Frederick Ashton Foundation with DANSOX present An Evening with Frederick Ashton at Jacqueline du Pré Music Building, St Hilda’s College, 24th April 2024

An evening not to be missed, celebrating the great British ballet choreographer Sir Frederick Ashton: for the next Dance Scholarship Oxford (DANSOX) event the Frederick Ashton Foundation presents an Ashton masterclass with dancers from the Royal Ballet introduced by Alastair Macaulay, and a screening of Lynne Wake’s film Frederick Ashton: Links in the Chain. The event will be followed by a Q&A and refreshments.

Date: Wednesday 24th April, 6.30-8.45pm

Venue: Jacqueline du Pré Music Building (St Hilda’s College), Cowley Place, Oxford OX4 1DY

Booking: Free of charge, but please book your place online via Eventbrite here

Find out more about the Frederick Ashton Foundation here

And about Dance Scholarship Oxford here

 

DANSOX presents Yolande Yorke-Edgell and Yorke Dance IMPRINT; Jacqueline du Pré Building, St Hilda’s College Oxford, 9th March 2024

DANSOX is thrilled to welcome back Yolande Yorke-Edgell to discuss Yorke Dance‘s new programme and to premiere an exciting new commission, A Point of Balance.

Yorke-Edgell discusses her influences and inspiration/mentors – Martha Graham, Richard Alston, Bella Lewitzky, Kenneth MacMillan and Robert Cohan, with film and live showings of their choreography .

The programme closes with Yorke-Edgell’s A Point of Balance, an exciting new work commissioned by Dance Scholarship Oxford and supported by Sheila Forbes.

Dancers: Ellie Ferguson, Edd Mitton, Abigail Attard Montalto and guest artist Eileih Muir.

Date: Saturday 9th March 4.00-5.15pm

Venue: Jacqueline du Pré Music Building, St Hilda’s College, Cowley Place, Oxford OX4 1DY

Duration: 1 hour 30 minutes

Tickets: You can book your ticket online here

This event is free, but please consider making a small donation (suggested donation £5) to help DANSOX cover costs. To donate, please use this link: https://www.st-hildas.ox.ac.uk/givefordansox

If you have any problems with reserving a space, please feel free to contact Ruth at ruththrush1@gmail.com

 

DANSOX presents Indian classical dance: Alastair Macaulay and Shobana Jeyasingh in discussion. Jacqueline du Pré Building, St Hilda’s College, Oxford, 19th February 2024 – Maggie Watson reports

Indian dance is a vast topic: aside from the highly sophisticated technique and tradition manifest in the eight ‘classical’ forms, there are numerous ‘non-classical’ forms, and it exists within a complex web of social, temporal, religious and artistic spheres, which Western cultures have historically failed to understand. International dance critic Alastair Macaulay openly and unsurprisingly admitted that where Indian dance is concerned he is an ‘outsider’, but interestingly, Shobana Jeyasingh, who comes from India and trained in Bharatanatyam, said that although she is an ‘insider’, in some respects she too is an ‘outsider’.

Jeyasingh began by explaining the four means of means of communication through the body: tension, rhythm, emotion and decoration. Her demonstration of the rotation of the arm in a gesture that originates in back and makes it strong as steel had many of us in the audience trying it out as we sat. Jeyasingh continued by explaining more about the dance’s rhythmic patterns, its flavours or nuances, and the integral significance of costume and makeup. Macaulay generously shared images of dance and dancers drawn from his own travels, which showed the importance of the often lengthy and elaborate preparation, as well as the dance itself.

 

DANSOX Jane Pritchard lecture: Colour and Costume for Dance: the ‘Colour Revolution’, at the Jacqueline du Pré Music Building 13 February 2024 – Maggie Watson reports

The Ashmolean Museum’s exhibition ‘Colour Revolution: Victorian Art, Fashion and Design’ is a thrilling revelation of nineteenth-century Britain’s widely unrecognised visual vibrancy. Jane Pritchard’s DANSOX lecture, attended by the exhibition’s curators, took this one step further, demonstrating that a greater understanding of the use of colour on the Victorian stage also overturns many of our assumptions about contemporaneous English ballet. Taking the Ashmolean exhibition as her starting point, Pritchard argued that by thinking across boundaries and following the archival evidence on the use of colour in theatrical design, we can begin to recover the largely forgotten fifty years of dance in England that lie between the romantic ballet period and the arrival in London of the Ballets Russes.

 

DANSOX Roundtable: Choreographing Kafka with Arthur Pita, Edward Watson, Lucia Ruprecht, Meindert Peters at Jacqueline du Pré Building, 22nd February 2024

As part of Oxford’s ‘Kafka’s Transformative Communities’ Project, choreographer Arthur Pita and dancer Edward Watson will discuss their work on a new choreography of Franz Kafka’s short story A Hunger Artist as well as their previous work on Kafka’s The Metamorphosis. They will be in conversation with Lucia Ruprecht (Freie Universität Berlin) and Meindert Peters (Oxford University).

This fascinating opportunity to hear major artists talking about their work with leading academics is hosted by Dance Scholarship Oxford (DANSOX), and is supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), The Cultural Programme, The Oxford Research Centre in the Humanities (TORCH), and the New College Ludwig Fund.

Date: Thursday 22nd February, 4.00-5.00pm

Venue:  Jacqueline du Pré Music Building, St Hilda’s College, Cowley Place, Oxford OX4 1DY

Tickets: Free, all are welcome; book online here

For further information/inquiries: www.kafka-research.ox.ac.uk or email kafka@mod-langs.ox.ac.uk.

 

DANSOX presents Alastair Macaulay in conversation with Shobana Jeyasingh 19th February 2024

DANSOX is delighted to welcome Alastair Macaulay and Shobana Jeyasingh to discuss Indian classical dance. Founder of Shobana Jeyasingh Dance, Shobana Jeyasingh is a critically acclaimed choreographer who has created over 60 works for stage, screen, and site-specific venues. Shobana will be in coversation with the internationally renowned dance critic and historian, Alastair Macaulay, former chief dance critic at the New York Times. Their discussion will be followed by a drinks reception in the foyer.

Date: Monday 19th February 6.00pm

Venue: Jacqueline du Pré Music Building (St Hilda’s College), Cowley Place, Oxford OX4 1DY

Tickets: You can book online here. This event is free, but please consider making a small donation (suggested donation £5) to help DANSOX cover costs. To donate, please use this link: https://www.st-hildas.ox.ac.uk/givefordansox

If you have any issues with your booking, please contact Ruth at ruththrush1@gmail.com.

 

DANSOX hosts Colour and Costume for Dance: the Colour Revolution, with Jane Pritchard , Jacqueline du Pré Building, 13th February 2024

The ERC project CHROMOTOPE, TORCH and Dance Scholarship Oxford (DANSOX) in conjunction with the Ashmolean’s current fascinating exhibition host the immensely knowledgeable Jane Pritchard (V&A) who will lecture on design and costume for dance as it relates to the Victorian “Colour Revolution”.

There will be an opportunity for questions at the end of Jane’s talk, followed by drinks in the foyer.

As this talk falls on Shrove Tuesday, DANSOX welcomes you to join for pancakes after the talk at 19.15. If you would like to sign up for pancakes, please email susan.jones@ell.ox.ac.uk, and include any dietary requirements.

Date: 13th February 2024 (Shrove Tuesday) 5.30pm

Venue: Jacqueline du Pré Building, St Hilda’s College, Oxford, OX4 1DY

Booking: This event is free and open to all, please book online here

You can find further information about DANSOX and its programme of forthcoming events here

 

DANSOX Autumn 2023 season: Four events in the Jacqueline du Pré Music Building (JdP), St Hilda’s College Oxford, featuring Professor Stephanie Jordan lecture ‘Serial Stravinsky Dances: Choreomusical Discoveries with Balanchine’, new film of MacMillan’s ‘Sea of Troubles’, ‘Homage to Nijinska’, with Avatâra Ayuso & Dame Monica Mason, and ‘On Bella Lewitzky’, Yolande Yorke-Edgell and dancers with John Pennington – Maggie Watson reports

The DANSOX Autumn 2023 season looks both forward and backwards, exploring ways in which scholarly investigation and practitioners’ bodily memories can enable today’s dancers and audiences to rediscover the life and meaning of 20th century dances in new cultural contexts.

Professor Stephanie Jordan’s lecture ‘Serial Stravinsky Dances: Choreomusical Discoveries with Balanchine’ (10 October 2023), drew upon her analytical film project with New York City Ballet (NYCB) dancers, ‘Music Dances; Balanchine Choreographs Stravinsky’ (2002). Jordan started working on Agon (1957) in 1993, and her presentation showed how musical analysis, allied with meticulous attention to detail, clarifies the structural patterns within the dancing. Clapping and counting, she explained how the dance moves around and within the music, criss-crossing it in a dynamic interaction, finding the pulse in moments of silence and making the musical score visible. Snatches of film contrasted performances by Wendy Whelan and Violette Verdy, and showed how the dance had changed over time; Jordan singled out a particular plié in second position on pointe, and noted that there is a lot of room in Balanchine to do things in different ways. Richard Alston, speaking from the floor, described watching NYCB performances during Balanchine’s life time, and reminisced about dancers such as Allegra Kent, who seemed to inhabit the music without recourse to counting, and Suzanne Farrell, who was always taking risks and pushed her balance to extremes.

 

DANSOX Events October-November 2023

Dance Scholarship Oxford (DANSOX) presents a season of exciting events for the Michaelmas term of 2023, spanning three major themes:

1. Revisiting 20C dance: Yolande Yorke-Edgell and Yorke Dance season 

2. Celebrating the centenary of Les Noces (Stravinsky/Nijinska).   

3. Symposium: New Research in Dance Studies and Practice 

See below for a list of dates:

10^th October 5.30pm, Jacqueline du Pré Building:  ‘Serial Stravinsky Dances: Choreomusical Discoveries with Balanchine’: Professor Stephanie Jordan (Roehampton) will deliver a talk prompted by her 2010 film project with artists from the New York City Ballet: Music Dances: Balanchine Choreographs Stravinsky, now showing this work as work in progress.  Come along and experience Stephanie’s unique approach, and there will be lots to see and hear from this outstanding artistic team of the 20^th century.

16^th October 5.30pm, Jacqueline du Pré Building: New Movement Collective with Gosia Dzierzon Presentation: A new Les Noces.

19^th October 5.30pm Jacqueline du Pré Building. Yolande Yorke-Edgell and Yorke Dance Screening of new film reconstruction of MacMillan’s Sea of Troubles with Q&A.

21^st October 6.45-7.15pm The Olivier Hall, St Edward’s School,  ‘Dancing Song’, German choreographer Andreas Heise in conversation with Meindert Peters about the genesis of his Winterreise concept, pre-performance talk for Oxford Lieder Festival

24^th October 5.30pm Jacqueline du Pré Building: Dame Monica Mason introduces Avatâra Ayuso, of AVA Dance Company on Nijinska (première in 2023 Santiago, Chile).

26^th October, JduP: Yolande Yorke and dancers of Yorke Dance with John Pennington (Pomona College, LA) on Bella Lewitsky, the American modern dance choreographer and dancer.

20th-21st November 2-day Symposium DANSOX at Jacqueline du Pré Building with Professor Philip Bullock, New Directions in Dance Research: Scholarship and Practice 

20^th November, 2pm: Yolande Yorke and Yorke Dance, work by and inspired by Graham, Cohan and others.    

5.30pm: Professor Mark Franko (Temple University) guest lecture ‘“A Subtle System of Feints”: Phenomenological Description and Theatricality in Foucault’s “Las Meninas.“‘

21^st November. Full day includes:

Keynote Lecture: Sir Alistair Spalding (Director Sadler’s Wells) 

Choreographic Practice and Innovation: Liam Francis and dancers 

Guest lectures by Lucia Ruprecht (Berlin); Alexandra Kolb (Roehampton), and Professor Felicia McCarren (Tulane; Leverhulme Visiting Fellow, Oxford). 

27th November, Jacqueline du Pré Building, 5.30pm. New Movement Collective with Gosia Dzierzon present a new Les Noces.

To book, visit the new DANSOX website here for further details, and Eventbrite links for each event, or the DANSOX Eventbrite page here.

You can also contact Ruth Thrush at ruththrush1@gmail.com with booking queries or Professor Susan Jones at susan.jones@ell.ox.ac.uk

 

DANSOX hosts New Movement Collective open rehearsal, Jacqueline du Pré Music Building, St Hilda’s College, Oxford. 18th July 2023 – Maggie Watson reports

On Tuesday evening, DANSOX hosted an open rehearsal of extracts from the choreographic research developed by the New Movement Collective (NMC) during a three-day residency at St Hilda’s College, Oxford. Introduced by Professor Sue Jones, producer Malgorzata (Gosia) Dzierzon explained that she and the other four dancers (Patricia Okenwa, Gemma Nixon, Juliana Javier and Eryck Brahmania) had been working collectively on a rewriting of Bronislava Nijinska’s ballet Les Noces (1923). This is a completely new dance work, but like Nijinska’s ballet, NMC’s work conveyed a strong sense that it was set in a deeply traditional society in which the wishes and desires of the individual are sublimated to the interests of the group.