Dance Umbrella announces panel discussions and more details on artist encounters and studio sessions

Dance Umbrella today announces the final events for the 2024 Festival programme with full details of two panel discussions, and more information about the Artist Encounter and Studio Sessions.

Moving with Equity: A panel discussion on body politics (9 October) is designed to interrogate and move forward discussions around the body, its politics and movement practices, and the current discourse with colonial history.  Facilitated by author, journalist and Bernie Grant Arts Centre Artistic Director & CEO Azieb Pool, the panel will include author, actress, director and public speaker Kelechi Okafor, who is the host of the Say Your Mind podcast, as well as being a highly skilled pole and twerk fitness instructor.  They will be joined by choreographer Mamela Nyamza whose autobiographical work, which will be shown at the Barbican Theatre for four nights, addresses social injustice. She seeks to show the significance and particularity of each dancer’s movement that have been moulded by many diverse contexts and backgrounds through their history as classically trained dancers, permeated with embodiments of personal, public and political experiences as artists in South Africa.  Presented in partnership with the British Council and Barbican. This event will be BSL interpreted.

Is Theatre Stealing Dance’s Moves? panel discussion at Shakespeare’s Globe (22 October) features Polly Bennett (Saltburn, Elvis, The Crown) Yukiko Masui (SAY, Romeo and Juliet, The Effect) and Shelley Maxwell (Get Up Stand Up, Shifters, Macbeth). Globe CEO Stella Kanu will host a discussion covering the growing demand for the role of movement director in theatre, how it differs from the role of choreographer, and what the future of choreography and movement direction might look like across theatre, film, television and commercial projects. This event will be live-streamed and BSL interpreted.

Artist Encounters is a professional development talk with a guest artist, focusing on cultivating practical skills, sharing knowledge and asking questions that resonate.  This year, Artist Encounters will be led by choreographer Lea Anderson, who is celebrating the 40th anniversary of her company The Cholmondeleys with the publication of two new books focusing on her work. Using these as a jumping off point, Lea, alongside author Mary Kate Connolly, will offer a window into a unique choreographic world at Trinity Laban on 15 October.

In addition to revealing Lea’s unusual modes of collaboration with some of the UK’s leading creatives, they will explore the ways in which her works live on today via their rich archive of costumes and performance ephemera. From the earliest Cholmondeleys days of dancing in Doc Martens on beer-strewn gig platforms, to the rigour of sleek chorus lines for the theatre stage, and the precision of performed gallery exhibitions, Lea Anderson and her dancers have forged a unique path.

Glimpses of a vast notebook collection, short films, archival images and costume objects will allow for an intimate look at her way of working, and the legacy of her companies. This encounter will also unpick the ways in which collaborations between artist and scholar can ignite new after-lives for archival remnants and sustain both legacy and ongoing artistic practice. This event will be live-streamed and BSL interpreted.

Studio Sessions is a presenter programme, introducing dance artists based in England to promoters from the UK and abroad, with the ambition of brokering new relationships for international co-commissioning and future touring. Studio Sessions is a collaboration between Dance Umbrella and FABRIC that has been running since 2018. 

Three  work-in-progress pieces, HOT in HeRe by  SAY, Side-Show by Tom Cassani, and Dirty Work by  Jo Bannon will be shared at The Place on 12 October. Not open to the general public, this is a great opportunity for industry professionals to find out about these new works, as well as network with a range of artists, producers and promoters.