Programme CHESTER 2017
"Fixate" by Flash in the Attic Dance Theatre
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Fixate is a dance theatre work exploring the constant, compulsive crave for validation and acceptance of existance in a world driven by social media. Does this really define us? Our work has been developed as practice led research from the company into exploration of our habitual reliance on technology and the need to cry out for aknowledgement.
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Directed by: Oliver James Anwyl
Performed by: Alex Fairhurst, Connor Maguire, Hannah Kelly, Oliver Anwyl, Sophie McClaren About the Company: Flash in the Attic Dance Theatre is celebrating its 5th birthday in 2017! The company is currently based for rehearsal at Elite Studios in North Wales with an outreach across North East Wales and Cheshire. The company was founded by two undergraduate students at the University of Chester, Oliver Anwyl (Current AD) and Sam Potts. The duo launched the company at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival with a duet work. The company since has presented work at major UK events, platforms and conferences. |
"Is this sense?" by Fuelled Dance Theatre
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FTD’s first Arts council funded work, ‘This is sense?’ is a new physical theatre piece developed by Artistic Director, Scarlett Turner in collaboration the FDT collective of dance artists.
The work is an exploration of the different types of self created through exploring the social politics of self identity and the ongoing battle that everyone faces: 'Who am I?' Are we ourselves in every social situation? Do we have different versions of ourselves? Does our past make us who we are today? Do we tend to fake our identity just to fit in? |
Directed by: Scarlett Elizabeth Turner
Performed by: Danni Spooner, Fern Chubb, Nadine Knew, Hettie Holman, Liza Mortimer About The Company: Fuelled is a collective of dancers who highlight important social and political issues through exploration of physical theatre. |
"i am" by Androna Dance Theatre
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'I am' is a choreographic piece of work containing dance, movement, physical theatre and spoken word which aims to address the concept of the body being a site of socio-cultural projections. The piece contains an experimental movement exploration of the female body and of the performers' relationships on stage with regards to how the body is perceived by society and what it actually means for the body to be a 'lived' experience. Spoken word and poetry is used alongside movement exploration and theatrical experimentation with the purpose of creatively addressing contemporary socio-cultural stereotypes of gender and sexuality.
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Directed by: Kelly Androna
Performed by: Aimee Williamson, Bobbie Dalley, Emily Brown, Helen MacFarlane, Sophie Darrington About the company: We are an adult dance theatre company interested in dance and theatre within a framework of bodily discovery and exploration on gender, age-ism and society. This company offers the opportunity for adult dance artists to be part of choreographic processes that challenge youth-cultured focus of Dance in the UK. Our mission is to explore social ideas on the politics of the body in adult dance artists. There is a large focus on youth dance in the UK, which although is wonderful and inspiring, our aim is to challenge the perception of dance belonging exclusively to the 'youth'. What happens when the 'youth' grow up? What happens when the youth become replaced by the next 'youth'? |
"2 Peas" by Northern Rascals
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'We were born and raised in a magic time, in a magic town, among magicians. Oh, most everybody didn't realise we lived in that web of magic. But we knew it all along.' Robert McCammon.
Based on our childhood memories both in the Lake District and beyond, '2 Peas' follows the unique bond between two sisters. Join us as we delve into memories that seemed long forgotten, and enjoy them being whisked back to life through the meeting of many characters, some fictional, some real but all who have lived at some point in the weird and wonderful world of our thoughts. |
Directed by: Anna Holmes & Sam Ford
Performed by: Anna Holmes & Stephanie Bentley About the company: Our newly-established company ‘Northern Rascals’ was created with the idea of taking thought-provoking dance theatre that is both beautiful and relatable to a variety of audiences. We aim to take the extensive knowledge that we have both acquired throughout our training and create pieces that capture and maintain the audience’s attention, specifically by using physical imagery that will remain in their mind long after they have left the performance space. We want to question the audience, inspire them, make either their hearts swell with love or their eyes fill with tears; if they leave slightly different to how they entered, then we’ve achieved what we set out to accomplish. As individuals, we both trained at Northern School of Contemporary Dance, graduating with First Class Honours. From then on, we have trained and performed with the post-graduate companies of London Contemporary Dance School i.e. EDge, and Jasmin Vardimon, JV2. The work we have produced is always multi-disciplinary, as we are hugely inspired by the power of amalgamating different art forms. Previous works have been both conventional and unusual, for example creating a dance piece in a beautiful Edwardian swimming baths integrating Dance, Opera, Poetry and Swimming! |
"Face For Radio" by enCompass Collective
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'Face for Radio' is a dance theatre piece that explores relationships from lovers to families to friends. As the radio 'tunes' into different stations the dancers transform from character to character reflecting their stories as well as the themes and styles of the radio station. The radio stations turn from serious political reports, through cheesy club classics, children's radio and the news and weather. It will take the audience through the range of emotions that all relationships go through from moments of comedy, love, hate, sadness and forgiveness.
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Directed by: Emma Thomas
enCompass Collective is a North West based company that creates engaging dance theatre performances, classes and workshops. |
"The Unspoken Word" by labelled? dANCE THEATRE
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This duet is a socially political statement addressing conflict and segregation between people with autism and neuro-typical individuals based on the literature by Maxine Aston (2003). Social conflict - including misunderstandings, misinterpretations and miscommunications - and segregation are issues which are historical and remain current. Aston's literature examines the fundamental aspects of complicated relationships between the typical married couple where the husband has Asperger's Syndrome (a mild form of autism) whereas the wife does not.
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Directed by: Adam John Roberts
Performed by: Adam John Roberts and Rowena Gander Labelled? Dance Theatre are an autism-specific integrated dance company in its early stages. The fixed-term goal is to offer continual professional development opportunities to all company performers and advocacy opportunities exclusive to non-autistic dancers who advocate the autism spectrum disorder.
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"Tomorrow Land" by coalesce dance
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Coalesce Dance presents their latest work Tomorrow Land. Tomorrow Land consists of a series of short dynamic exchanges that explore how technological advancements in modern society are making human interactions increasingly stark. The use of live music incites an exploration of our escalating disenchantment with reality and the subsequent breakdown of all natural communications.
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Directed By: Fern Wareham & Rachel Maffei
Performers: Fern Wareham, Rachel Maffei, Joe Delaney, Dominic Coffey About the Company: Coalesce Dance Theatre is a Salford based, all female contemporary dance company. We create and explore work that is engaging, educative and accessible to all audiences. Our mission is to connect our audiences with ideas about the wider world through exciting and provoking performance. Coalesce Dance Theatre was formed in 2016 by Fern Wareham, Rachel Maffei and Anna Papatheodorou. Coalesce were recently commissioned for a project for Turn Festival, Manchester. Coalesce are also currently one of the artists in residence at The University of Salford. |
"Laughs, YEARS & Tears" by helen mccarron
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Laughs, years and tears transports us back in time to look at the personalities, music and fashion we chose in our teenage years. The piece considers the following question; Do we behave and dress the way we did as a teenager through wanting to camouflage amongst our school peers, or a way to express ourselves as an individual?
During the piece we see different trends, social groups and popular music from people’s high school years. The piece also looks at characters who felt confident in their identities compared to those who felt they struggled to fit in with the social norm. |
Directed & Performed by:
Helen McCarron & Lauren Tucker |
"bROKEN DOOR, Fractured DREAMS" BY DOUG MCCORMICK
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A Solo dance piece developed in response to personal and professional developments since completing post graduate study.
We have this ideal image of our lives in our heads; our dreams, our goals, our wants and our needs... but life has this funny way of throwing us from the beaten track and we have to find new routes because clambering back the way we came isn't an option. This solo is a personification of where my head is at in this stage of my life. I'm exhausted. I'm excited. I'm sad. I'm happy. I'm out here in the big bad world looking for another open doorway. |
Choreographed and Peformed by
Douglas McCormick Douglas McCormick is an independent dance artist exploring and creating dance work upon completing both undergraduate and postgraduate degrees at the University of Chester. Douglas has a keen interest in audience / performer relationships and aims to push the boundaries within the roles of both 'performer' and 'audience'. With a string of connected works that have investigated, explores and played with the idea of traces in multiple ways. The interest in developing this type of work is still very much present. 
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" HYPOLOWPO" by REDLOCKS CREATIONS
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Our piece is about living with Type 1 Diabetes and the highs and lows a patient may go through that people may not see. Its also about the people behind the suffering, and how they also may suffer too.
About The Company: Redlocks is a fresh new company lead by Kate Threlfall aim to raise awareness of chronic illness through arts and dance. |
Directed By:Kate Threlfall
Performers: Kate Threlfall, Jane Savage, Louis Ellis and Rowena Foulds. |
"Moon and Flowers" by ANASTASIA JAMES
Programme Notes To Be Added Shortly
