Surrey TV interviewed some of the performers during a break in rehearsals
Alexander Whitley Dance Company worked with local dancers over February half term to create a short piece of choreography inspired by the production of ‘8 Minutes’ This short choreography will be performed this evening before the main performer of ‘8 Minutes’
Departing from the scientific principles of space, we ask what is our relationship to the universe and specifically the sun as humans? An exploration of rhythm and ritual.
Title – Sundance
Music – Gaunt – Kiasmos
Choreography: Robert Bridger (Alexander Whitley Dance Company) with assistance from Katie Dale (Dance Woking) and dancers
Photos taken in rehearsals
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Alexander Whitley Dance Company comes to Woking
Thursday 21 March, Alexander Whitley Dance Company perform 8 Minutesat Rhoda McGaw Theatre, Woking, tickets available follow link: Tickets
A few interesting facts: Did you know? The premiere of 8 Minutesat Sadler’s Wells in June 2017 had a sell out audience and was Alexander Whitley Dance Company’s debut on the main stage.
★★★★ The Guardian “Whitley’s choreography establishes its own enriching animating narrative: the burnished pulsing duet that feels like the heartbeat of the universe, the languid, insouciant ensemble where the dancers look like a freebooting drift of cosmic matter.”
Alexander Whitley may be familiar to our dance audiences, having performed with well-known companies such as Birmingham Royal Ballet, Rambert and Wayne McGregor | Random Dance. For 8 Minutes, he has brought together two leading artists to create a mesmerizing production: BAFTA Award-winning visual artist, Tal Rosner has shown work to critical acclaim in major art institutions such as The National Theatre, Royal Court Theatre and the Barbican Centre; Daniel Wohl is an established and highly-regarded composer and has received critical praise as one of his generation’s “imaginative, skilful creators” (New York Times). 8 Minutes has high production values including a large high-definition LED screen that projects Rosner’s stunning images created from actual scientific research photos and data.
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Boys Platform Monday 18 March – review
Dance Woking is looking forward to presenting the Boys Platform on Monday 18 March
READ REVIEW
The Boys platform celebrates both male dancers and choreographers; it is a contemporary led community dance platform focussing on boys dance, we are pleased to welcome seven dance groups to tonights performance. Performing alongside schools and colleges are guest dance companies Jack Philp Dance and Alexander Whitley Dance Company.We’d like to thank the schools and colleges for their support, and parents and guardians of the dancers without whom this platform wouldn’t be able to be possible, so thank you. The 8 groups performing are from:
Horsell Junior School
Brackenhale School, Bracknell
Havant & South Downs College
Leatherhead Trinity School
Westfield Primary School
Zambesi Dance
Alongside the school and community groups we have guest performances from two professional companies:
Jack Philp Dance with Entropy
Drawing from his earlier research “Opto-Nano”; this solo excerpt explores the sporadic motion of cells and the movement between a randomised and controlled environment. The work is inspired by the methodology behind imaging techniques used within the fields of optical microscopy to examine nano-particles inside of cells.
Choreographer:Jack Philp
Dancer: Gaia Cicolani
Music: Original Music by R. Seiliog
Alexander Whitley Dance Company with an exert of 8 Minutes
8 MINUTES by Whitley, , Choreography – Alexander Whitley, Alexander Whitley Dance Company, 2017, Platform Theatre, London, Credit: Johan Persson
Alexander Whitley Dance Company are delighted to present a duet from 8 Minutes, the critically acclaimed production, currently on tour. In this unique collaboration with scientists from STFC RAL Space, choreographer Alexander Whitley takes inspiration from solar science research and its stunning imagery. Igniting our imaginations with spectacular forces and overwhelming scales, space exploration constantly reshapes how we understand ourselves and our place in the universe. Dance, film and music take us on a journey to reveal the drama of the burning ball of plasma that illuminates our planet. With an installation of high-definition imager and a specially created score , 8 Minutes captures our curiosity and wonder for this unimaginably vast subject.
Artistic Director + Choreographer – Alexander Whitley
Video Artist – Tal Rosner
Composer – Daniel Wohl
Lead Scientist – Dr Hugh Mortimer
Dancers – Robert Bridger, Hannah Ekholm
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Introducing… Jack Philp Dance!
Dance Woking are delighted to announce Jack Philp Dance as the second of three artists presenting work at our brand new ‘Introducing Dance Platform’ on the 19th March at the Rhoda McGaw Theatre in Woking for emerging artists and choreographers!
Originally from Surrey, Jack trained at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance and works as a choreographer and freelance dance artist. Jack has received support from both Arts Council England and Arts Council of Wales for the development and production of choreographic work with Jack Philp Dance which was founded in 2014.
Jack Philp Dance will present their work LUMEN which is taken from the TEST | CAPTURE Tour by Jack Philp Dance. LUMEN takes inspiration from light in our universe and uses a star as a the starting point, this work explores factors which give birth to light as well as the different astrophysical environments which it encounters along its journey through space. From a range of research publications and images provided by The School of Physics and Astronomy at Cardiff University, we sought to abstract and capture these ideas through movement and sound. – Lead Academic Consultant: Professor Haley Gomez MBE
Originally from Surrey and a previous student at Woking College, Jack trained at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance and works as a choreographer and freelance dance artist. He has performed work by choreographers including Matthias Sperling, Anna Williams and Wayne McGregor as well as shadowed different artists and companies, both nationally and internationally, including Henri Oguike, Scottish Dance Theatre, Ben Wright, Rafael Bonachela, Skånes Dansteater and Sydney Dance Company. Jack has taught regular class and workshops for a range of companies including Ballet Cymru, English National Ballet Youth Co, Cecchetti Associates at Rambert School of Ballet and Contemporary Dance, Kingston University, Trinity Laban, Rubicon Dance as well as working as a dance ambassador and outreach teacher for National Dance Company Wales.
Jack has received support from both Arts Council England and Arts Council of Wales for the development and production of choreographic work with his collective, founded in 2014. He has gone on to share choreography at national venues around the UK with work also being created of commission for companies including Zambesi Dance Company, Monmouthshire Youth Dance Company, University of Roehampton, Rubicon Dance and Ballet West.
Jack Philp LUMEN, Photo by Hannah Bracher
Katie Dale-Everett (Katie Dale-Everett Dance)
Katie Dale-Everett is an independent cross-genre dance and film artist, creative arts producer, teacher and performer. Her work blends digital technology with contemporary dance to spark important conversations about our online identities. Katie facilitates worskhops at schools, colleges and universities and creates professional work that is both site-specific and for a traditional auditorium setting.
Katie is currently Associate Artist at The Point and one of Wayne McGregor’s QuestLab Artists as part of Katie Dale-Everett Dance. They have delivered a wide range of educational workshops across the South of England including at Falmouth University, MK Academy, St Martin’s Garden Primary School for Bath Dance and Sheerwater Youth Centre for Dance Woking.
KDE Dance ‘How far would you go to be liked?’ Photography by Jane Russell
Wesley Bingwa (Boyz In Motion Dance Company)
Wesley Bingwa is a previous student of Woking College and a graduate from University of De Montfort in Leicester with a BA Dance hons. He also graduated from Trinity Laban Dance and Music Conservatoire with an MA in choreography. Wesz is passionate about contemporary dance and choreography. Since 2018 Boyz in Motion Dance Company has performed at Studio 3 ‘Vital stages’ young choreographers platforms and at excerpt Dance Woking’s Young Dance Makers Platform. Wesz is looking forward to presenting ‘Numbers’ at this platform.
Wesley Bingwa
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Meet the dancers… Katie Dale-Everett Dance!
Meet the dancers performing in Katie Dale-Everett Dance’s piece How far would you go to be liked? The piece will be presented at our Introducing Dance Platform on Tuesday 19th March, 7pm at the Rhoda McGaw Theatre.
Claire Hackston
After being introduced to contemporary dance at Swindon Dance CAT and Hampshire Youth Dance Company Claire went on to train at London Contemporary Dance School, graduating with first-class honours. Whilst attending LCDS Claire performed works by choreographers such as Lea Anderson, Richard Alston, Hofesh Shechter and Liz Aggiss. During this time, she also worked with Rosemary Lee and OperaUpClose. Since graduating Claire has worked with Sketch Dance Company, and performed a duet choreographed by Hannah Martin-Reilly for Wessex Dance Academy. Claire is currently a dancer in this year’s GradLab.
George Fellows
In 2013, with no formal experience, George began training in contemporary dance. After performing as a community participant in Tilted Production’s production in the Brighton Festival 2016, George was invited to join Maresa von Stockert’s company as a performer and danced for the company in their 2017/18 touring seasons. He then went on to play Tony/Ronnie in a dance theatre production of the play ‘Beautiful Thing’ by Jonathan Harvey, co-directed by Bradley Hemmings & Robby Graham, which was the finale show of GDIF 2018. George began to explore his own choreographic voice in the form of a duet that was performed in the Brighton Fringe Festival 2017 and has his own company ‘Four Hands’ who have been supported by South East Dance and Arts Council England to explore the themes of connection, intimacy and physical play between parents and their children and who’s first work ‘Touch’ will premiere at Ropetackle Arts Centre later in March.
News
Introducing… Boyz In Motion Dance Company!
Dance Woking would like to announce our third and final artist as Boyz In Motion Dance Company who will present work at our Introducing Dance Platform on Tuesday 19th March, 7pm for emerging artists and choreographers!
Boyz In Motion Dance Company is directed by Wesz Bingwa who is a graduate from University of De Montfort in Leicester and most recently gained an MA in Choreography from Trinity Laban Dance and Music Conservatoire.
The company will present their work Numbers, choreographed by Wesz Bingwa at the platform. The piece Numbers was built through a spoken-word poem written by the choreographer, talking about his experiences and life as a minority Black man from Zimbabwe to the UK. The Poem by the choreographer talks about race, indentity and judgement as a migrant in the UK.
The piece was placed onto the dancer whom comes from similar background of displacement- a Chinese Malaysian growing up away from her home soil, but in Hong Kong and UK.
Where do we stand? What do we stand for? How do we build our identity on home soil that is foreign or vice versa, on foreign soil that we hope to call home (at least for now?)
WATCH Boyz In Motion Dance Company this Spring in Woking!
