66 Dances is a challenge, a taking stock, an artistic collaboration, and a reflection on the world over the past 66 years. On 2nd December, respected Oxford based dance artist and improviser Andy Solway will be 66. Over 2 days in the beautiful setting of Littlemore Church, he will perform 66 dances, supported in this unique event by an amazing, diverse group of dancers, musicians and other collaborators.
Dates: Friday 2nd and Saturday 3rd December. The performance runs from 9.00am to 7.00pm each day.
Venue: St Mary and St Nicholas Church, Cowley Road, Littlemore, Oxford, OX4 4PP
Tickets: FREE, but numbers are limited. Reserve your place on Eventbrite. https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/…/66-dances-tickets…
You can donate on the door, or to the Just Giving page. All proceeds will go to Macmillan Cancer Research.
https://www.justgiving.com/page/andrew-solway-66dances-littlemore?utm_source=copyLink&utm_medium=one_page&utm_content=page/andrew-solway-66dances-littlemore&utm_campaign=pfp-share&utm_term=9ccdee8c943341f59d64676639a1d21a
Check out the Facebook event link for further information – https://fb.me/e/2nNOlIKQn
If you can’t attend, why not watch online? 66 Dances live stream:
Friday https://youtu.be/crOS9cOLDy4
Saturday https://youtu.be/ghRbpl4PZtM
An informative and stimulating DANSOX event, hosted at St Hilda’s College on 9th November, heralded Shobana Jeyasingh’s new work, Clorinda Agonistes, which played to full houses at Oxford Playhouse last week.
Speaking at DANSOX, Jeyasingh described her work’s lengthy gestation period. The inspiration that she drew from hearing Claudio Monteverdi’s operatic scena Il combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda led her to research the story derived from Torquato Tasso’s epic poem Gerusalemme Liberata that lay behind it. Initially drawn by Monteverdi’s use of recitative, which Jeyasingh felt had an emotional effect similar to the vocalisation of syllables in classical Indian dance, she discovered a story that in spite of its late mediaeval orientalising tropes offers new resonance and meaning for audiences today.
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DANSOX joins forces with the Oxford Centre for Life-Writing to present two distinguished scholars in conversation, Jennifer Homans and Professor Dame Hermione Lee, launching Jennifer Homans’ important new biography, Mr B: George Balanchine’s 20th Century. An unmissable discussion of one of ballet’s most influential figures.
George Balanchine did for dance what Picasso did for painting: he changed the art and the way we see the human form. Homans follows Balanchine from his childhood in Tsarist St Petersburg, through the upheavals of the Russian Revolution, two World Wars, and the cultural Cold War, to New York, where he co-founded and ran the New York City Ballet.
- Jennifer Homans is the dance critic for the New Yorker. Her widely acclaimed Apollo’s Angels: A History of Ballet was a bestseller and named one of the 10 best books of the year by the New York Times Book Review. Trained in dance at George Balanchine’s School of American Ballet, she performed professionally with the Pacific Northwest Ballet. She earned her BA at Columbia University and her PhD in modern European history at New York University, where she is a Scholar in Residence and the Founding Director of the Center for Ballet and the Arts.
- Hermione Lee is a biographer and Emeritus Professor of English Literature in the English Faculty at Oxford University.
Date: Thursday 24th November, 5.30pm
Venue: Jacqueline du Pré Music Building, St Hilda’s College, Cowley Place, Oxford OX4 1DY
Followed by drinks reception; free and open to all.
Register here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/jennifer-homans-on-20th-century-choreographer-george-balanchine-tickets-440915097927
Find out more and purchase Jennifer Homans’ book here
Read Maggie Watson’s account for Oxford Dance Writers of the 2017 DANSOX and Oxford Centre for Life-Writing collaborative event which also featured Jennifer Homans here
Ahead of their performances at the Oxford Playhouse the following week, renowned choreographer Shobana Jeyasingh with dancers and artists of the company are invited by DANSOX (Dance Scholarship Oxford) to discuss and demonstrate the creative process for their exciting new work Clorinda Agonistes. The piece is inspired by the heroine of Claudio Monteverdi’s celebrated work, Il Combattimento, and the Tasso poem, based on the proud and fiery Muslim warrior Clorinda who defiantly refuses to reveal her name.
Followed by a Q&A session.
Date: Wednesday 9th November 5.30pm
Venue: Jacqueline du Pré Music Building, St Hilda’s College, Cowley Place, Oxford OX4 1DY.
Reserve a seat: email susan.jones@ell.ox.ac.uk
Oxford Dance Writers 