In summer of this year we hosted our second Choreographers and Composers Lab with thanks to funding from Jerwood Arts and match funding from Leeds Dance Partnership. Throughout this post we will fill you in about what the artists got up to and tell you what you can expect next.

July 2019: after a rigorous application and interview process we welcomed four choreographers, four composers, four musicians and 12 dancers to our studio.

The selected choreographers and composers were:

Choreographers

Solomon Berrio-Allen, Jamaal Burkmar, Harriet Macauley and Michael Marquez

Composers

Anthony Davey, Eunseog Lee, Christella Litras and Angela Slater

During week one of the process, industry luminaries; Kim Brandstrup, Peter Wiegold, Sandrine Monin and Nadine Benjamin joined the 24 artists to set creative tasks with a focus on cross-artform collaboration. In the morning, the choreographers and composers would gather to be introduced to the workshop leaders and then partnered (one choreographer worked with one composer for that day’s activity). So that each choreographer could work with the diverse range of compositional talent on offer, the duos were swapped at the start of each day, before beginning a new creative workshop and vice versa. The partnered choreographers and composers were given access to three of the professional dancers and one musician to help facilitate the creative tasks.  As each day came to a close, the choreographers and composers came together to share their creative explorations from that day.

“The beauty has been the family nature of the Lab.” Anthony Davey, composer

The second week took a slightly different approach, with the choreographers and composers being paired at the start of the week and remaining together until the studio sharing for invited industry guests on the final day of the Lab.

Using the skills developed in week one, the choreographers and composers selected the number of dancers and musicians that they needed to realise their explorations and set to work. During this period Sharon Watson and Musical Director, Alexander Campkin offered support to the artists and acted as a sounding board for their ideas.

“Having Sharon in my session helped kick-start my allowing Anna (the dancer) to have the space to own the movement – that transformed my thinking. My decision making process is clearer now – I have the steppingstones. Sharon was able to guide me in a sensitive and delicate way to feel secure enough to be open to sharing responsibility with Anna.” Harriet Macauley, choreographer

The final day saw industry guests from across the dance sector come together for the CC Lab studio sharing, where we presented four original dance pieces, set to original compositions. The sharing celebrated the new works and gave opportunity for the artists to receive constructive feedback from the guests.

What next?

We are looking forward to welcoming the CC Lab choreographers and composers back to the studio for the first of two sandpit sessions on the 25 November. These creative sandpits allow for Sharon and Alexander to check in with the participants and offer the participants opportunity to ask any questions they may wish to explore on reflection from taking part in the Lab.

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