Bring your project to life on Kickstarter

Got an idea for a technology project or product? Professional fundraiser Lise Smith reveals how to find funding on Kickstarter to make it a reality 

Kickstarter is the perfect  platform for getting your app, service or other technology project off the ground. Recently, products such as the Pebble Time smartwatch have attracted $20.3 million from more than 78,000 backers keen to get the device off the starting blocks, while the Exploding Kittens card game met its $10,000 funding goal in only eight minutes. More than $1.6 billion has been pledged through the site since launch, with a current funding success rate for new projects of around 40%. So how can you ensure that your project ends up in that 40% category with a full funding thermometer? 

The first thing to understand is Kickstarter’s “all or nothing” funding model. Put simply, this means that if you raise your target sum, you receive the money – but if you don’t, you get nothing. This model is intended to motivate backers by giving funding targets some urgency; if you’d rather keep hold of any money you raise, check out alternative platforms such as Indiegogo (indiegogo.com) or GoFundMe (gofundme.com). 

It’s also important to be aware that you won’t receive 100% of the money pledged. Kickstarter charges a commission of 5% on successfully funded projects, and payment processing costs a further 3-5%. This means that for every £1,000 your project requires, you’ll need to raise around £1,100 in total. To see how you can do that, let’s break down a Kickstarter campaign 

Setting up an account 
The first thing to do is ensure that your project meets Kickstarter’s criteria. That means it must have one or more definable objects – clear goals with a product, event or experience as the end result – and a defined timeline for achieving them. Kickstarter can’t be used for general business or charitable fundraising; other platforms such as GoFundMe can help if this is your aim. Check the full list of exclusions at pcpro.link/250kstarter. 

You should also consider the scale of your project. If it’s very long or very complex, consider dividing it into a number of separately funded stages (so that each phase of your campaign has its own funding target and a delivery goal). This can build confidence in your backers as you successfully meet each stage of the project, as well as splitting your funding targets into manageable chunks. 

Once you’re confident about the suitability and scope of your project, it’s time to get a feel for what a successful campaign looks like. Kicktraq (kicktraq.com) analyses current and past Kickstarter projects in depth; browse the “Hot List” as you plan your project to see what works and what doesn’t. Finally, it’s time to set up an account on Kickstarter: to do this you’ll be asked for basic information about the project, including your project category and funding target. 

Describing your project 
Your project page needs to inform potential backers of what your idea is, why they want it, and how you’ll go about realising it. When it comes to choosing a title, think SEO: include the project name, but also a few words describing your product or service, so visitors can find and understand it at a glance. 

There’s no set template for the description, but aim to be clear and concise; think more along the lines of an elevator pitch than a detailed business plan. Avoid excessive technical jargon: you want to appeal to everyone, not only specialists in your field. It’s a good idea to get a friend to read over your project information before you submit it to the site, to check that your message is clear and understandable. 

Think about presentation too: Kickstarter’s text editor supports headings and bullet points, so make use of these to break up paragraphs and direct your reader’s eye to what’s important. You can link to a project website for further information, and embed JPEGs, PNGs and other image types. Design drawings, mock-ups and screengrabs can be useful aids to convey a complex or unusual idea. Keep your text fairly light – backers can always contact you through the site to ask questions if they require more information. 

Making a video 
Most Kickstarter projects include a video, which can be an efficient and engaging way to introduce your project to backers, to demonstrate how your product or service works in practice, and let people know a little about you. There’s no need to invest in a professionally filmed video: many successful projects have been shot on a phone camera in somebody’s front room. 

You can upload footage in almost any major format, but there are a few gotchas to look out for: Kickstarter uses a 4:3 aspect ratio, rather than the more common 16:9 widescreen format, and there’s a maximum file size limit of 5GB. This shouldn’t be a problem since it’s a good idea to keep your video short: two minutes or less is a good length for which to aim. 

When it comes to content, footage of yourself (or a member of your team) speaking directly to the audience is more appealing than an anonymous voice-over, but also include images or video footage of your product in development, to help backers visualise the idea. 

Setting the right funding target 
Setting the right target is key to the success of your campaign, so spend some time considering what your project requires to get off the ground and from where that money is likely to come. Take a look at recent successful campaigns in your area of interest – again, Kicktraq can help you here. Don’t just examine the total funds raised but also note the number of backers and the most common sum donated. Together, these will provide a good ballpark figure to aim for and the kinds of rewards to offer. 

When your campaign is over, Kickstarter will use payment partner Stripe (stripe.com) to automatically collect payments from backers, who will need to enter card details in order to make a pledge. Note that some other crowdfunding platforms require backers to have a PayPal account from which to collect money – check that the payment method used is suitable for your donors. 

If you’re already a well-known company with an established customer base and a good reputation, you should have no problem reaching potential backers. If you’re a small startup or an individual making a first foray into business, your backers are more likely to come from personal contacts: multiply your friends and acquaintances by a typical pledge to get a realistic target figure. See our advice below for tips on how to get the word out and start people backing your project. 

Rewards 
Kickstarter rewards are the benefits you offer your backers to attract them to your project. They’re usually something associated with your project, such as an advance copy of your finished product, sent either physically or via digital download, or merchandise. 

For low-level donations, consider offering rewards that are either free or very low cost to produce and distribute. “Digital rewards” are perfect here: that might mean a personalised message of thanks on social media, images of your project in progress, or a thank-you video from your team. If you’re distributing physical rewards (including advance or reduced-price copies of your product), triple-check you’ve built their costs into your funding target, or you may find you’re left with a big hole in your budget. 

Most Kickstarter creators distribute rewards at the end of a campaign, but there’s nothing to stop you posting digital rewards while the campaign is running. This can help to create a buzz around your campaign, especially if you make the reward a video or image that the recipient is likely to want to share online. 

Launching the campaign 
Before you go live, it’s a good idea to have an initial group of donors primed (perhaps some good friends, loyal customers or members of your board) to pledge as soon as the campaign goes live. This helps get your funding thermometer off the zero spot and gives your project the sheen of success. Email your most likely backers to let them know when your campaign will launch, and email again when it’s live. 

This is also the time for a big push on social media. As with all social media ventures, timing is key: choose a time when your target audience will be online and available to click through, read about your campaign and watch your video. 

Promoting and updating your campaign 
Potential backers may not immediately jump at the opportunity to support your campaign, but repeated exposure can win them over. A daily summary on Facebook is a good way of keeping your project visible, and don’t be afraid to ask your backers to share the campaign on their social media – reaching beyond your own immediate circle of contacts is key to getting the Kickstarter ball rolling. 

Also consider setting up a dedicated Facebook page for your project where you can post images, videos and acknowledgements from your backers, and invite those who are likely to support you to the group. Share content on your personal feed as well and encourage your team to do the same – support can sometimes come from unexpected quarters! 

Genuine communication and real enthusiasm go a long way, so combine scheduled updates with personal posts thanking donors – unless a donor has asked to be anonymous, it’s good practice to put a name on Twitter and Facebook, which not only says thank you, but also reminds people that your campaign is running. Don’t neglect your Kickstarter campaign page either. When you add an update here, Kickstarter will automatically send it out as an email to existing backers. Advertise when you’ve hit a milestone (such as 50% funded and 75% funded) to raise confidence in the 

After you’ve hit your target 
If you hit your funding target before the end of your campaign – a common occurrence as the public gets used to the idea of Kickstarter – there’s no need to stop campaigning. Now’s the time to update your backers and make them aware of your “stretch goals” for any extra money raised. If you show how you’ll include extra funds in an updated business plan, chances are you’ll continue attracting backers until the end of your campaign. 

Nor should the end of the campaign mark the end of your activity. You can continue to post updates on your Kickstarter page to keep backers informed about how your project is developing, and the delivery of any outstanding rewards. If production is delayed or it’s taking longer than anticipated to complete the work, let them know why – in general, donors will understand a change of plan, but won’t appreciate being kept in the dark. 

Finally, good luck and let us know if you decide to start your own firm by emailing letters@pcpro.co.uk. 

4 ways to kickstart your campaign 

Kickstarter for iOS/Android (free) 
Monitor donations and send campaign updates from wherever you are with Kickstarter’s official mobile app. At present you still need a desktop computer to launch or edit your campaign. 

Craft personal emails and send them to potential backers at the ideal time of day with this email- scheduling tool. 

Kicktotal
Hosted by crowdfunding veterans, this handy web service lets you tot up your project’s costs, along with fees, the cost of any rewards and expected sales revenue, to ensure your fundraising finances stay on track. 

BackerKit (£65)/mth) 
If your project attracts very large numbers of backers, BackerKit can help you track backer contacts and manage rewards-including those that aren’t offered through Kickstarter. 

Kicktrag 
Kickstarter’s Creator Dashboard will show you a breakdown of daily funding progress and pinpoint from where your web traffic is coming, so you can analyse how effective each email, tweet and Facebook post is to your campaign. If you want to share daily goals with your customers and friends, embed the Kicktraq Mini widget onto your website or forum to show off how well you’re doing. 

Travel: The Pros and Cons of Travelling with a Laptop

If you travel for business regularly, you probably take a laptop with you to work on the move; but an increasing number of us are also taking computers on holiday. The availability of WiFi in all but the remotest of destinations now means it’s easy to stay connected when you travel, using a phone, tablet or larger device. We take a look at the pros and cons of travelling with a laptop.

 

 

PROS

Picture this

Sharing your holiday pics used to mean taking rolls of film to Boots and showing physical albums to friends long after the trip was over; now it’s common to share images online direct from the beach. Phone cameras are good for posting quick snaps, but if you’re a keen photographer you’ll certainly want to take your DSLR on holiday with you to capture exotic scenery, holiday portraits, and wildlife images. Taking a laptop too means you can process and upload images while you’re still away – you’ll have a lovely memento, while friends and family back home will enjoy seeing what you’re up to!

Let me entertain you

Pop a couple of films or favourite TV shows on a lightweight laptop and you’ll have a ready-made entertainment system for long flights and train journeys. Take a few more and you won’t have to rely on local television networks or paying for in-room entertainment. While watching TV might not be your favourite holiday activity, a bit of welcome distraction can be especially useful for solo travellers and families travelling with children.

A vital connection

Nothing could be more blissful than getting away from the office completely for a week or two…or could it? The ‘worliday’ (working holiday) is a growing phenomenon and it is becoming more common for travellers to take a laptop away with them to catch up on work emails, check documents and keep in touch with the office. Spending an hour a day clearing emails and dealing with urgent problems can make the transition back to work at the end of a break less stressful; but it’s best to separate work and leisure and limit yourself to a specific time of day for work contacts, perhaps in the evening before dinner.

CONS

Don’t make me weight

With developments to screen and storage technology, laptops and notebooks are coming down in weight all the time. There’s no getting around the fact that a larger desktop-replacement model can still be a cumbersome thing to lug around with you, however, so think twice about bringing a full-sized laptop if your luggage limit is tight. Or check out the new breed of ultraportable laptops: Asus, Dell and all have compact lightweight models to suit a range of budgets.

Take my stuff away

Like any valuable item, a laptop carries a small risk of being stolen when you transport it around the world. To avoid the expense and hassle of a stolen computer, keep your laptop bag with you at all times when travelling (walk with it across your body and keep it next to you on the train or under the seat in front on the plane). If you’re leaving your computer in the hotel room when heading out to the beach, lock it in the hotel safe or leave it with the front desk if there’s no safe or locker. Consider using a cable lock to keep your machine secure when working at a public table; laptop snatches are uncommon but a solid and visible lock will help deter opportunist thieves. If that all sounds like too much effort, leave the laptop at home and find an internet cafe instead.

Travelling with a laptop helps travellers stay in touch when they are abroad. Be sure your travel insurance covers your electronics, just in case it is damaged or stolen during your trip.

Originally published at www.holidayextras.co.uk

Feature: Dance To The Music – contemporary dance in music video

You might not look to pop video clips for your contemporary dance kicks – but in fact, as Lise Smith points out, techniques, choreography, styles and ideas from contemporary dance have been a distinctive influence on the development and direction of music video.

Popular music and artful contemporary dance have rarely been easy bedfellows. Chart music might be uniquely capable of getting the masses moving every weekend in social spaces from ballrooms to warehouses, but contemporary choreographers working in the theatre tend not to look for musical accompaniment from popular sources. Classical and neoclassical compositions, avant-garde and electronic soundscapes, natural sounds and ambient noise have all soundtracked works by choreographers from Merce Cunningham to Mark Morris, but rarely has pop music (by which I mean any popular form rather than purely synth-based bubblegum) been given serious choreographic attention.

Think of dance and pop together and (depending on your age and powers of recall) you’re more likely to think of either the choreographic oeuvre of Flick Colby and her various troupes on Top of the Pops, or of fresh-faced youngsters in lycra dancing a synchronised number behind a lip-synching singer on MTV. Neither example is likely to be mistaken for sophisticated contemporary dance.

Eschewing sophistication – Pan’s People, 1975

Look beyond these overarching norms, however, and there are pockets of choreographic brilliance to be found on music television. Artists with an interest in performance have pushed at the boundaries of the promo video and its creative possibilities almost as long as the form has been with us, bringing contemporary dance and choreography to audience numbers undreamed of by theatre choreographers.

Before we dive deeper into some of these four-minute gems, let’s take a quick look at how music videos became the vital part of music promotion and consumption they are today.

Video Killed The Radio Star – the rise of music television
Short videos made to accompany single releases date at least back to 1957 and Elvis Presley’s Jailhouse Rock, a clip that in many ways set the template for what we still expect from a music video: close-ups of an attractive, youthful singer miming the lyrics, and a group of dancers in the background performing an upbeat, synchronised dance routine.

Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, a growing number of artists turned to short-form videos to promote current releases rather than schlepping around a circuit of television studios; but it was the arrival of 24-hour music channel MTV, on 1 August 1981, that vastly increased the influence of the music video. Heavy rotation on the channel had the power to elevate a well-performing single to a global smash, and was instrumental in the success of artists who were early embracers of the format, including Madonna, Michael Jackson and Duran Duran.

The Video Music Awards (or VMAs) were introduced in 1984 to honour the creatives behind the year’s best and most popular videos, and included a category for Best Choreography in recognition of the growing importance of dance within the format. That year’s award was won jointly by Jackson with former Alvin Ailey dancer Michael Peters for the landmark Thriller video, an epic in miniature that threw down the gauntlet to other artists with its cast of dozens, multiple locations and much-imitated zombie dance sequence.

Thriller upped the ante for video dance choreography, but although it set itself apart from the majority of clips with its imaginative narrative and sophisticated cinematography, it still rests comfortably within the conventions of the music video established by Elvis in 1957: close-ups of the singer miming, and an energetic synchronised backing routine. Switch the name of the singer, and we could be describing almost any music video from the last four decades. It took a British artist at the height of her commercial and creative powers to push those basic conventions of miming and up-tempo unison to the side and create a music video that theatre dance aficionados could truly get excited about.

Body Movin’ – musicians discover modern dance
By the mid-1980s, British musician Kate Bush had already made a series of notable videos featuring idiosyncratic mime, expressive dance and inexplicable references to Gaffa tape. Signed to EMI records aged just sixteen, Bush had spent the first two years of her contract refining her performance skills with choreographer Lindsay Kemp (who had previously worked with David Bowie) and mime artist Adam Darius. Her 1978 debut single, Wuthering Heights, was accompanied by a memorable video featuring the singer sweeping across winding, windy moors in a crimson frock. The supple choreography, with nods to ballet, karate, and (at 1.34) a squishy variant on disco-dancing, is an eye-catching early indication of Bush’s interest in creating a totality of performance surpassing even Bowie’s. (The singer’s distinctive and self-consciously performative style wasn’t without its critics, and became the occasional subject of hilariously accurate parody).

Exhausted by a 1979 live tour combining complex choreography with multiple costume
changes, Bush decided to focus her creative energies on video, leading to a series of clips featuring the singer portraying a singing foetus, roller-skating with Grahamesque contractions, and sinister blinking . Even given Bush’s track record for unusual video choices, however, 1985’s Running Up That Hill was strikingly different from anything else played on music television at the time.

Strikingly different – Kate Bush, Running Up That Hill, 1985

Unlike earlier videos, here there is a conspicuous absence of either close-ups or lip-synching. Nor is Bush backed by peppy dancers performing in unison; instead, Bush and dancer Michael Hervieu engage in a supple contact duet choreographed by Diane Grey full of soft rolls and falls to the floor. The dance has the appearance of a stage performance: it takes place in a single, square-shaped space and runs through the song as if the dancers are performing in real time. There is even a spotlight at one point, further underlining the theatrical feel of the video.

Grey’s dynamic choices are unusual for a pop video, even today. Where contemporaneous choreographers such as Toni Basil and Arlene Philips tended to stick to a palette of upbeat, energetic jazz-inflected dance moves, Bush and Hervieu ooze over one another with a much softer, released quality. And where other videos tended to use their dancers in an upright position with a focus on “steps”, Grey’s choreography set her dancers rolling around the floor and across each other with a much greater ause of whole body movement. Where Bush’s earlier videos tend to be admired for their eccentric individuality, Running Up That Hill successfully combines a genuinely unique spirit with a beautifully inviting warmth.

Bush’s innovative approach actually resulted in the video not being played on MTV at the time of the single’s release, owing to the channel’s strong preference for lip-synched lyrics. Nevertheless, the video opened new possibilities for artists interested in doing something more creative with the form. In a more recent example, American singer P!nk’s 2012 video for Try also features a contact duet; this time the style is more vigorously confrontational, physicalising the theme of a relationship in conflict. The dance material, in part inspired by the early twentieth-century Apache Dance , was created by choreographic duo Golden Boyz with P!nk’s regular trapeze collaborator Sebastien Stella.

Vigorously confrontational – P!nk, Try, 2012

Like Bush, P!nk is an artist with an interest in physical performance, as attested by her memorable pair of Grammy performances . The explosively energetic, Euro-crashy choreography for Try shows an admirable fearlessness: not only is gymnastics-trained P!nk willing to push herself to the physical extremes demanded by the choreography itself, but she does so in pursuit of a sublimely savage aesthetic rather than a conventionally pretty one.

Bush and P!nk undertook dance training, but other musicians have embraced dance in their videos without stepping into a dance studio themselves. When Manchester’s New Order recruited maverick French choreographer Philippe Decouflé to direct and choreograph the clip for 1987’s True Faith, the band (perhaps wisely) left the dancing to the professionals.

Smack my elf up? New Order’s True Faith, 1987

There is an intensely satisfying interplay between image and music here, one that goes beyond the precise synchronisation between slaps and snares that demands the viewer’s immediate attention at the beginning of the video. Decouflé’s strongly visual style (the choreographer is known for conjuring up spectacular onstage worlds with theatrical trickery) is the perfect foil to the carefully art-directed image New Order had cultivated as a leading part of Manchester’s iconic Factory Records.

The tongue-in-cheek action – dancers in inflatable costumes, aliens gesticulating in rhythmic sign language, endless bouncing on trampolines – gently undercuts the drama of the track itself while responding to its strong percussive drive. Like fellow Mancunians The Smiths, New Order are sometimes mistaken for arch miserablists; Decouflé’s surreally witty video lightly punctures that gloomy image. The clip brought the band their first US top 40 hit, and won the 1988 BRIT Award for Best Video. For his part, Decouflé went on to direct She Drives Me Crazy for Fine Young Cannibals, and the burlesque-inspired Partition for Beyoncé as well as extensive work in theatre and live events.

Direct to video – music television goes online
With the launch of regional and specialist MTV music channels and video-based TV programmes such as Channel 4’s The Chart Show, music television remained an important way for artists to promote current singles throughout the 1990s and into the new millennium. Budgets grew steadily, film techniques and visual effects improved noticeably, and a raft of directors, including offbeat favourites Spike Jonze and Michel Gondry, made industry debuts with videos for artists including Fatboy Slim and Daft Punk .

In 2005, a team of Californian PayPal employees, inspired by Janet Jackson’s half-time performance at the 2004 Super Bowl, decided to create an online platform for easy video sharing, and named it YouTube. The site rapidly became the dominant source of video viewing in the US, with 100 million video views per day in 2006, and monthly views in the tens of billions today. With its emphasis on short-form video (YouTube initially allowed uploads of up to ten minutes in length) the platform was ideal for music video uploads; more importantly, with its easy link-sharing and embedding, the site encouraged fans not
only to watch but to share videos with friends via blogs and other social media. It is barely surprising, then, that musicians have started to see increased chart success as a result of heavily shared videos on YouTube and similar channels.

Following a steady three decades of increasing budgets and technical complexity in music videos, Midwestern indie rockers OK Go! hit YouTube gold with a low-tech, low-budget clip for their seventh single Here It Goes Again. The clip, an inventive treadmill workout choreographed by the singer’s sister and shot in one take after a week of rehearsals, demonstrates how an unusual idea executed relatively simply can be as effective and attention-grabbing as the high production values and trained casts of other videos.

Work it out – OK Go!, Here It Goes Again, 2006

There’s something very refreshing about this video: the performers are clearly not trained
dancers; they’re young but not terribly glamorous; the video is shot without professional lighting in what looks suspiciously like somebody’s back room at home. But for all the refreshing homeliness of the video, the choreography itself is ingenious and endlessly watchable. The treadmills are both help and hazard – they glide the band on their way, but there’s an excitingly constant risk of somebody taking a tumble. And although the concept is simple, there’s plenty going on in the clip: choreographer Trish Sie, who won a Grammy Award for her work on the video, manages to find an entertaining variety of things for four men to do on exercise machines.

The band have gone on to incorporate choreography into their subsequent releases, dancing with upturned bins and dogs in White Knuckles; with a marching band for This Too Shall Pass, and a cast of thousands emulating a dot matrix display for I Won’t Let You Down. It’s the treadmills that always seem to be the best remembered, however, attracting a viral audience of millions with a concept seemingly tailor-made for YouTube.

If OK Go! managed to accidentally invent the viral music video, Radiohead’s Thom Yorke
went one better and turned himself into a meme. For the 2011 video to Lotus Flower, Yorke sought out the services of Wayne McGregor, one of Britain’s few widely-known contemporary choreographers, to create an intense solo of twisting joints and liquid limbs. In contrast to the visual overload of some of our other clips, Lotus Flower is almost austerely sparse: shot in monochrome on a minimal set, the film focuses squarely on Yorke and his five-minute solo dance.

Authentic action – Radiohead, Lotus Flower, 2011

As a choreographer, McGregor is known for his articulate, physically demanding choreography that often sends parts of his performers’ bodies off in different directions, as if dislocated. Yorke, lacking the training of McGregor’s own company dancers, was unlikely to wrap his legs around his own ears, but the McGregor style is still evident in the syncopated dislocations of the arms and torso. The result suits Yorke’s body so well that some internet commenters believed the singer had improvised the dance rather than worked with a choreographer.

There is certainly a naturalness to the way Yorke performs the alternately fluid and spasmodic hip and torso movements, yet the clip is surreally transfixing – so much so that user-made mashups of “Dancing Thom” became much-shared on YouTube and microblogging platforms such as Tumblr and Twitter in the week of the video’s release.

McGregor is not the only big-name choreographer to have created dances for music video in the internet age. Belgian Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui choreographed the movement for the mesmerising Valtari by Icelandic band Sigur Ros in 2012, while his compatriot Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker was taken by surprise to find her work turning up in Beyoncé’s 2011 video Countdown , which featured sequences lifted without permission from De Keersmaeker’s film pieces Achterland and Rosas Danst Rosas. A not-terribly-impressed De Keersmaeker declared herself “not mad”, but added: “ it’s a bit rude”. Beyoncé, in any case, has form on tastefully-inspired homages (or straight-up plagiarism, depending on your point of view): the similarities between jazz choreographer Bob Fosse’s Mexican Breakfast and the choreography for Single Ladies, for example, was much-remarked at the time of the latter’s release.

Beyoncé’s superstar status drew attention to the choreographic inspirations for her clips, but she’s certainly not the only artist to borrow fragments of theatre choreography for promo clips. What these homages/appropriations/cheerful pinchings demonstrate is the growing influence of modern dance within the music video format. Just as the music video form attracted higher-profile directors and more experimental approaches throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, it’s clear that a number of pop artists are interested in using sophisticated and inventive choreography in video clips to connect with their audiences. Why? Because they recognise that contemporary dance, with its ideals of experimentation, originality and individuality, can bring innovation and distinctiveness to their own work.

Long may these artists continue to dance to the music, and to dance to their own beat.

Dance Umbrella 2014

The Glow That Illumines – lighting and dance

Lighting for dance has become a field of expertise and artistry in itself. Lise Smith casts an eye over its background and speaks to some of its leading lights.

Photo: J Louis Fernandez.

As any physics student will tell you, a beam of light is invisible until it hits something to illuminate. In a similar way, the people who sit up in the technical booth and control the rhythm and direction of their beams of light onstage have, until recently, tended to be invisible to those who watch their work. We know there’s somebody up there – there’s a name in the programme and a gesture by the performers at the end of a show – but for many years the figure of the lighting designer him or herself rarely received much public attention.

Now that is changing, and the ability of lighting designers to transform and elevate a piece of dance is increasingly acknowledged. In addition to industry plaudits such as the Knights of Illumination awards, lighting designers for dance are receiving recognition for their collaborations with choreographers. In April 2014, designer Michael Hulls received an Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in Dance, indicating a growing appreciation for lighting as a vital part of the creative process itself and not a supplementary layer added towards the end. A generation ago there were no technical courses aimed at producing professional lighting designers for the theatre; now there are dozens, including three-year honours courses at Central School of Speech and Drama and RADA.

Lighting design as we know it today is very much a development of the mid-20 th century, arriving in Britain from the US at around the same time as touring dance companies such as Martha Graham’s were bringing a new modern aesthetic to British dance theatre. Stage lighting existed prior to this, of course, but was usually the preserve of the theatre’s chief electrician rather than the work of a professional lighting designer. The lighting itself was accordingly less sophisticated – classical ballet tended to find itself lit by washes of yellow (for outdoors), blue (for moonlight) and pink (for romance), with a broad swathe of colour across the stage for large scenes and a follow-spot for solos.

This approach, in which the whole set is illuminated and with a focus on the faces of the performers, was common across lighting for dramatic theatre, opera and dance at the time. As veteran lighting designer Peter Mumford says, “In a play, people will say ‘you can’t hear the words if you can’t see the face.’” While this may be a good rule of thumb for lighting drama or a story ballet, with the advent of postmodern dance in the 1960s and 1970s, the moving body became a focus of choreographic interest in its own right rather than a conduit for a narrative. Choreographers such as Siobhan Davies and Richard Alston developed a vocabulary of movement that focused as much on intimate, pedestrian gestures as on movements that broadcast to the back of the auditorium.

Correspondingly, the lighting created by designers like Mumford helped bring the audience’s attention to these details – sculpting bodies in sidelights, partially silhouetting them in backlight, and picking out limbs in single beams rather than lighting everything from the front. “The key difference with lighting for dance is what’s required visually,” continues Mumford. “The emphasis has to be on the body, on what the bodies are doing; a physical visualisation has got to be at the front end of it.”

The field of lighting design for dance was defined, developed and professionalised in the US by designers including Jean Rosenthal, who worked with Martha Graham and New York City Ballet; and Jennifer Tipton, who has designed for American Ballet Theatre, Paul Taylor and Twyla Tharp. These pioneers developed principles and practices of dance lighting that still underpin the work of today’s designers.

One of today’s leading lights is Lucy Carter, who has worked closely with choreographers Wayne McGregor and Shobana Jeyasingh and will be lighting pieces by McGregor and Le Patin Libre in Dance Umbrella 2014. With dance, she explains, “you’ve got to reveal the body, the physical shape of the dancer’s body. Sometimes you want to obscure it or show it in a different way, so you use your light to texture the body, to colour the body.” Often this means using sidelights – lamps rigged on booms in the wings of the theatre, rather than over the top of the stage. Rather than casting a flat light onto the face and body from the front, sidelight hits the body (as the name suggests) from the sides, creating greater contrast than frontlighting and giving the body a more defined look.

Shadow, and the direction in which it falls, can be as important in framing the body as light itself – a strongly-lit body casting a long, looming shadow creates a very different visual impression to a gently-lit body with a soft shadow; and a body with the face visible will look very different to one where the features are obscured by shade. A toplight will naturally create a smaller shadow underneath the dancer, whereas a lamp rigged low on the forestage will throw dramatic shadows onto the back cloth – an effect beautifully exploited by Michael Hulls in his award-winning lighting for Russell Maliphant’s 1996 solo Shift, in which shadow
dancers seemed mysteriously to enter and exit the stage, becoming part of the choreography itself.

As well as defining the body with light and shadow, lighting for dance productions often visually defines the space in which a performance takes place, expanding or contracting the space by illuminating selected portions of the stage. The majority of contemporary dance productions take place on a bare stage, meaning lighting often takes on some of the tasks of a theatre set. “Light can completely and utterly change the appearance of the space,” says Carter. “You can change the shape of that space, you can sculpt the air, you can colour the air.”

“At its most fundamental, lighting creates the space, it manipulates space” agrees Hulls. “In my work with Russell and with other people, usually we’re in a blank void until we turn some light on, and then we start to create the space and the time in which the dance can unfold.” A spot or pool of light on one area of the stage limits what the eye can see and frames the action like a close-up; a wider spill of light invites us to take a wider view. “There are fundamental ways that we respond to light: the eye will always be drawn to the brightest light,” says Hulls. So, in other words, if you want your audience to watch the exciting variation upstage instead of the bloke sitting downstage, better turn your upstage lights on.

Designer Guy Hoare, who has worked extensively with choreographers including Mark Bruce, Shobana Jeyasingh and Henri Oguike, gives an example: Passing Strange and Wonderful, made by Ben Wright in 2010. “The idea was to constrain the space to a quite small box, about 2.5 metres by 1 metre, and that was created by nine separate slithers of light – so if they’re all in it’s a rectangle, if there are four it’s a square, if you drop out the middle four it’s a zebra crossing,” he explains. “The piece happened either in that space or just outside it, and anyone just outside the light would bounce light onto anyone in it. There’s something beautiful about framing a miniature onstage, and you can do more detailed work if you close the space down.”

Lighting also plays a vital role in helping the audience interpret a piece of dance visually. “What lighting is doing within any piece is showing you what to look at first of all,” says Mumford, “and secondly showing you what to feel about what you’re looking at.” The intensity, colour and shape of the light thrown onto the stage all have a role to play in guiding the audience’s emotional response, as well as what we are physically able to see.

“Light is psychotropic, it affects our mood,” explains Hulls. There are well-known conventions for connecting colour and mood: red tends to signify anger or passion, yellow evokes sunny joy and blue calm reflection. Deployed ingeniously, lamps and coloured gels can frame the action on stage and create a context for the piece – suggesting a literal place on earth, or a less tangible location.

Fabiana Piccioli, lighting designer and technical manager for several of Akram Khan’s productions, won a prestigious Knights of Illumination award in 2013 for Khan’s iTMOi. The choreography was conceived as being set within the mind of composer Igor Stravinsky, and Piccioli recalls that “We stayed in the same state for a long time, so I had to create a space that wouldn’t get boring. I thought the mind is made of electricity, or fibres.” Rather than creating a literal location in the real world, Piccioli’s challenge was to create “a place of the mind”, subtly suggesting neural connections.

Inspired by the idea of beams distorted by broken glass Piccioli, Piccioli rigged a series of lamps at different angles to create a wash that would fall on the dancers in different ways as they moved through the beams. “When the dancers move through the
space, they’re lit sideways, backlights, sometimes frontlights. So as they take a step in any direction the way they’re lit changes, and this helped keep the image interesting throughout this long section.”

Guy Hoare’s lighting design for Mayuri Boonham’s Ex Nihilo at the Linbury Studio last year also started with the idea of a location. “Mayuri knew that she wanted the piece to be about creating and the origins of the universe and the cosmos, so the first question was, ‘How do we want to do the universe?’” he explains. Hoare decided against video, as video projection requires a pale surface at odds with the black void suggested at the start of the piece. “So I said, ‘I think we ought to be thinking about a black, empty space devoid of masking, and let’s create a constellation with lightbulbs’. The detail about what the cloud of bulbs was going to be that evolved over 3 to 4 months, but in terms of the idea it was there from the early days of the piece.”

Where lighting for dance theatre can differ greatly from lighting for dramatic theatre or opera is in the length of time available to create the design, and the degree of collaboration that goes into the work. “The lighting designer has become a very important part of the creative team, and therefore has the responsibility of bringing something to that as a creative artist,” says Peter Mumford. Lucy Carter agrees: “Always in dance, in my experience, the lighting designer is on board at the beginning. You’d be there at the first briefing from the choreographer, where they would outline their idea for the piece and their themes.”

Michael Hulls is perhaps best known for his long-term collaboration with Russell Maliphant, in which the two work together in the studio from the beginning of a project to create lighting and dance that are intimately bound together. “With Russell the idea is that we start together, because you have to work with lights in the studio in order to make something that is interdependent,” says Hulls. “The ideal is that we’re in the space where you’re starting the project, starting dancing and starting lighting all together, and hopefully through trial and error we discover something.”

An example Hulls gives of his creative process with Maliphant involves Afterlight, the solo made for Daniel Proietto in 2009. The lighting was inspired in this case by a domestic lamp in the designer’s own home. “It shone up on the ceiling with a dark hole in the middle, which was the shadow of the lamp holder,” says Hulls. “And it was a very soft, diffuse, organic swirling light, and I’d been looking at this for some time thinking ‘how could you do that on stage?’” Hulls’ solution was to ask animator Jan Urbanowski to create a video with a swirling cloud similar to a cyclone, and to cast this swirling cloud onto the dancer using an
overhead projector.

“We asked Daniel to revolve at the same time as the light was; his feet were in his own shadow, so you couldn’t see his feet moving and it looked like he was on a turntable,” says Hulls. “That’s what we discovered and it was very exciting; so that’s an example where you can make something because you’re starting in the studio with light and dance together.”

So lighting designers for dance frequently work in much closer collaboration with choreographers than they would with theatre directors, where they are guided primarily by a text and might not venture into the rehearsal room much before production week; or opera directors, where the time available to light a show can be as little as one day. What do the designers themselves view as the purpose of this collaboration – what, in short, does lighting for dance aim to do?

“First and foremost it’s to illuminate the dance, literally, so you can see it, otherwise it’s radio,” laughs Peter Mumford. “But within that, it’s also to inform the narrative, to create chemistry between the dance and the audience, so that they are seeing what lies beneath the movement, and are able to have a kind of emotional reaction to it.” Lighting for the theatre adds information; in dramatic theatre, this might be fairly literal, such as location or time of day in a piece of dramatic theatre. In dance, it’s more likely to be thematic, emotive or conceptual. “You’re creating an environment that’s layered with information,” says Lucy Carter, “rather than trying to portray something that the audience absolutely needs to read.”

Mumford and Hoare both compare the work of a lighting designer to that of a cinematographer in film-making – a key member of the creative team who doesn’t direct the action, but who frames what the viewer can see. “Ultimately it comes down to deciding
what you want to see and what you don’t,” says Hoare. “That can be the detail of how a shadow falls on a face, or choosing which dancers you want to see, or deciding you want to see the floors or the walls or the space.” Lighting makes visible what the choreographer and the director together decide they want the audience to see – in purely physical terms, and from there in interpretive terms. If the work of the choreographer is to create the dance material, the way we see the piece in the theatre is to a great extent a result of the way in which lighting reveals it.

Fabiana Piccioli feels that good lighting design can elevate a work and let the audience partake in the willing suspension of disbelief that is the particular pleasure of the theatre. “You create another dimension that allows the audience to believe in what they’re seeing and agree to that illusion, and get there and be somewhere else for those 70 minutes,” she says. A good piece of choreography enraptures us as viewers; a skilled lighting designer can help the choreographer transport the audience to another level of wonder.

“For me it’s kind of poetic rather than lyrical,” says Michael Hulls. “How it works should be an indivisible part of the whole experience – it takes you somewhere psychologically, emotionally, conceptually, that only a combination of seeing, hearing and viscerally connecting can do. And that’s what dance is about.”

Dance Umbrella 2014

8 Facts About India That Might Surprise You

1. India is BIG

India is big. Really big. You just won’t believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. Reaching almost 2,000 miles from Kashmir in the north to Tamil Nadu in the south, and a similar distance from east to west, the sheer scale of India means it is very unlikely you’ll be able to experience the whole country in just one trip. It’s best to select two or three key regional hubs (for example Mumbai, Panjim and Bangalore in the south, or Kolkata, Darjeeling and Lucknow in the north-east) and give yourself plenty of time to travel between locations — you can always return if you want to see more.

2. There are 22 official languages

Along with its physical size, India is renowned for its regional diversity — in language, culture, food and architecture. That diversity makes the country endlessly fascinating, even to those who have visited before — but it can make trying to learn the local lingo more challenging than usual for travellers who like to pick up a few phrases. Make sure you check the local language before you leave (Hindi won’t get you far in the south) and pick up an appropriate phrasebook or two.

3. There’s more to Indian cuisine than Chicken Tikka Masala

A trip to India will acquaint you with dozens of delicious dishes that aren’t easily found in the UK. Up in the hills you’ll find delicate steamed dum pukht slow-cooked in a sealed pot over a low fire; simply-cooked fresh fish in Kerala and Goa; and scrumptious masala dosa all over the south. One of the best ways to experience Indian cooking, especially if you’re spectacularly hungry, is an all-you-can-eat thali — a huge pile of rice served with several different kinds of curry and vegetable, topped up whenever your plate looks empty. Hard to beat for taste and value, the best are found at roadside cafes and served on a fresh green banana leaf.

4. Kolkata is a great city to visit

Kolkata (previously known as Calcutta) was for many years associated with poverty and overpopulation, particularly following India’s war with neighbouring Bangladesh in the early 1970s. In the last quarter of a century, however, Kolkata has seen profound economic and infrastructure development, and today is a beautiful and fascinating city rich with history and culture. Don’t be afraid to visit — and don’t limit yourself to the tourist centre of Sudder Street, either. Kolkata has much more to offer than backpacker hostels, and it’s a great place to begin a mountain trekking holiday in West Bengal.

5. You won’t be able to find a decent cup of tea

For a country that produces a quarter of the world’s tea, India as a nation really doesn’t seem to know what to do with the stuff once it’s grown and processed. Indian chaiwallahs overwhelmingly serve tea powder boiled in sweetened milk for upwards of an hour and left to stew all morning to produce a substance almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea. If you’re a fan of tea brewed the way God intended, it’s best to self-cater, using your own tea bags.

6. You can have a great trip to India without ever venturing into the “Golden Triangle”

Countless visitors to India spend their first encounter schlepping between Delhi, Agra, Jaipur and Varanasi according to an itinerary promoted by external agencies as a trip through the very best India has to offer. This tactic has led to the “Golden Triangle” becoming one of the most overcrowded, over-touristed, overpriced and underwhelming portions of the entire subcontinent. Not only are there other parts of India, there are other parts of India that are substantially friendlier, more beautiful, less polluted, and less generally stressful than these four cities. If you’d like to visit Rajasthan, try heading further west to the peaceful holy city of Pushkar or the lovely lake city of Udaipur; or why not approach Varanasi from Kolkata (see above) rather than Delhi?

7. The Taj Mahal isn’t the only beautiful building in India

The Taj is without a doubt India’s most iconic architectural site, and many people travel to the country simply to view it. That’s a shame, because there’s a wealth of other buildings and sites in the country that often get overlooked in the Taj’s shadow. The Sri Meenakshi temple in Madurai, Tamil Nadu is a striking example of Dravidian architecture; the Ellora caves near Aurangabad in Maharashtra are full of stunning rock-cut sculptures; and the 16th-century Mattancherry Palace in Cochin, Kerala is well worth a visit for its painted murals and polished wooden floors. Look beyond Agra, and India’s wealth of architecture might just surprise you.

8. Most Indians really do just want to help

The Golden Triangle (see above) and Delhi in particular are well-known among travellers for the number of commission-merchants and scam-artists whose primary motivation is to separate unwary tourists from the contents of their wallets; visitors to these areas are wise to be cautious. Outside of the major tourist centres, the majority of Indians really do want to help you have a good experience of their country; it’s not uncommon to be invited to somebody’s house for tea or dinner, and travellers to India often make lifelong friends with local people they meet on the road. Use your common sense and follow your instincts, but remember that the majority of Indians genuinely do want to give visitors a warm welcome.

Originally published at www.holidayextras.co.uk

Adult Playtime: Great Ways For Grown-Ups To Have Fun In London

Building Lego robots at Drink Shop Do, by Lindsey Clarke

There are lots of great things about being grown-up. Nobody can tell you what time you have to go to bed; you can legally spend your hard-earned income on a wide variety of alcoholic delights; and you’ll never again have to sit through an afternoon of Double Maths. But there are also times when it seems like the kids get all the fingerpainting, frame-climbing, rope-swinging fun, and that strikes us (in the most mature way possible) as so unfair.

Envy the under-12s no more, for we’ve rounded up the capital’s best places for good, clean fun – pigtails and short trousers optional.

Get crafty

Fancy breaking out the crayons, glitter and glue in the company of like-minded persons your own age? Drink Shop Do in King’s Cross offers the chance to do just that and much more, all with a freshly-shaken cocktail in hand. In the next two weeks alone, you can hand-craft a Valentine’s card for that special someone in your life, make a super-scary papier mâché monster, build a Lego robot with a prize for the most ingenious, and screen-print a tea-towel – an ideal gift for Mother’s Day, or just to take pride of place in your own kitchen. Evening events (quaintly known as “dos”) start after work and many are free – take a look at this month’s listings for booking info and timings, or email mail@drinkshopdo.com.

If the idea of eating the fruits of your creative labours appeals to you, head on down to Notting Hill’s Biscuiteers where you can spend the afternoon hand-icing a selection of biscuits, and then the evening stuffing them into your face. Or maybe that’s just us. A session at their Icing Cafe costs £15 for three biscuits, and there’s no need to book – just drop in for sweet-toothed fun.

A more permanent memento can be created at one of the three Pottery Cafe branches, where you can paint your own crockery and kitchenware (a jar for those hand-iced biscuits, maybe?) to be glazed and fired by the team. Late-night adult-only sessions take place on Thursdays from 6pm – you’ll need to book as a group – and a pottery-decorating session will set you back £5.99 plus the cost of your chosen items. There are Pottery Cafes in Fulham, Richmond and Battersea.

Fiddle With Knobs, Walk With Dinosaurs

Science Museum Lates, by M@.

While the Science Museum’s holdings are vast and fascinating, it’s the room full of levers, buttons and screens that most of us remember fondly from our formative years.

The museum’s Launchpad gallery remains its most popular, but is normally the preserve of children. One night each month, however, the museum opens late for an adults-only evening of exploration, including that room full of buttons and knobs. The next one, at time of writing, is Wed 26 February.

A similar event takes place monthly at the Natural History Museum, where grown-ups can mingle among the dinosaurs without treading on any nippers. The next one is on Friday 28 February.

Jump around

It’s playtime for all ages at the Wild Kingdom Playspace on Three Mills Green in Newham, with plenty of rugged tree swings, scramble nets and an outdoor trampoline. Head to Bromley-by-Bow for some gentle adventure fun. More adventurous types will enjoy thetreetop assault course at Go Ape in Trent Park, Enfield. Not for the height-averse, Go Ape involves making your way around a forest on rope ladders, jungle bridges, cargo nets and zip lines 40 feet off the ground. The experience costs around £30, depending on party size, and is a great way to get back in touch with nature as kids do best – by climbing up it.

Go wild

A pair of asses, at a recent Zoo Lates, by M@.

Going to the zoo isn’t just a treat for the little ones – Zoo Lates at London Zoo is strictly for over-18s only, and combines evening access to the animal enclosures with pop-up bars, cabaret and comedy. Head down after work and relax with a drink as you enjoy a huge variety of wildlife from butterflies and rainforest mammals to penguins and tigers. There’s even an adult ball-pond. Zoo Lates will return this summer every Friday in June and July – expect tickets to be around a tenner.

Whether you want to copy a dance video like you used to do in front of the bedroom mirror, hit up a fancy dress party, or just dig in the sandpit JCB-style, there are lots of other adult-only experiences in and around London to help you connect with your inner child. Let us know your favourites!

Originally published at www.londonist.com

West Side Story – A Timeless American Tale

Think of mid-century musical theatre, and you probably think of a tuneful slice of escapism: lavish sets and eyecatching costumes; toetapping dance routines; a boy, a girl a love story. West Side Story’s 1957 opening marked a significant departure from that formula, and set a new template for the modern musical.

The tunes are there, of course, courtesy of Leonard Bernstein’s memorable score, and Jerome Robbins’ energetic dance numbers set new standards for Broadway choreography. But the story is set against a background of poverty, racial prejudice and juvenile delinquency; and although boy meets girl, the lovers are denied their happy ending. Against a background of increasing real-world violence on the streets of New York, and in common with its contemporaries in theatre (Look Back In Anger) and film (Rebel Without A Cause), West Side Story eschews the feelgood conventions of traditional musicals and ushers in a much grittier period of storytelling.

Now rightly regarded by many as a classic, West Side Story almost didn’t happen, shunned by almost every theatre producer in town and lacking financial backing until a late stage. The show’s innovations appeared at the time to be insurmountable challenges: a difficult score requiring singers with larger vocal ranges than is usual on Broadway, demanding choreography and a dark, death-filled story based not on lighthearted romance but on one of Shakespeare’s most enduring tragedies.

It took the belief of producer Hal Prince, a personal friend of lyricist Stephen Sondheim, to put the project back on track in early 1957 – and the rest, from the rapturous critical reception and a 732- night opening run, to the Academy Award-winning 1961 film, revivals in 1980 and 2009 and the current touring production, is musical theatre history. “West Side Story is the most famous tragic love story of all time told though infectious music and modern iconic choreography,” says choreographer and director Joey McKneely. “Once you see West Side Story, you will never forget it!” McKneely carries a part of the musical’s heritage with him: he danced for choreographer Jerome Robbins on Broadway in 1989. “At 20 yrs old, I got the chance to dance for Jerome Robbins. When I was approached to do the show, it was a privilege,” he says.

McKneely, who has also choreographed the musicals Smokey Joe’s Café and The Boy From Oz starring Hugh Jackman, took up the reins in 2009, and “For me, it is the passing of the torch – it changed my life when I danced this choreography. I now change a new generation of dancers each time I do the show.”

West Side Story closely follows the narrative of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, but with one important difference – where Shakespeare’s lovers come from two aristocratic households “alike in dignity”, Bernstein and Sondheim’s young couple are related to two street gangs, one noticeably more disadvantaged than the other. The Puerto Rican Sharks have come to New York seeking opportunity; signature song “America” with its lyrics about grime, crime and “doors slamming in our face” reveals the stark contrast between the dream and the reality. Riff’s blue-collar Jets are barely a rung up the social ladder from Bernardo’s Latino Sharks, but their white European roots afford them a measure of protection from the city’s corrupt and racist police force.

Topical as the story of warring streets gangs was in mid-century Manhattan, the theme has continued resonance today. “Just open a newspaper today,” says McKneely. “There is always a story of how some youths got killed by a group of others just for being from a different ethnic group. It shows us how fear can destroy love.” McKneely feels that the lessons of West Side Story are as relevant and important today as they were in the postwar period, if not even more so. Musical Director Donald Chan, who has also directed productions of West Side Story for the Cleveland Opera and at La Scala in Italy, agrees: “The same story is presented over and over again in life – racism, star crossed lovers. And it also has great music!”

With its complex, varied score and street-tough choreography, West Side Story has always been an exhilarating challenge for its performers. “It is a very difficult show to cast,” says Chan. “The vocal and dancing challenges are immense because it requires us to find very young performers who can sing, dance and act.” McKneely agrees: “The choreography requires a strong command of technique, and the score has opera heights to it, difficult to find in young performers. In addition, touring productions are rigorously monitored by the Berstein and Robbins estates, requiring exacting standards of rehearsal and performance. The current version was extremely well received on its last visit to Sadler’s Wells – and not only by the UK press, but by members of the Bernstein family. “There is nothing like having Leonard Bernstein’s daughter Jamie come up to you and say, ‘My father would have been very proud of this production!’” smiles Chan.

Jerome Robbins’ choreography, an innovative blend of modern ballet and tougher, urban styles with Latin influences on the Sharks numbers, has reached iconic status. Not only are the sequences immediately familiar to anyone who has seen the stage show or 1961 film; they have taken on a life of their own outside of musical theatre, popping up in everything from adverts for khakis and soft drinks to fashion shoots, sit-coms, music videos and even an episode of the usually deadpan Curb Your Enthusiasm.

Bernstein’s score, likewise, has an influence far beyond its Broadway roots – songs from the show have been covered by artists as diverse as Tom Waits, Salt’n’Pepa and the Pet Shop Boys, and sampled by rock heavyweights Alice Cooper and Metallica. Compositions such as the “Tonight Quintet” also went on to inspire more complex arrangements in other musical theatre productions, most notably Matt Stone and Trey Parker’s first South Park feature film.

Initially considered too dark and depressing for the Broadway stage, West Side Story’s tragic narrative proved an emotive hit with audiences, and marked a turning point in the history of musical theatre, allowing the form to explore darker and more serious subjects . Now over 50 years old, West Side Story still draws huge audiences with its timeless tale told through thrilling dance and music. “It is always the story which draws audiences to the show,” explains McKneely. “The music and dance are so interwoven into the fabric of its story, it captures every emotion one feels in a lifetime.”

Originally published by Sadler’s Wells (programme note)

FEATURE: BIG DANCE YOUTH DANCE DAY 2013

The weather gods smiled on Canary Wharf this weekend for the Docklands debut of the Big Dance youth dance day as part of Greenwich and Docklands International Festival 2013. Previously held at The Scoop, City Hall as a London Youth Dance initiative, the youth dance day featured for the first time on Saturday in Dancing City as part of the wider GDIF festival of outdoor performing arts.

Twenty youth dance companies featuring performers aged 5 to 21 years old and working in diverse styles including ballet, contemporary dance, Afro-contemporary, jazz, hip hop and classical Indian dance took to the stage immediately in front of Canary Wharf tube station. The day was hosted by the effervescent Katie P, who also led a workshop teaching the Big Dance Pledge dance choreographed this year by English National Ballet artists Laura Harvey and Jenna Lee.

The aim of this year’s event was very much to celebrate the wide array of dance styles taking place in the capital and bring youth dance to a wider audience of festival attendees and passers-by. As well as being thrilled to perform to a public audience, many of the young dancers enjoyed the opportunity to watch other groups – “It’s nice to see something different from us – other types of dance,” says Emily from Copthall School in Barnet, performing in classmate Lauren’s GCSE dance choreography. Lauren agrees: “It was really fun, a really nice atmosphere, nice seeing people!”

A number of the young people performing at this year’s event represented youth groups connected to professional touring dance companies, including Impact Dance’s Fully Functioning Individuals, State of Emergency’s Re-position, and Myself dance company’s youth group Me.I, directed by choreographer Khloe Dean. “Our piece was originally created to celebrate International Women’s Week,” explains company member Saskia, “so it has a lot of songs from current female MCs and it’s about representing female power in terms of MCs.”

Like many of the dancers present on Saturday Saskia hopes to continue dancing and is looking forward to training at an institution such as Trinity Laban or London Contemporary Dance School, both of which were represented on stage. A group from The Place Centre for Advanced Training presented a piece created over just three days at their recent intensive training week, looking at connections and relationships entitled Em Nós, Nós Confio (“in us we trust”); while the Trinity Laban Youth Dance Company paired up with integrated youth company Cando2 to create The Butterfly Effect.

“Trinity Laban and Candoco now have a partnership,” explains Laban Youth Company director Stella Howard, “and we thought what a lovely way to start it would be to bring the two youth companies together.” The dancers worked together for term with Stella and Cando2 director Sarah Blanc to create material devised from a series of creative tasks. “Once the kids came together, they got on so well and worked so well creatively together. It was a real pleasure to see two groups of teenagers come together, work together and create material.”

Some of the youngest performers came from Sanskriti Limited, a school teaching the classical South Indian dance style of Bharatanatyam. Despite the public setting and a large audience, the tiny dancers weren’t in the least bit daunted and presented two traditional pieces, one seeking the blessing of Lord Ganesh and the other portraying the triumph of good over evil.

“It’s about coming together and celebrating dance,” says host Katie P, a passionate advocate of youth dance and a regular fixture at previous London Youth Dance days. “Youth dance is so important – it’s basically the future, so we need to inspire, get these young people involved. Having a platform for it shows that dance really is for everyone, and you can start at any age!”

Report & video: Lise Smith

Big Dance youth day, as part of Dancing City, Canary Wharf, Greenwich & Docklands International Festival.

Photos: Gigi Giannella
Originally published at www.londondance.com

Dance: News: Facing Forwards

The first meeting of the Female Choreographers Collective took place at The Actors’ Church, Covent Garden last Saturday. Lise Smith went along to find out more…

It’s a question that rolls around every few years – given the overwhelming prevalence of women in dance (as trainees, performers and administrators), where are the female choreographers and artistic directors, and why are they so much less visible than men in the industry? Pioneers such as Martha Graham, Ninette de Valois and the great Pina Bausch broke new ground for women in the 20th century, but female choreographers seem to be a low priority for major venues currently.

In October 2009, Dance UK and Dance Umbrella co-hosted a debate chaired by dance critic Judith Mackrell discussing the issues surrounding women in dance. Now two young choreographers, Jane Coulston and Holly Noble, have set up the Female Choreographer’s Collectiveto further investigate the causes of women’s under-representation at the top levels of dance, and to provide networking and performance opportunities for female choreographers at all career stages.“I think at the moment what we’re aiming to do more than anything is ask people for their stories, and what they’ve seen through their careers,” says Holly. “We’ve got some very young choreographers that have contacted us, we’ve got some very well-established choreographers and people in the middle; but they’re all saying, ‘why aren’t we out there, why do we not sell tickets, why don’t the big theatres take us on to present work?’”

Since the launch of the FCC just three weeks ago, over 150 choreographers have signed up to the organisation and more are expected to do so in the coming weeks. The aim of the collective is to support female choreographers through forums, performance platforms and information sharing, and to continue investigating the problems facing female choreographers in a more sustained way than previous events have been able to achieve. “We’re here to ask the questions,” says Jane. “We’re not necessarily here to provide any answers, for now, but the more we hear from each other’s experiences, the more we talk in these forums the more we might find out about that.”

The collective aims to build strong relationships between choreographers, venues and dance agencies in order to instigate debate and encourage an ongoing conversation about the issues female dance artists come up against. “So many female choreographers that we’ve spoken to are continually creating and showing work all over the country, they do this for a number of years and still there’s not support. Overwhelmingly people feel like they’re not being listened to, that they get looked over.” A number of female choreographers the pair have spoken to have reported a lack of practical support with commissioning and funding, whereas male choreographers seem to break through and develop a public profile much more easily, with the support of venues and agencies.

The lack of profile for female choreographers – even those with good artistic reputations – has been debated before. “Some dance artists and choreographers we were talking to before said they were talking about this 25 years ago,” says Jane. One of the goals of the FCC is to bring together different networks and forums that may already be taking place across the UK, and look at the questions being asked in a collaborative and comprehensive way over time. “Our role can be to bring these things together, all the pieces of the puzzle,” adds Jane. “We don’t see any end to this, we see just this interesting and fascinating process for however many years to come, so that we really make some headway with it. I’m sure the questions may change, lots of things are going to change along the way.”

The FCC was launched on Saturday with a platform of work by four very different female choreographers. Lucia Piquero’s lyrical piece for Diciembre Dance Group draws on literary sources, where Jane’s own piece for Beyond Repair Dance is much more abstract, movement-led and androgynous. Anna Watkins of Watkins Dance showed a sensual contemporary duet inspired by a developing relationship; Holly’s piece for A.D. Dance Company also examines human relationships, but with a focus on the darker side. Jane feels that there is no single female style or voice that can be identified among women choreographers working today. “The most important thing that we know even from the few things we’ve done so far is that there are a multitude of female choreographers out there making such diverse work, different work. Some (for example, Charlotte Vincent’s ) – will be gender-led and some won’t, so we want to figure out what else is going on.”

For the next year, the FCC’s main task will be to compile information on members using a short membership form. The collective will also share news so that members can keep each other informed of touring and performance activity; and the collective will run its own showcase platforms across the UK. Holly: “One of our ideas that we’re thinking about doing next year is putting a platform on with six excerpts of work, three by male choreographers and three by female choreographers, but we’re not going to say who the choreographers are. We’d invite a cross-section of audience to give feedback and to ask who they think created each work, just to see what happens.”

The next 6 to 12 months will be vital in shaping the ongoing aims of the Female Choreographers Collective, and determining how best the group can support and represent female choreographers. “I think that once we’ve we create that network it’s going to be a real support system and a real kind of push in the right direction,” says Jane. Men are warmly welcomed to the planned discussion forums to give their side of the story and help build a picture of activity. “At the moment don’t know where it’s going to go exactly,” adds Holly. “We know it’s something we feel passionate about, we want to keep doing it, we want to talk to people we want to raise awareness, we want to do all those things, but I don’t know in a year’s time what the answers will be or what will have happened.”

For more information about the Female Choreographers Collective contact Jane and Holly: femalechoreographerscollective@gmail.com

Vanishing Pointe: Where are all the great female choreographers? Judith Mackrell, Guardian, Oct 2009
Originally published at www.londondance.com

Dance: Try a Little Tenderness – International Dance Festival Birmingham

When I reviewed Canadian choreographer Dave St-Pierre’s Un Peu de Tendresse Bordel de Merde! on its Sadler’s Wells debut back in June last year, I described it as “not a show for the faint-hearted (nor for the flob-averse).” There seems little point in denying that the show contains two dozen naked Canadians, who at various points descend into the audience for some eye-socking full-frontal encounters.Portions of the work are decidedly biological, and anyone uncomfortable with dangly bits in their close proximity is unlikely to be comfortable with this show. There’s also plenty of hearty Gallic expectoration. But none of this stops Un Peu de Tendresse… being by turns hilarious, affecting and beautiful.

Critics at the London performances were sharply divided on the show’s merits. A few declared the show’s (literally) in-your-face
nudity offensive; the Daily Mail’s Quentin Letts went so far as to call it “an assault on our values.” It’s hard to imagine many people in the 21st century still being offended by the sight of the human body, and it must be said that the use of nudity in this production is neither gratuitous nor titillating: St-Pierre’s naked characters are played as innocent ingénues, skipping gaily about the stage with the kind of free abandon that most of us have long since left behind.

Other detractors labelled the piece’s perceived shock-tactics tedious or hackneyed, pointing to shows (Hair and Oh! Calcutta among them) that displayed their performers at a time when nudity onstage was uncommon. For me, this objection also misses the essence of the production – the nudity is not designed to shock in the sense of senseless provocation, but rather to reveal the dancers in all their human vulnerability. Dancers appear not merely naked, but dressed in blonde milkmaid wigs that effect a total transformation of character from taciturn adults to pleasureseeking infants.

Many of St-Pierre’s nude scenes are uproariously funny, the blonde-wigged male characters flocking together to comment on the action in squeaky falsetto voices. Other sequences delve – often poignantly – into the tenderness of the title. A slapstick scene in which a bewigged gentleman tries repeatedly to take a running jump into the arms of his suitor ends in distressing failure; his raw nakedness leaves no hiding place for fear of rejection, fear of intimacy or simple fear.

One or two critics of the London show disliked being singled out by dancers in the scene where the performers romp among the audience, not so much breaking the fourth wall as smashing right through it in a move that completely removes the line between performer and audience. This was probably the scene that enjoyed the most walkouts, but is also absolutely key to the performance as a whole. By participating in this baptism of flesh, the audience identifies much more readily with the performers for
the rest of the show (critic Sanjoy Roy described this as feeling “tenderised” by the sequence).

Survive this scene and you’ll receive frosty congratulations from “Sabrina”, our sardonic onstage narrator. Sabrina comments on the frantic attempts at coupling around her with icy detachment; at times, she seems to function as a superdominant superego, demanding that we repress all pleasures into the bottoms of our psyches. Clothed, the performers submit to Sabrina’s will: gruff and stoic, the men silently rebuff their female partners and the women can do little to connect with them. Naked, the performers openly seek affection, attention and love like the giddy inner children they portray.

St-Pierre’s work is clearly indebted to the late, great Pina Bausch and her emotionally exposing Tanztheater; indeed, Bausch herself blessed St-Pierre’s dancers as “my illegitimate, pornographic children.” Illegitimate they may be, but I’d dispute the charge of pornography – Un Peu de Tendresse… is finally not a work about bodies or sex, but about human frailty, vulnerability and (the clue’s in the title) tenderness. Bring an open mind, a sense of humour – and if you’re in the first few rows, some kind of spit-protection.

Lise Smith is a dance artist and writer, regularly contributing to londondance.com and a number of other arts publications.

Dave St Pierre Company // Un peu de tendresse bordel de merde!
26-28 April //Warwick Arts Centre, Coventry
idfb.co.uk/tenderness