Sharing Platform
Monday 31 March 2008
Sandfield Theatre, Nottingham
The first of a new shape of platform for artists seemed to go down a treat for artists and invited audience alike. The opportunity was for regional artists and those with a connection to Dance4 to share work with fellow artists and practitioners in front of a small audience. Those who took part were invited to show work regardless of its stage in development with the idea that the invited audience could support the artists with feedback that could contribute to the development of dance and performance work in our region. This feedback was supported by Karine Décorne of Migrations, North Wales, who brought an unbias professional perspective to the proceedings.
During the evening, we presented 6 artists/companies. These included Gabriele Reuter (who was selected for a Dance4 SHIFT residency during 2008 and went on to present the show at nottdance08) with her piece Fragile Spaces. Antje Hildebrandt presented Hybrid, which is a piece that she originally created for De Montfort University Dance Company 2007 programme Exit Strategy.
Preface Morn showed Beauty in Stone - a work in progress that they recently premiered at Camden People’s Theatre, London. Efrosini Protopapa (Lapsus Corpi) presented the solo Umm … I… and … uh… [revisited] , which was a semi-set/semi-improvised reflection on the original. This has been a long-standing collaboration between the choreographer and performer Susanna Recchia. Efrosini was also selected for Dance4 SHIFT residency and was in the studio with Lapsus Corpi during the summer of 2008.
Finally Annette Foster’s piece Transgressions:Passing brought a live art feel to the evening and some much needed tap dance….
Feedback from the event by both artists and audiences was positive and the number of applications we had from people who wished to present work was far more than we had capacity for. This meant that we organised a second platform for later in the year.
‘It was an opportunity to try something out, it offered freedom within a professional context, and it enabled me to think of my artistic identity in a more certain and confident way. The way things get presented at Dance4 I think always allows me to understand something more about what it is I’m doing or want to keep doing. This is invaluable, and I think it does have something to do not only with the kind of work you usually choose to support, but also in the way you support it, the way you organise and present events and the way you relate to the artists.‘
