Life Line, curated by Cecilia Macfarlane and Joëlle Pappas, Arts at the Old Fire Station 31st March – 2nd April 2020

Long established and highly respected Oxford dance makers Cecilia Macfarlane and Joëlle Pappas join together this spring to curate a three day festival of professional, adult community, and youth dance at the Old Fire Station under the title Life Line. The three shows, suitable for audiences of all ages, comprise:

Life Line

This evening of dance with live music is curated by Cecilia Macfarlane and Joëlle Pappas who relish the opportunity to share the passion and deep artistic values that they hold in common. Their careers as dancers, directors, teachers and mentors are rooted in the knowledge that Dance is the key to healthy living and our surviving on this planet.

“There is a vitality, a life force, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all time, this expression is unique.  And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and be lost.  The world will not have it.  It is not your business to determine how good it is, nor how valuable it is, nor how it compares with other expressions.  It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the channel open.”  ― Martha Graham

Thursday 31st March 7.30pm

Venue: Arts at the Old Fire Station, 40 George Street, Oxford OX1 2QA

Book online here

Curious Dancing: DugOut Adult Community Dance

DugOut Community Dance Group present Curious Dancing, an evening of dance created and performed by its members and guests with direction from Cecilia Macfarlane. All the dancers celebrate how powerfully dance can release expression, feed the soul and entertain others. We celebrate difference; the excitement is not in uniformity but unique individuality that can powerfully change lives. Find out more about Dugout here.

Friday 1st April 7.30pm

Venue: Arts at the Old Fire Station, 40 George Street, Oxford OX1 2QA

Book online here

Ripples, Echoes…: Tac-au-Tac Youth Dance and guests

“Look out, now! We’re ready to jump!
Because the rhythm is jumpin’, jump session
Doo wadda doodoo wadda doodoo wat doo wah” ― Slim & Slam

Tac-au-Tac Youth Dance and Joëlle Pappas present two entertaining programmes of contemporary dance.

Ripples of the past, echoes of the present, dance carries us forward…

Saturday 2nd April 4.00pm

Venue: Arts at the Old Fire Station, 40 George Street, Oxford OX1 2QA

Book online here

 

Oxford Youth Dance present Flame at The Old Fire Station 19th May 2018

Much loved and long established Oxford Youth Dance, led by Cecilia Macfarlane with Elly Crowther, present their latest programme of work at The Old Fire Station.  Flame is a compilation of powerful dances inspired by fire, created by the company and guests including visiting dancers from Japan; offering heat, energy and excitement that will keep the audience warm and send them off dancing too.  They will be dancing with the power and essential nature of fire, and the many myths and stories about how vital this element is in our lives.

Performances:  Saturday 19th May, 3.00pm and 6.00pm

Venue:  Arts at the Old Fire Station, 40 George Street, Oxford OX1 2AQ

Tickets:  £13 Adults, £11 Concessions

Book online here or call the Box Office on 01865 263990

Duration:  75 minutes including brief interval

Find out more about Oxford Youth Dance here and on Facebook here

 

DugOut Adult Community Dance present Suspension, Pegasus Theatre 9th June 2017

Temporary withdrawal from the demands of the routine – dance offers all of us a moment of suspension.  Join DugOut Adult Community Dance at the Pegasus Theatre for an evening of surprises with their new show Suspension, exploring the possibilities found at the very edge, in the instants between rising and falling, between holding tight and letting go.

DugOut is an intergenerational and inclusive contemporary dance group, based in East Oxford, which seeks to promote dance for everyone regardless of age, experience or background.  Started 27 years ago and led by respected Oxford dance artist Cecilia Macfarlane, this inspirational group presents a whole evening of their work once every three years, incorporating seasoned group members and new performers.  The performance will end with an opportunity for everyone to take to the stage, with DJ Euton Daley taking charge of the decks.

Performance:  Friday 9th June 7.30pm

Venue:  Pegasus Theatre, Magdalen Road, Oxford OX4 1RE

Tickets:  £12, £9 concessions.  Book online here or call the Box Office on 01865 812150

Find out more about DugOut here

 

Oxford Youth Dance Living and Moving Archive Event and Celebration, various venues Saturday 17th September 2016

Oxford Youth Dance extend a warm invitation to all their friends to the third and final event of their 30th Anniversary Year.  Ranging over a day the Living and Moving Archive Event and Celebration will take place in OYD’s three homes.  Daytime activities are curated by a team of four young people currently or previously members of OYD; their Four Rooms Project at Fusion Arts and East Oxford Community Centre will include taster workshops, film screenings, performances, archival exhibitions and food and drink.  In the evening activity will continue at Ark T Centre with the launch of Cecilia Macfarlane and Ruth Pethybridge‘s book Any Body, Any Age, Any Dance published by People Dancing (formerly the Foundation for Community Dance).  There will also be a film screening and four specially choreographd dances by Crossover Intergenerational Dance Company to go with the chapters of the book, followed by a birthday supper and disco.  This event is for EVERYONE; from those who began with Cecilia in 1986, through to those who are interested in beginning dance in the future.

OYD hopes that you will join them for some or all of this special day, and look forward to seeing you there!

OYD Team:  Cecilia Macfarlane, Elly Crowther, Rachel Gildea

OYD Creative Apprentices:  Emily Wheeler, Charis Taplin, Alfie Bowlby, Callum Ruddock

Date:  Saturday 17th September 2016

11.00am-4.00pm:  Fusion Arts and East Oxford Community Centre, 44 Princes Street, Oxford OX4 1DD

7.30pm -late:  Ark T Centre, Crowell Road, Oxford OX4 3LN

Free, all welcome

Oxford Youth Dance gratefully acknowledges support from Oxford University and Oxford City Council Culture Fund.

 

 

Women GOLive, Old Fire Station Oxford, 16th July 2016 – Emily May reviews

The Times dance critic Donald Hutera’s 4-day festival of contemporary dance concludes with an eclectic array of diverse and dynamic performances. The final evening showcases some of the highlights from previous nights of the four-day festival, yet also introduces new works for the audience to experience for the first time in this central Oxford venue.

The show on the mainstage of the Old Fire Station is preluded by informal installation Remember to Remember choreographed by Mara Vivas. As the audience enter the intimate space, they are encouraged by a written sign to “touch, watch, listen, write.” These instructions are somewhat ambiguous, yet the dancers’ (Vivas herself accompanied by My Johansson) perform with an openness that invites spectators to participate.

 

Women GOLive, Old Fire Station Oxford, 14th & 15th July performances – Maggie Watson reviews

Women GOLive has continued to surprise, excite and entertain Oxford audiences with eclectic but well chosen performances of highly original work. The second and third nights of this four-night run included traditional and experimental South Asian dance from Arunima Kumar and Anuradha Chaturvedi, new contemporary dance works from visiting artist Salah El Brogy and Welsh company Ffin Dance (who bravely gave new takes on iconic music), a fresh work from Hanna Wroblewski, Mara Vivas’ and My Johansson’s interactive performance installation, and humour from Sarah Kent and Aliki Mbakoyianni. A terrific line-up.

 

Women GOlive, Old Fire Station 14th July 2016 – Barbara Berrington reflects

Another exploratory, innovative and exciting programme of original dance work has just been presented at Oxford’s Old Fire Station Theatre under the aegis of Donald Hutera. Hutera’s remarkable ability to gather together able but neglected choreographic skills and to present them in a continually-changing four-day programme has already been demonstrated at the nearby Burton Taylor Studio. On this latest occasion, however, despite there being no diminution in the range of remarkably distinctive approaches on offer, the overall impact was far more cohesive.

For this three elements seem primarily responsible. The first is the universality of the myth and legend on which much of the work draws; the second is the power – on a bare stage – of the overall visual impact of each of these pieces, and the third is the extraordinary range of emotional intensity evoked by the quality of these performances – drawing chuckles and tears and the long silence of chastened realisation that precedes the best appreciative applause.

 

Women GOlive, Old Fire Station Oxford, Wednesday 13 July 2016 – Maggie Watson reviews

How fitting that on the day that a woman took over at 10 Downing Street, Oxford was celebrating the work of women choreographers and dancers in first night of the Women GOlive programme.

Curator Donald Hutera has brought together an impressively novel and varied selection of works by local, national and international artists, which last night ranged from an intensely focussed Butoh-based solo by Ana Barbour, through Jane Connelly’s liquid contemporary dance style, to the disconcerting humour and provocative wit of Susan Kempster, performance poet Jemima Foxtrot and Aliki Mbakoyianni.

 

Women GOlive showcase curated by Donald Hutera, Old Fire Station 13th-16th July 2016

Women GOlive is a showcase of dance by female performers – and men are welcome too!  Kicking off next Wednesday, 13 July, the mini-festival hosted by Arts at the Old Fire Station features some of the best talent around.  Curator and Times dance critic Donald Hutera has assembled a four-day line-up of short works for intimate spaces, cherry-picking four enticingly varied evenings of multi-generational talent from the UK and abroad, mainly but not exclusively the work of a group of fascinating and independent female artists. Local performers Ana Barbour, Susie Crow, Cecilia Macfarlane, Anuradha Chaturvedi, Jane Connelly, Anja Meinhardt and Roosa Leimu-Brown are joined by national and international names such as Jemima Foxtrot and Mara Vivas.   Performances will be refreshingly unconventional and always eclectic: expect the unexpected!

Performances:  Wednesday 13th – Saturday 16th July 7.30pm

Venue:  The Old Fire Station, 40 George Street, Oxford OX1 2AQ

Tickets:  £10/£8 from www.ticketsoxford.com or 01865 305305.

Programme:

Wed 13th:  Ana Barbour, Jane Connelly (Smidgen Dance Company), Lorna V, Richard Chappell, Susan Kempster, and Jemima Foxtrot

Thurs 14th: Lorna V, Ana Barbour, Arunima Kumar, Susie Crow (Avid for Ovid), Salah El-Brogy, Sarah Kent (Dysfunctional Dance), and Hanna Wroblewski

Fri 15th:  Lorna V, Susie Crow, Sarah Kent, Mara Vivas with My Johansson,  Anuradha Chaturvedi Seth, and Sue Lewis (Ffin Dance)

Sat 16th: Lorna V, Mara Vivas with My Johansson, Sarah Kent, Sue Lewis (Ffin Dance), Anja Meinhardt (Justice in Motion) with Roosa Leimu-Brown

More programme information here: www.oldfirestation.org.uk | 01865 263980

 

 

 

GOlive Oxford 2015, curated by Donald Hutera. Burton Taylor Studio, 15 July 2015

Donald Hutera has brought Oxford a remarkable programme of innovative dance, which is also an exciting opportunity to see local artists’ work in a broader context.

The evening opened with Marina Collard’s And So It Goes On, a beautifully thought out dance that combined live performance and film. Collard danced in relation to her filmed image, projected onto the brick wall at the back of the stage, in a work full of subtle reflections and repetitions. Elegant, intense, yet restrained, the vertical focus of the live dance on the flat floor in front gained an added dimension from the video beside it, not only because there seemed to be a second dancer moving in a different plane, but also because the feeling of a raked stage at a different angle behind. Next, Oxford hip hop dancers Beat Street followed with Heart Cry, a graceful and surprisingly gentle work performed by three young men, who used the genre in an original and unusual way.