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Introducing Our New Social Story Video

We are delighted to share our new social story for Playscape: How to Build a Galaxy, a short video sharing all elements of what to expect when joining us for a workshop and/or a performance.

What does this social story tell you?
Our social story is broken up into different sections to reveal different aspects of the work for people to find out more about before joining us. These sections are:

  • Meet the team,
  • What is the tech?
  • What props do we use in our workshops?
  • What the piece is about?
  • How you may experience it?

Why did you want to make the social story?
We created this film to offer a deeper insight into our creative process and what we offer. Given that we use advanced technology not widely accessible, we felt it was important to share this information. Our projects incorporate numerous props, lighting, sounds, and textures to create an immersive experience. By making this film, we aim to eliminate any uncertainties and help people understand what to expect when they engage with our work.

Watch the Playscape: How to Build a Galaxy Social Story

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Supported by Arts Council England National Lottery funding to build more galaxies in 2024!

We are so excited to share that we are being supported by Arts Council England National Lottery funding to build more galaxies in 2024. 

With this support, we will be exploring how we can develop our motion capture work ‘Playscape: How to Build a Galaxy’ so that it can engage more young people who are not as often involved in scenarios that promote the development of their talent. More details to be announced soon! 

📸 by KDE Dance during a workshop with Spun Glass Theatre.

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Artistic Director Katie is now a Mental Health First Aider!

“It is well established that reduced wellbeing in children and young people increases likelihood of poorer wellbeing in adulthood, which may lead to reduced opportunities and outcomes within work, health and relationships.” (Mental Health Foundation, 2022). We hope, for a future where nobody is at risk of this and aim to be part of the conversation, action and impact helping to reduce this.

This is why Artistic Director Katie has become a Mental Health First Aider.

The course by MHFA England taught knowledge and skills for providing first aid to support people who may be experiencing poor mental health.

We commit to keeping up to date on best practice and to being there for our communities, beneficiaries and team.

Thank you to Active Surrey for supporting us to take this course!

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Finding Fathers R&D 2022

A special project of ours was working  on 'Finding Fathers' a film, dance and music journey exploring the intimate stories of real people seeking out their birth fathers, directed by Matt Kowalczuk. Here more about what he thought of our time in the studio together here.

Matt's Reflections: 

I am very happy to announce that the 1st phase of Finding Fathers R&D was a very successful experience. We spent one day exploring ways to develop choreographic movement to extract filmed interviews based on the themes of fatherless and masculinity in the 21st century, turning this into a contemporary dance piece/ film documentary.

I worked alongside the exceptional talents of Katie-Dale Everett (Choreographer), Gabby Sanders (Dancer) and YiAnn Kok (Assistant producer). We collaborated together and have created some content for us to explore these stories even further and deeper.

None of this would have been possible if it wasn't for the following help and support. Firstly thank you to our contributors (whose identity will remain anonymous as it is a sensitive subject), who have shared the stories of the relationships or their lack of; with their fathers and have given this project a rich abundance of storytelling that we can explore. I can definitely relate to their journeys and this has touched me deeply.

Secondly, I would like to thank Phakama who have been our funders for the R&D at this stage through the Phakama Artist Bursary. Thanks to Anna Glarin from Project Phakama for coming to Brighton and seeing our R&D. Also thank you to Phillip Edgerly@ Institute for Contemporary Theatre (ICT Brighton) for letting us have a space to explore these stories and to Jess Cheetham from Spunglass Theatre for her advice.

What's next?

I filmed what we created on the day. I will be in post-production over the next couple of weeks, editing what we created. I will share once completed. This will be used to secure further funding hopefully to scale things up, including adding more content by conducting more interviews around the country, working with two dancers instead of one, and creating a hybrid/poetic dance documentary and a theatre production.

Because my own story is still being explored as I don't know my father, I am on my own journey within this project. I'm currently doing some family research on my background; as there has been a lot of vague and conflicting stories that I got from my mother. I've ordered a DNA test and I will share the results once I have done the test.

Finally, we are always looking for people who would be willing to share their experience of fatherlessness. It doesn't matter what perspective you are coming from, but we would like to see this explored from a female perspective next time! If you are interested please PM and I will contact you.

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Get To Know… Aurea Williamson

Aurea is a former Nurse and performer in 'Rebel Boob' a verbatim theatre show by Speak Up! Act Out! CIC (Angela El-Zeind) which our Artistic Director Katie was asked to choreograph. For National Nurse Week we sat down with Aurea to reflect on Rebel Boob and how it was combining her passion for the arts with her long career in nursing.

What is your background both in and out of the arts/theatre industry?

I trained as a nurse when I left home aged 18 working in both NHS and private sectors mainly on the surgical side – to begin with in orthopaedics and theatre departments where I quickly realised, I prefer people awake, before working out I wanted to focus on oncology, specifically breast care. I worked agency and in various other areas becoming an Oncology Research Nurse and then, in 2006, specialised in breast reconstruction surgery. I got my dream role in 2011, a hospital-based Macmillan Clinical Nurse Specialist in Breast Care (that's a mouthful!).

Since school, I'd always enjoyed drama and been involved in my local community group but after I was treated for cancer myself, I stopped planning what I'd do in years to come, just in case I didn't have that time. I started taking opportunities and in 2017, encouraged by my husband and son, I started a part-time acting class, for no other reason, but to see what I was capable of.

In 2019 my agent took me on, and I decided to take a year-long career break from nursing and see what happened, expecting nothing but to re-coup some energy. Since then, I consider myself lucky to have had some screen experience (a small role in a feature film, done shorts and student films) and become increasingly involved in (often ongoing) theatre projects which has allowed me to perform at Brighton Fringe, see parts of the country I'd never been to (Theatre In Education touring for example) and a highlight - visiting Amsterdam with Rebel Boob.

Why did you want to work on Rebel Boob?

I never went back to nursing (apart from a little pandemic interlude). The director of a play I was involved with at the time knew my background and showed me an advert looking for performers for the Rebel Boob R&D. I was on my career break at the time, and I'd been feeling guilty about even considering leaving the healthcare profession, but I knew straight away I wanted to be involved in some capacity, so I applied.

Rebel Boob felt like three different areas of my life coalescing into one. It was a theatre piece, and I was on a yearlong career break looking at changing direction to performance. It matched my background and experience perfectly so I felt I could add something worthwhile to the project. I also felt it could be cathartic for me personally. I had been treated for breast cancer myself in 2013, looked after by my colleagues at the time, before returning to the same nursing role.

At the time Rebel Boob was looking for performers I was seriously considering leaving nursing permanently. Partly because of that, I felt I could allow myself to be more honest and open (to others) and as a result, I felt vulnerable.

This might sound odd, but I wanted to see if I could speak, in an authentic way, other people's words about their diagnosis, treatment, and how they felt at the time and after treatment when everyone expects them to get on with it. Some of the words really resonated with me personally. Without the protective layer of being a nurse, which I had used (very successfully I might add) as a method to cope, could I, Aurea, as opposed to Aurea the nurse, vocalise those words? I didn't know. Through my diagnosis and treatment, I had one person (and a diary) I was completely honest with, but other than that I kept a certain amount of emotional distance and privacy about what had happened and how I'd felt. Six years post-diagnosis I felt ready to face my vulnerabilities in a more head-on way. The timing felt right. I felt it could make me stronger and I was ready. But I didn't know if I could do it. It felt very personal.

Since that first R&D in 2020, I have seen how audiences (including Health Care Professionals) respond – those who have been affected by cancer as well as those who haven't. There are so many themes within Rebel Boob I have heard patients say time and time again over the years; all this has just built on my passion for the project. I felt and still do feel strongly it is a show everyone should see.

Can you tell us more about how movement comes into your role in the piece?

In Rebel Boob I speak the words of different women. Choreography often accompanies those words sometimes in a supporting way. I speak a wonderful monologue "Love is in the air" about living in the moment where movement joyously accompanies the words.

At other times the movement opposes the words spoken just like in real life. I am not a dancer, but I get to create movement with a beautiful one; and while a monologue is spoken, we create the emotional relationship between a mother and a daughter.

Why do you think the movement is important as part of the construction of the show?

Movement is vital within the show It often depicts emotions that cannot or are difficult to express just by words, demonstrating engagingly, the difference between what is said and what might be felt. Movement holds the whole show together. And it gives the audience something to look at!

What is your favourite piece of music to dance to?

What a hard question! I don't think I can choose – I like loads of stuff … but I do like something with an underlying beat, a bit rocky …. so maybe something that gets all my limbs flaying about!

 

Read more on Rebel Boob

 

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‘P.L.A.Y (Working Title) Receives Arts Council England National Lottery Funding

We are delighted to share that we have been awarded @aceagrams funding to research and develop ‘P.L.A.Y (working title).

The project will enable young people to engage in creative play, inspiring their curiosity and guiding them to a restorative state of effortless attention. It will help them to develop better connections with others in their local community and we can’t wait for what comes next!

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DYCP Round 13 Recipient

We are delighted to share that our Artistic Director Katie Dale-Everett has been successful with her Developing Your Creative Practice application to explore the following question: How can I continue to be a leader, whilst not losing my own artistic practice?

This opportunity will enable Katie to explore how to balance her artistic output with her leadership roles and will develop a more sustainable way of working, helping her identify what good growth looks like and where she should invest her creative and leadership energy in future.

You might not know it but Katie has two other companies and collaborates on other people’s projects including verbatim theatre works.

Sussex Dance Network (Artistic Director):
Sussex Dance Network (formerly Brighton) formed in 2018 to create a person-to-person, connected dance scene to elevate and advocate for independent artists and facilitate conversations. It is their ambition that together through collaboration and creative and cultural partnerships they can lead the way to make changes to our sector that will enable longevity and sustainability for artists, dance and wider communities and that they can develop meaningful community powered programmes that impact positively on local communities. Keep up to date here:
@sussex.dance.network

Kabecca Films (Co-Artistic Director):
Kabecca Films was founded by Katie and Rebecca Dale-Everett in 2017 as a platform for collaboration, fusing Katie’s background in cross-genre choreography and Rebecca’s experience of producing award-winning short films. Collectively and independently their work focuses on true experiences of less heard voices, with a particular focus on intergenerational collaborative and female-identifying perspectives. They have been commissioned by The Barbican, funded by Arts Council England and have delivered workshops for The Point, Eastleigh, Brighton and Hove Council and Women Over Fifty Film Festival.
Keep up to date here: @kabeccafilms

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Creative Newhaven Grassroots Arts Awards Recipient

We’re delighted to be one of six Newhaven based arts projects supported through Creative Newhaven’s first ever Grassroots Arts Awards.

We will be using this support to bring our work to young people:

  • Residing at Newhaven Foyer, a modern support housing development providing self catered rooms and self-contained flats with support services to young people aged 16-24 experiencing homelessness.
  • Using the services of Newhaven Youth Centre, including  L.A.S.T (LGBTQ+ And Ally Support Team and young people transitioning between schools. 

These workshops which will respond to the mental health crisis, growing popularity of interactive media and isolation many felt during the pandemic will be community lead and will explore how interacting with dance and technology affects people’s openness to play and improvisation.

Source_Creative Newhaven

 

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Selection as UK Choreographer for the AHRC Mocap Streamer Residency

We are pleased to now be able to announce that Katie Dale-Everett Dance have been picked as the UK choreographer for a virtual residency at Goldsmiths for the AHRC Mocap Streamer project. Five collaborator teams made up of choreographers and technologists have been formed from applicants across the world, including Argentina, Brazil, India and Thailand.

“Our 2022 programme is an opportunity for dancers, dance companies, and creative technologists to remotely take part in a six-month creative ‘virtual’ residency programme in 2022 – based at Goldsmiths, University of London. We offer a connector programme using a modest bursary structure, to bring together dance groups and digital creatives from diverse international backgrounds for a prolonged period of remote collaborative digital dance work.” – Dan Strutt – Goldsmiths, University of London

This project has brought Artistic Director Katie Dale-Everett together with an accomplished duo of creative technologists from the U.S. Western seaboard, Erin Cuevas and Matt Conway.

“The dancers and creative technologists involved were chosen from 160 applications through a really tough selection process, with an expert panel from tech, dance and academic backgrounds. Dancers were then matched with creative technologists to form our final teams.” – Dan Strutt – Goldsmiths, University of London

Source_Mocap Streamer

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Artistic Director Katie Dale-Everett recognised as an Emerging Cultural Leader in Sussex

We are delighted to share that our Artistic Director Katie Dale-Everett has been recognised as an Emerging Cultural Leader regionally and is one of 12 amazing leaders forming the ‘Regroup ‘n’ Renew’ cohort. Other leaders include Carolynn Bain, (Afrori Books), David Shepherd (Marlborough Productions), Gareth Evans (Carousel) and Jamie Wyld (videoclub).

The focus of R’n’R is on providing space for self-reflection, building entrepreneurial thinking and skills, and catalysing collaborative approaches to addressing shared challenges and ambitions.

Over the next few months, the recognised leaders will take part in Action Learning Sets, 1-2-1 mentoring and creative circles focusing on different aspects of the city’s cultural landscape.

Source_ Culture In Our City