Something exciting is happening in Liverpool's docklands... Now in its 25th year, MDI's LEAP Dance Festival runs from 1st - 12th March, and will present some of the best contemporary dance in the UK, as well as showcasing the great talent in the region. Details of the performance programme, in a purpose-built pop-up dance space at Make. North Docks, are available at LEAP2017.co.uk.
Wired Aerial Theatre is proud to be running a programme of Workshops and Professional Development at The Higher Space for LEAP 2017 - read on for a full schedule and booking details. The Higher Space is at 10 Cotton Street, Liverpool, L3 7DY (3 minutes' walk from Make. North Docks - click here for a map).
__________________________________
Rock Bottom is an aerial dance theatre duet which is presently in research and development phase, led by Stuart Waters, working with Wendy Hesketh-Ogilvie. Awarded funding from Arts Council England, it draws on experiences of mental health issues and moments when we hit our own 'rock bottom'.
This two-day intensive is an extension of the research period for Rock Bottom, within which emotions associated with the theme will be explored, finding ways to physically express personal narratives. Stuart and Wendy are looking for mid-career artists (actors who move as well as dance artists), who perform but are also interested in making work. If you are looking for an opportunity to move, investigate, talk, laugh, ask questions and evolve, this is for you! Participants will likely explore the use of voice, and will need to be comfortable with exploring ideas around vulnerability.
To take part, simply send an email with the subject 'Research Intensive' to [email protected], with a statement on why you wish to take part (max. 100 words), plus a summary of your training and performance history (max. 100 words). The deadline for expressions of interest is Tue 21 February, 5pm.
__________________________________
__________________________________
A brilliant morning of bouncing with the creators of Bungee-Assisted Dance! Not only is this workshop crazy bouncing fun, but also learning to dance in partnership with a bungee is a glory to behold. Enjoy moments of flight and support as you dive, turn, leap and zoom through the air. You’ll never want to dance alone again! Open to all levels of aerial experience and ability. Previous dance experience is beneficial.
Focus your thoughts and flip your world by 90° - wearing a climbing harness, you'll be connected to your rope a short way from the floor. Initial exercises and postures help to change participant’s perception of what it means to stand vertically while working in a different plane. Our beautiful tensioned fabric wall will become your giant bouncy floor as you learn to pendulum, swing, roll, jump and fly. Come and feel like a warrior!
Our brand new fitness course! Injecting a spring into your step, Bungee Workout is a great cardiovascular workout and muscle toner, focusing on strengthening and stabilising the core of your body and encouraging a full body workout whilst having fun. Not just for thrill junkies, the bungee gives you time to enjoy the feeling of weightlessness and find calm within the flight. So, get ready to kick-start those endorphins and leave your stress on the floor. Get fit, have fun and come fly with us!
Place are limited and booking is essential - fill out a form to reserve your place: BOOKING FORM
__________________________________
Vital! celebrates the notion that you are never too old to dance. These creative workshops are for people aged 50 and over, and will be led by Maxine Brown (11am-12pm) and Diane Amans (12-1.45pm). Places are limited and booking is essential - to book please contact Jennie Hale, [email protected] / 0151 708 8810.
__________________________________
An exciting programme of workshops curated by MDI and Wired Aerial Theatre, run by Liverpool’s independent dance artists.
Fri 10 March | 10am-1pm | Workshop with Lisi Perry
Part 1. The Walk - The workshop involves learning a unison stepping pattern which works with accumulative counting. The group will play and explore ways of communicating with each other and the audience, exploring 'who is watching who?' (If you have a pair of sunglasses and a case please bring these with you)
Part 2. Jig - This involves working on solo, duet and trio composition/choreography that works alone and also explores how they fit together, but avoiding changing or adapting the choreography. Revealing new images as they break up/fit together like a jigsaw.
Both sessions are aimed at physical movers, dancers and performers.
Fri 10 March | 1-2.30pm | We Move – Parent and Toddler session
Leila and Hugo, and Jennie and Jude, invite parents or carers and their little ones to come and dance with them. We are looking at ways to devise material and move with our babies, and investigating how this would sit in a performance environment.
This workshop is for parents/carers/aunties/uncles/friends and their pre-school toddler (3 and under), who are interested in dance, movement and the creative process to performance. It will consist of a 40-60 minute workshop and 30 minute feedback and discussion session. Contact [email protected] for more information.
Fri 10 March | 3-5pm | Touching on Intimacy
Rosalind Holgate-Smith is a dance artist who creates immersive installation and performance works for galleries and outdoor spaces. She is inviting dancers to take part in a research workshop to explore the making of a new, durational performance, Touching on Intimacy, dealing with one's relationship to oneself. In this workshop Rosalind will facilitate a choreographic approach that incorporates influences from the practices of Body Mind Centering, Authentic Movement, Contact Improvisation and Skinner Releasing. Participants should be willing to spend a considerable time moving on the ground and prepared to dive into inner states of awareness.
Experienced dancers, movers and improvisers with some interest/experience in Contact Improvisation, Bodywork and Release Techniques are preferable.
Sun 12 March | 10am-12pm | African Dance Class
Felix Ologbesere (dancer/choreographer), Clement Ule (master drummer/percussionist), assisted by Yemi Oyeyebi (vocal artist), will lead a two-hour African dance masterclass. Join them for a great work out and a fun class with live drumming which will stretch the experienced dancer. The class will focus on blending rhythms and traditional movements from Nigeria and Benin with contemporary African dance vocabulary, linked to the performance of Hidden in Plain Sight as part of the Artist Takeover Showcase later that evening.
Open to dancers over 16 with three years’ experience of dance and some previous experience of African dance.
Sun 12 March | 12-5pm | Unseen: The Ephemeral Dance Theatre Image
A creative task-based and improvisationally-led workshop with Belinda Grantham, that collectively and individually explores what has been termed as the 'dance theatre image'. These images are not just visual, but instead rely on internal states of feeling and embodied memory, as well as our changing perceptions and intersubjective relationships. Antonio Damasio describes images as the ‘currency of our minds’, which are constructed when we ‘engage objects, from persons and places to toothaches, from the outside of the brain toward its inside; or when we reconstruct objects from memory, from the inside out’.
This workshop is part of a long-term research project concerned with exploring how internal body images and feeling states can be used to develop solo performance material.