Last year The Dance WE Made invited

152 members of the general public to

choreograph dances for professional dancer,

Tim Casson. The project took place as part of

London 2012 Cultural Olympiads Big Dance

programme, popping up in 20 locations

around London over 20 days and culminating

in a final performance at Rich Mix on 20th

July 2012. The project set a new world record

for The most choreographers to a single

dance piece verified by Guinness World

Records. Each video was filmed in a different

place, allowing the general public to gain a

new perspective on each of these locations,

which in turn helped to promote the city.

Members of the public discussed their ideas

with Tim, whether it was dance-related or

simply an object, feeling or memory that

inspired the movements he performed.

The aim of The Dance WE Made was to

gain an appreciation of Contemporary Dance

by involving people in the process of creating

it. Contemporary Dance has often alienated

audiences, perhaps owing to its perceived

obscurity. By connecting people and places

to this dance piece, it allowed audiences

to have a brand new perspective on the art

form as well as the use of landmarks and

public spaces. Tim believes that: Placing

performance in an unexpected location

somehow challenges how people behave or

react to it. Were so used to sitting in theatres

so its great to surprise people by popping up

somewhere unexpected and allowing them

to be involved in a fun and unintimidating

way. The Dance WE Made was supported by

Sadlers Wells, Arts Council England and the

Mayor of London, amongst others.

Tim Casson used to perform with critically

acclaimed Sadlers Wells Associate Jasmin

Vardimon Company and is currently running

their Professional Development Certificate.

He also teaches, performs and choreographs

within the fields of both Contemporary

and Commercial Dance. Tim Casson will

be performing The Dance WE Made at

Glastonbury Festival and taking the piece

overseas to the US. He also performed another

site-specific project called Selling Secrets at

the Wessex Hotel, Bournemouth at the start of

June, commissioned by Pavilion Dance South

West. (To find out more about Tim Cassons

work, visit thedancwemade.co.uk or view his

new The Dance WE Made YouTube channel:

youtube.com/thedancewemade.)

In March of this year, Popin Pete from

Electric Boogaloos provided a week-long

dance, music and art installation in a shop

called Popin Petes Pop Shop. Inspired by

the Chris Brown video Yeah, Yeah, Yeah,

which featured Popin Pete in his own

Placing performance in an unexpected location somehow challenges how people behave or react to it

All photos: Tim Casson

choreographing with members of

the public in Brixton (above), Canary

Wharf (left) and Chinatown (top)

LUC SUNG YU LUN

LUC SUNG YU LUN

JACK DAV

IES

issue no. 464 7

DANCE FEATURES

shop. Scanners Inc (www.scannersinc.org)

set about creating a real popping shop,

but relocating it to Hackney. The project

was funded by Arts Council England and

presented in association with East London

Dance and Rich Mix amongst others. This is

a pop up with a difference as it also included

dance workshops, battles, social dance

parties, live artwork, talks about Popin Petes

career and the history of Popping, as well as

daily pop up performances by Popin Pete

and invited guests.

Popin Pete watched his older brother,

Boogaloo Sam, create the dance form,

Popping, in the mid 1970s. By 1978 he had

joined his brothers group Electric Boogaloos

and is still a member today, performing,

choreographing and teaching across the

world. Electric Boogaloos have performed

on a number of television shows including

Soul Train and went on to work with Michael

Jackson for almost 20 years. The creative

company that brought this pop shop to life,

Scanners Inc (www.scannersinc.org), was

created by Kate Scanlan to connect ideas,

people and places through the creative

arts. Popin Pete stated: Im really happy to

be a part of this, I like to be at the cutting

edge and this has never been done before.

Kate has breathed life into the video I did

with Chris Brown. I love it. For those of

you who missed the chance to visit Popin

Petes Pop Shop, he will be performing with

Electric Boogaloos at Sadlers Wells Breakin

Convention 2013, an international festival of

Hip Hop dance theatre.

Last summer, The Place coordinated

a series of dance activities during the

London Festival of Architecture, Kings

Cross weekend, to celebrate architecture

and architectural talent in London. Three

groups of young dancers between 12 and

15 years old, along with professional dance

artists, created site-specific dances to the

theme of A Playful City. The theme of the

2012 Festival was in response to the presence

Im really happy to be a part of this, I like to be at the cutting edge and this has never been done before

Left: Poppin Pete

Bottom left: Participants in Poppin

Petes workshop

Bottom: Jonathan Jutsu Reid

freestyling in an Open Practice

Session

Below: Poppin Petes pop shopER

YCK BRA

HMANIA

ERYC

K BRA

HMANIA

KAT

E SC

ANLA

NKAT

E SC

ANLA

N

8issue no. 464

DANCE FEATURES

in London of the Olympic and Paralympic Games. In total,

50 young performers were involved in this project, which

was performed at St Chads Place. Familiar places were

reinterpreted through new installations and animations,

redesigning public spaces to encourage physical fitness.

Festival participants were encouraged to play in and play with

the city around them.

In 2011, Rosie Kay Dance Company created a large-

scale outdoor dance event for families called The Great

Train Dance, on The Severn Valley Railway for the Cultural

Olympiad. Local dancers, performers and students of all ages

were invited to transform the Severn Valley Railway into a

chase love story with a mystery to solve. The performance

drew people into the world of the absurd and enticed

them to search for clues both on the train and through the

surrounding landscape, including platforms, stations, fields

and reservoirs. The project was led by professional dancers

from Rosie Kay Dance Company, with 13 dance leaders joining

the company and over 200 participants from the local area.

Rosie Kay Dance Company also brought us Ballet on the

Buses in 2007, which consisted of five professional ballet

dancers on a single old Routemaster double-decker bus touring

throughout Birmingham. This was created as a commission

from Birmingham Royal Ballet and Fierce! Festival 2007 to

bring dance to schools, local communities and shopping

Left: The Great Train Dance

Bottom left: Ballet on the Buses

Below: Outdoor dance in wellies to

Shostakovich Waltz

ALL PHOTO

S BRIAN SLATER

issue no. 464 9

DANCE FEATURES

centres. Since the project was aimed at

children, the dancers played circus characters

including a ringmaster, a strong man, a

dancing girl and two mischievous clowns.

The show ended with an innovative outdoor

dance in wellies to a Shostakovich waltz and

anyone who has attempted to dance in wellies

knows that it is no mean feat! Since then

Rosie Kay has also choreographed HOME and

Mailbox Steps in Birmingham city centre and

an installation work at the Pitt Rivers Museum,

Oxford. Her next outdoor work is The Haining

Dreaming in Selkirk, The Scottish Borders in

September this year.

Big Dance 2012 was the UKs biggest

ever celebration of dance. 3,500 events

took place in numerous different locations,

such as shopping centres, parks, palaces,

schools, high streets and squares, as part

of the London 2012 Festival. There were

opportunities to perform, watch other

spectacular performances and take part in

workshops. One such example was the Shall

We Dance? evening in the beautiful Duke

of York Square. The English National Ballet

brought the glamour and glitz of Hollywoods

golden era back to life, with an evening of

dance and film dedicated to Fred Astaire

and Ginger Rogers and the music of George

Gershwin. The American youth group, Tabor,

Benny Maslov and his partner Clare Craze

and five dancers from the English National

Ballet all gave stunning performances, whilst

Theatre Workout TM provided a workshop

in which members of the public could learn

Fred and Gingers steps. The evening ended

on a high with an outdoor screening of

the 1937 film Shall We Dance? that kept the

audience captivated despite the rain.

With outdoor dance productions, weather

is a variable that you cant predict. However,

indoor dance comes with its own set of

variables, including people, who can be even

more erratic than the weather. Years go into

planning the creation of site-specific work,

including obtaining permits, insurance

and permissions as well as researching and

exploring the site, before you even begin

choreographing and rehearsing the piece.

Without this planning, site-specific dance

can go very wrong with injury or even

arrests! In July 2011, an aerial dancer called

Seanna Sharpe dangled from silks attached to

Williamsburg Bridge. This daredevil stunt was

then followed by a police chase and an arrest

for trespassing, reckless endangerment and

obstructing governmental administration. So,

a word of advice to anyone thinking of doing

site-specific dance; get permission first! Even

with permits granted, there are sometimes a

few close calls. Nomie Lafrance stated that

during an on-site rehearsal of Descent on the

winding staircase of the City Court Building

clock tower in Manhattan, police intervened,

thinking that this was a suicide jump.

Funding cuts to the arts are affecting

the dance sector most, with 36% of dance

organisations stating that they are closing

due to the cuts, in a survey conducted by The

Stage. Pop-up dance in outdoor locations may

present a more financially viable option for

some dance companies in financial difficulty.

Furthermore, it inspires dancers to create

more unique choreography, which grabs the

audiences attention by doing something that

breaks the norm. Some companies have found

this particularly effective when making a bold

statement as part of their dance campaign.

Whatever the reason behind it, site-specific

dance is becoming increasingly popular and

you never know where its going to pop up next!

Frances Leak

It inspires dancers to create more unique choreography, which grabs the audiences attention by doing something that breaks the norm

Above: Fred Astaire and Ginger

Rogers in Swing Time, courtesy of

English National Ballet

NOTE FROM ISSUE 463 The Choreographic Platform Austria

will not be taking place at this

years ImPulsTanz Festival.