January 21, 2005

More Awards Less Diversity

The National Dance Awards by the Critics Circle were announced yesterday and the list of winners leaves a lot to be desired.

Winners were mostly from the world of classical ballet and the only recipients that could be even begin to be argued as being in the contemporary world were both dancers from Rambert. Since the company's director, Mark Baldwin, was in attendance at the Rural Retreat for ballet directors held by Dance East here in the Lab we reckon Rambert has lost any claim it ever had to being a contemporary dance company.

Peter Wright, former AD of Birmingham Royal Ballet won an award for outstanding achievement in dance. This part of the story would have been a lot funnier because we mistakenly thought he was dead but it turns out he's not so all our jokes about contacting him for a comment will have to wait!

Two of the awards presented were given to children, a young boy and an even younger girl of just 9 years old. While we congratulate the youngsters on winning we are not altogether sure than giving children awards or prizes is the best way to recognize their achievements.

Almost all of the awards were won by either Royal Ballet or Rambert because there is nothing of any note going on in dance anywhere else in the entire country. (that's sarcasm right? Ed!)

If you want to know the full list of winners from this annual festival of incestuous behaviour then you can do so at Londondance.com, they have printed the press release in full!

January 18, 2005

Rambert=mc²

Mark Baldwin, director of Rambert Dance Company, will be creating his first brand new work for the company. In a fit of wanton abandon Mr Baldwin will be basing his new work on physics, the science of physics to be precise.

This display of science related choreographic madness is not simply a devotion to physics on behalf of Rambert and Mr Baldwin rather the funding they are receiving from the Institute of Physics because 2005 is, in fact, Einstein year.

Mr Baldwin will be basing his work on two of the scientists most famous papers, "the theory of Special Relativity (E=mc²) and Einstein’s investigations of Brownian Motion" (wake up at the back). For the uninitiated; Brownian Motion is described as "the constant erratic movement of tiny particles and it was discovered in 1827 by Robert Brown", hence the name. With that in mind we think you all know what to expect from the piece.

Funding for Constant Motion is being matched by Arts Council England and the DCMS.

Sue Wyatt, Cheif Executive of Rambert commented in a press release;

“The sponsorship from the Institute of Physics Publishing is both unique and visionary. The matching funding from Arts and Business New Partners will enhance the sponsorship by enabling more people to see and understand the work. This funding will also mean that Institute of Physic staff are educated about the nature of this collaboration between art and science”

Fauston Carpet of the Amsterdam Research & Science Enterprise, an organisation specialising in the use of language, said of the statement;

"That's possibly the most banal thing I ever heard now go away I'm having breakfast!"

Constant Motion will be premiered at some point in May of this year.

January 17, 2005

Making Movies

Channel 4 and ACE are looking for some new dance films for broadcast on the UK's 4th public television channel later on in 2005.

Called 4Dance2005 (stop giggling at the back!) the project is the follow up to a similar project in 2003. We did have some trouble remembering the programme until we discovered it was hosted by the BalletBoyz (seriously, stop laughing at the back) and it all came flooding back, not a pleasant experience we can tell you.

This time out C4 and ACE want to make 8 new dance films with budgets ranging from £10,000 to £15,000 with an emphasis on new talent and established working choreographer types. What you need to do to apply is as follows;

1. Log your idea through the Channel 4 proposal tracking system on the Channel 4 website: http:///www.channel4.com/4producers

2. Send a one page treatment, biographical details and one tape example of your work to: Jan Younghusband; Commissioning Editor Arts and Performance, Channel 4 Television. 124 Horseferry Road, London SW1 2TX.

The deadline for submissions part of the process is February 25th of this year and the programme is scheduled to air sometime near the end of 2005.

Let us know how you get on!

Rural Retreats Again, But Why?

Dance East the National Dance Agency for the East of England have called time again on their Rural Retreats, a cosy get together for the worlds ballet directors in the English countryside.

The publicised aim of this gathering is to enable the directors to discuss the current state of classical ballet and find new ways to communicate their art forms interests to the public and the funding bodies. Actual practical achievements that come from this meeting are somewhat thin on the ground however and we directly criticised this event as nothing more than a talking shop when it happened two years ago.

The stated outcomes of this years meeting are as follows;

• Communicate to governments, funding bodies, opinion formers and the broader community, the value, creativity and vitality of ballet and its relevance to today's society;
• Work in partnership with other companies and organisations to campaign for increased investment in the creative process;
• Give priority to the career development and well-being of dancers.

As with two years ago they are simply stating the obvious and further information on what was discussed is not available at the time of writing. Article19 has requested additional information about these retreats under the Freedom of Information Act. More information to follow.

[ link ] Dance East Website

January 10, 2005

The Listings Return

After a long hiatus from Article19 we bring back the listings for the UK with a new improved look but sadly no search feature.

The listings were removed over a year ago because they were just too popular. They received over 50,000 requests per week via the subscription feature which led us to wonder where the dance audience was if they were all that interested in dance performances going on in the UK.

We are now using Apple's .Mac and iCal technology to bring you what's-on across the UK for contemporary dance and that means we don't just tell you what is going on in London. If you want to send us your tour or performance information then just give us the details listing below via the contact page and we will take care of the rest. If you want to be a "Featured-Listing" (the graphics at the top of the page) then send us an image with your listings but we can't guarantee you will be included in the featured banner.

Company Name
Title of Work
Theatre with full address
Box Office Number
Time of Performance

The listings are still un-populated, we are working throughout today to fill them up so stay tuned.

[ link ] The Listings
[ link ] Contact Page

January 04, 2005

We're Back

Hello and Happy New Year to you all as Article19 returns for its third year of publishing on the wide world of dance

We shall be kicking off the new year with some interviews with BalletLorent director Liv Lorent and AD of Scottish Dance Theatre; Janet Smith. Also coming this week we shall have a video feature on the Scottish School of Contemporary Dance featuring their latest show performed just before Christmas.

This year brings us the Freedom of Information Act so we shall be revisiting some old stories with new information and pressing for full answers to some very important questions.

Also coming throughout the year will be more Conversations that Should Have Happened but Probably Didn't, Competitions and all the other stuff that we know you love.