First Look: works in progress for Dancin’ Oxford Festival, Pegasus Theatre Friday 20th January 2023

First Look provides a chance to get a preview of new dance work being created for Moving with the Times, the annual co-commission by Dancin’ Oxford and Pegasus Theatre for the Spring Dancin’ Oxford Festival. Four exciting dance artists/companies are interested in hearing your feedback on their works-in-progress. Expect to see Bharatnatyam dance, experimental music, drag, clowning, light displays, and hip hop fusion, telling powerful stories of identity. The final pieces will be presented on 3rd-4th March 2023.

This year our four featured artists/companies are Divija Melally, the fuse collective, Vita Peach and CTC Dance Company:

Divija Melally graduated from Bath Spa University, UK, with BA (Hons) Dance, and is trained in contemporary and Bharatnatyam dance. She is also a graduate of the Attakkalari Centre for Movement Arts, Bangalore, India. She has performed with leading dance companies across Europe and in India. For her Moving With The Times commission, Divija will create a dance work based around her own experiences of intergenerational trauma.

The fuse collective is an interdisciplinary collective made up of early career artists including Trinity Laban graduate and disabled dance artist  Lucy Clark, visual artists Daniela Zaharieva and Yi Ting Liong, and experimental musician, Philip Kinshuck. For the Moving With The Times commission, the fuse collective plans to create an immersive, interactive piece fusing dance, art and light to communicate what it is like to live with a hidden disability.

Oxford’s own Vita Peach is a graduate from Middlesex University (BA Dance Studies, First Class). Vita is an actor, a burlesque dancer and a drag king. For her Moving With The Times commission, Vita plans to create a humorous work drawing on techniques from contemporary dance, acrobatics, theatre, burlesque, butoh, jazz and clowning to create HUGO, a piece of movement theatre about a man who goes through a very extreme transition.

Christopher Tendai founded CTC Dance Company in 2017. Christopher started his career as a dancer on the West End and performed in many West End musicals including Hamilton, West Side Story and Cabaret. CTC Dance Company creates innovative dance productions on topics including mental health awareness and gender diversity. For the Moving With The Times commission, CTC Dance Company will create a piece exploring the relationship between a cis man and a trans woman.

Date: Friday 20th January 7.00pm

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

Booking: Tickets are “Pay what you can” (suggested donation £5): book online here

 

Puzzle Creature, Neon Dance at Cornerstone Arts Centre Didcot 23rd October 2019

Puzzle Creature is a multi-disciplinary dance work by Neon Dance that asks us to forget our mundane everyday and immerse ourselves in the magic of movement.  Inspired by the death-eluding architecture designs of Arakwara and Madeline Gins, director Adrienne Hart has collaborated with three exceptional dance artists to create an immersive dance experience.

From the Cornerstone foyer, step inside an inflatable set design and allow yourself to be transfixed by performers dressed in wearable artefacts created by artist Ana Rajcevic as they transport you through choreographed action. Accompanied by a newly commissioned score for eight speakers by composer Sebastian Reynolds, this unique performance combines British and Japanese Sign Language and audio description alongside Reynolds’ evocative score.

Guaranteed to be a transformative experience, join us for Puzzle Creature and enter a space where there is no barrier between the artist and the audience.

Performance:  Wednesday 23 Oct 2019 7:30pm

Venue:  Cornerstone Arts Centre, 25 Station Road, Didcot, Oxon OX11 7NE

Tickets: £14, £12 concs, £5 for under 26s: 50% Members Discount.  Book online here, or call the Box Office on 01235 515144

Find out more about Neon Dance here