East London Dance is a regional dance development agency that develops dance across the East London boroughs that is accessible, inclusive and innovative. Our funding covers core costs. Additional investment will support the co-ordination and delivery of the London Thames Gateway Dance Partnership and marketing costs.
Big Dance 2012 was launched in style on Friday 18 May with 200 dancers of all ages and all styles performing in a secret pop-up performance at Westfield Stratford City and Westfield London. It's a Secret was an ambitious project developed by East London Dance and English National Ballet and directed by world renowned choreographer, Andre Gingras (Dance Works Rotterdam) with a fantastic team of dance artists lead by Laura Harvey. 200 dancers aged 9 - 90 years performed the 7 minute pop-up performance 4 times over the 2 Westfield sites attracting intrigue and interest from the shoppers. Find out more about Big Dance at www.bigdance2012.com.
East London Dance commissioned five UK based artists, to produce short films inspired by Merce Cunningham - his influence on them, their practices and working methods.
Suspect Number 4 - Performers were chosen at random and scenes constructed by chance. A dance theatre film full of mystery and suspense, as it asks the audience to find the murderer and who-killed-who in this game of chance.
I found the experience challenging as we relinquished control of the application process by choosing dancers at random, from a hat, to perform in the film. However, the experience was fantastic and opened up a new way of process for C-12, and access into dance for the public.'
Annie-Lunnette Deakin-Foster
East London Dance commissioned five UK based artists, to produce short films inspired by Merce Cunningham - his influence on them, their practices and working methods.
Shadow Men is based on the power of light as a source and how it affects the behaviour of its surroundings. Light has the ability to evoke certain emotions; happy or depressed, restricted, bound or free. Shadow Men is the study of light and its attachment to us... the human race.
I wanted the production process to be all based on chance, which was decided by the flip of a coin, to be literal or non literal, to produce a score or use some one else's work, to have dance or no dance etc...
This was an extremely scary way of working as I'm a control freak and normally in these circumstances I know exactly what I want and how I want it. However I made a choice for all 'post' work to be based on my decisions, so the project had the best of both worlds. Naturally by this point it was extremely hard as I had unusual results by the time it came to video editing and I had to work with what I had and stop myself from breaking my own rules and focus on making a solid coherent film that lasted 3 minutes. This film was a tough process!
Simeon Qysea
East London Dance commissioned five UK based artists, to produce short films inspired by Merce Cunningham - his influence on them, their practices and working methods.
Rosie Whitney-Fish
Open Ended Space - Artists of different mediums -- fine artists, musicians, illustrators, performance artists were invited to respond to 'Falls and Silence' or 'Single fleeting moment' (Cunningham statements) through an online salon -- Open Ended Space. This has provided the inspiration and creative resource for the film.
From a personal level; the film has been an important step in my development as I have never created something purely for the screen. It was exciting not knowing how the artists would respond to Merce's statements - and not knowing what I would receive - it was a challenge to try and edit this all together into one fluid piece and respond myself from there. Essentially the film is a collage, it shows artists responses to Merce's statements and it was my role to make them into a whole - linking with my own work.
Rosie Whitney-Fish
East London Dance commissioned five UK based artists, to produce short films inspired by Merce Cunningham - his influence on them, their practices and working methods.
Trinity -- Trinity is choreographed on three men, of which the movement material was created to one piece of music. The final edit however presents the material to a completely different piece of music that the dancers had no connection to. Trinity will evolve over time, and will feature more dancers and more musical options to interact with the film. Watch this space.
For me dance and music sit in mutual co-existence and during my process of making choreography, music is imperative. Taking this away during the making of Trinity (to experience working in alignment with Merce Cunningham's processes) has really challenged me! I didn't know whether it would come together, but by placing the unknown work on top of the edit has created random moments that work really well.
Tony Adigun
The Firm is East London Dance's b-boy group exclusively for males aged 11-16years. The Firm work with Ed 'Ed Spoons' Stephen (Ghetlow Pirates) every Thursday at Stratford Circus. Classes are heavily focussed on bboying but also give the participants a basic grounding in Urban Dance Styles. For more details visit: (www.eastlondondance.org). This film was created by Ed Stephen (August 2011).
East London Dance were commissioned by Westfield Stratford City to make a dance film that showcases the multitude of dance styles present in East London. The film is set across a range of unique locations around East London and was shot by Jevan Chowdhury of Wind & Foster. (February 2011.)
East London Dance took the words 'Big' and 'Dance' literally and over 7 weeks, (May 21st -- July 11 2010), activated an explosion of exciting outdoor dance events across the 7 East London boroughs (Barking & Dagenham, Hackney, Havering, Newham, Redbridge, Tower Hamlets & Waltham Forest).
7 weeks - 7 boroughs -- 19 events, reaching audiences of over 15,000 and working with over 1500 performers -- East London Dance produced a series of inspiring and innovative site-specific projects making the biggest explosion of dance across East London to date. Shaped by its location and its participants - each site-specific event achieved a totally unique dance experience.
The Big Chair Dance is the centre piece of the Capital Age Festival 2008 and sees 200 pensioners and older Londoners come together to perform an exciting and vibrant show. Celebrating the creativity of older people in the capital, the Big Chair Dance is the culmination of their hard work and dance talent.
The Big Chair Dance took place in the summer of 2008, with a finla performance in the Clore Ballroom at the Southbank Centre. Under the artistic direction of Cheryl McChesney, Choreographers Maresa von Stockert, Gauri Sharma Tripathi, Marc Brew and Tony Adigun were commissioned to create a solo chair dance of up to 4 minutes. Older people from residential homes, sheltered housing schemes and day centres danced alongside their more active peers from older people's dance companies, such as Leap of Faith (ELD)
In partnership with Entelechy Arts, East London Dance & Southbank Centre.
Film made by Roswitha Chesher
Blueprint helps individuals make their mark today, by shaping the dance of tomorrow. In 2009 East London Dance commissioned Dean Stewart to create this promo film about Blueprint and its way of showcasing young and emerging choreographers. 2012 promises to host a whole new pool of emerging choreographers and talented dancers.
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Suspect Number 4 - Annie-Lunnette Deakin-Foster.mov
Open Ended Space - Rosie Whitney-Fish.m4v
Leaving Limbo Landing by Caroline Bowditch
