"Original, inspired and fantastically talented" Total Theatre
"F’ing excellent, Like watching Nureyev and the Divine David on mushrooms! Book now, like NOW" G Scene
"Cultured magpies" Exeunt Magazine
"I love it... I’m literally craning my neck to get closer to the stage" British Theatre Guide
"A subversive delight" ***** The Stage
"No-one makes work anything like this" - BachTrack
ENGAGEMENT
We have developed an extensive education and outreach practice alongside our performance work. We want to share the core elements of our practice with our varied participants; the use of rigorous dance techniques mixed with queer academic studies, an exploration into art as activism and a dedication to historical and cultural research.
We regularly:
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Teach technique classes
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Deliver workshops based on our repertoire and creative methods
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Give lectures about our work
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Create work to be performed by students and community groups
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Create work to be performed in socially engaged and educational settings
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Mentor other artists and companies
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Work with students on placement
We are currently working with various organisations to learn more about current trends in dance education and community engagement, to understand where we sit within these fields and to develop our pedagogy. Thank you to Rambert School, Salford University, St Mary’s University and Morley College for your support with this.
TEACHING AND WORKSHOPS
Our work is based in rigorous dance technique and this is reflected in our teaching. We teach Ballet and Cunningham techniques, as well as improvisation and yoga/pilates-based warm-up classes.
We regularly teach workshops based on our repertoire and creative methods. These are tailored to suit various groups, including professional dancers and other performers, students, people aged 60+, community groups and people who have a learning disability.
We have taught classes and workshops for:
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Northern School of Contemporary Dance
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Three Score (a company of non-professional dancers aged 60+)
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Jacksons Lane (for London International Mime Festival)
LECTURES
We have given talks and lectures about our work for:
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Rambert School of Ballet & Contemporary Dance (with Corali Dance Company)
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The Royal Opera House (with Corali Dance Company)
COMMISSIONS
We have been commissioned by several conservatoires and universities in the UK to create work to be performed by their students. The work we make with the students reflects our artistic research & interest in the potential of dance as a political art form with the power to create positive social change. This includes digital work made during lockdown. We have created work for:
Rambert School of Ballet & Contemporary Dance
‘Finale’
As alumni of Rambert School, we were commissioned in 2019/20 to create work for the 3rd year students to celebrate the school’s centenary. We created a work called ‘Finale’ for 44 students who would all portray the school’s founder Marie Rambert. ‘Finale’ never made it to the stage due to the Covid-19 pandemic, but we are due to return to the school to make new work in autumn 2022.
Find out more about 'Finale' here
Northern Contemporary Dance School
‘Walls of Sound’
In November 2020, we spent three weeks during lockdown at NSCD creating work for 15 of their 2nd year BA students. The work was live-streamed from their theatre to a digital audience. 'Walls of Sound' explored Japanese Noh theatre (tied in with our work ‘Two Moths in Real Time’), the music of Throbbing Gristle, the everyday sounds of Leeds, the Fluxus art movement, William Blake, LS Lowry, Japanese horror films and queer theory.
Find out more about 'Walls of Sound' here
Technique class at Dance Base Yokohama. Photo by Yuka Kamimura
Workshop at Dance Base Yokohama. Photo by Yuka Kamimura
Workshop at Dance Base Yokohama. Photo by Yuka Kamimura
Workshop at Dance Base Yokohama. Photo by Yuka Kamimura
Workshop at Dance Base Yokohama. Photo by Yuka Kamimura
Rehearsal shot of Rambert School students in 'Finale'
Costume design for 'Finale' by Maxwell Nicholson-Lailey
NSCD students in 'Walls of Sound'. Photo by Camilla Greenwell
NSCD students in 'Walls of Sound'. Photo by Camilla Greenwell
NSCD student in 'Walls of Sound'. Photo by Camilla Greenwell
Laban student in 'Nightlife'
Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music & Dance
‘Nightlife’
During the lockdown of February 2021 we created a film with over 30 3rd year dance students from Laban through a series of workshops held on zoom. Nightlife is a short dance film which takes you on a journey through the sound waves of night time radio stations and focuses in on our nocturnal bedroom lives; an insomniac Under Milk Wood. It combined studies into queer nightlife and nocturnal wildlife.
Find out more about 'Nightlife' here
London Contemporary Dance School
‘An Effort in Camp’
In May/June 2020 we created a 20 minute film with 14 3rd year students at LCDS. This was during the first covid lockdown and the 5 week process was held entirely over zoom. We devised a sort of 'Course in Camp' to understand more about the meaning of the word, through studying lots of theory, references, sources and people. We guided the dancers to create material and film themselves at home, which we edited together into a 20-minute film.
Find out more about 'An Effort in Camp' here
We have been lucky enough to create 2 works on students at Edge Hill.
'Radical Daughters'
Made in 2018, this is a group work for 10 dancers who all portray the artist Claude Cahun. We developed this work into a solo for Jules Cunningham.
'Pink Narcissus'
12 students play the prolific romantic novelist Barbara Cartland, a high-energy, bigoted vision in pink. We developed this 201? work into a Thick & Tight duet, which the students performed with us as a chorus at the Lowry.
Find out more about 'Radical Daughters' and 'Pink Narcissus' here
South East Dance’s Steering Group
Over several weeks in 2021, we worked with the Steering Group, a community group of 10 people of various ages, a mixture of non-disabled and disabled, most of whom have minimal dance experience. Over four 1.5 hour zoom sessions we studied Romanticism, poetry, synaesthesia and ABBA, to create 4 short films featuring the Steering Group’s dance and written work. These films were shown as part of Brighton’s Our City Dances festival in July 2021.
Find out more about the films here
Royal Opera House Family Sunday events
We have been commissioned by the Royal Ballet’s Learning & Participation Team to create and curate work for several Family Sunday events. These are daytime shows for children and their families, which aim to bring in audiences who wouldn’t usually visit the Royal Opera House.
'Wild Things'
With a theme of Fabulous Creatures, we curated a line up of short performances by wonderful artists; Patricia Langa, DJ Hassan, James Southward, Vidya Patel, Faith Prendergast and Karl Fagerlund-Brekke
Laban student in 'Nightlife'
LCDS student in 'An Effort in Camp'
LCDS student in 'An Effort in Camp'
LCDS students in 'An Effort in Camp'
Edge Hill students in 'Radical Daughters'
Edge Hill students in 'Pink Narcissus'. Photos by Nick Fairhurst
Still from SED Steering Group films
Still from SED Steering Group films
Still from SED Steering Group films
Faith Prendergast in 'Wild Things' at the Royal Opera House. Photo by Jon Archdeacon
'Night Suites'
We were asked to respond to the Nutcracker so we created a short new solo for Jordan Ajadi, who takes the audience on a journey through a suite of different dreams, conjured by a dream-creature who is playful, mischievous, shape shifting and altogether magical.
Find out more about 'Night Suites' here
James Southward, Faith Prendergast and Karl Fagerlund-Brekke in 'Wild Things' at the Royal Opera House. Photo by Jon Archdeacon
'Excellent Together - Lots of Love'
Excellent Together is a project we co-run with Corali Dance Company to support collaboration between pairs of artists. Excellent Together brings people together in their differences to promote creative solidarity and challenge prejudice around what makes an artist or their work 'excellent'. For this Valentine themesd event, we presented work by 3 Excellent Together duos.
Find out more about Excellent Together here
We are currently making work for two further Family Sunday events; a solo for dancer Danny Smith as Margot Fonteyn and a piece for ROH Pride using recorded interviews from staff about what Pride means to them. Find out more on our Calendar page, here.
MENTORING
We have recently had the pleasure of mentoring some wonderful artists and have more of this work coming up soon. Artists we have worked with are:
Patricia Langa, aka Eric Longa
Patricia asked us to support her with the creation of a new dance film called Queer Ole, about the queer history of flamenco and her own relationship to her queerness and Catalan heritage.
Find out more about Patricia here
Edd Arnold
Edd asked us to give feedback on his work ‘Tulips’, a duet he is making with dancer Connor Scott which originated from questions around why men don’t often give each other flowers.
Find out more about Edd here
Istanbul Queer Art Collective
We worked with Tuna Erdem and Seda Ergul from IQAC to support their first experience of using movement in their work. This R&D period looked at the performance and photographing of movement which suggests queer alien sex.
Find out more about IQAC here
STUDENTS ON PLACEMENT
We have begun bringing students into our company’s work through placements. This has involved observing rehearsals, being involved in backstage prep for shows and joining meetings with our Advisory Committee. We have worked with students from:
Vidya Patel in 'Wild Things' at the Royal Opera House. Photo by Jon Archdeacon
Jordan Ajadi in 'Night Suites' at the Royal Opera House
Jordan Ajadi in 'Night Suites' at the Royal Opera House
Jackie Ryan and Patricia Langa in Excellent Together at the Royal Opera House. Photo by Jon Archdeacon
Paul Davidson Natt and Edd Arnold in Excellent Together at the Royal Opera House. Photo by Jon Archdeacon
Graham Evans and Eleanor Perry in Excellent Together at the Royal Opera House. Photo by Jon Archdeacon
FEEDBACK
From conservatoire/university staff:
"The students have very much enjoyed their creative processes, and the resultant work is a triumph of wit and complex movement which reflects the intelligent and meticulous research these outstanding artists undertook in preparation."
"Eleanor and Daniel really took them on a professional journey of exploring, and giving an exquisite attention to detail whilst being appropriately demanding in the studio. Their approach gave a great sense of valuing the students' input and commitment, as well as genuinely stretching them in performance areas that were new to them."
"12 of our dance students had an invaluable experience working with Eleanor and Daniel, and produced a stunning performance after an intensive rehearsal period during which time they were challenged to push their performance practice to a whole new level."
From conservatoire/university students:
"I would like to say that I feel you have both given me an understanding of how art can be created in a healthy and sustainable way whilst still being rich and new and I thank you for this because it has made me more positive about the lives artists can lead."
"Something I’ll bring with me is a great consideration for deep research that can support every single detail of a specific choice"
"Danny and Eleanor are friendly and easy to approach which makes a huge difference and means working with them is a breeze."
"A lovely and enjoyable process in which I gained several skills and insights that I will take further into my dance/performance career."
From workshop participants:
"I had a super time"
"Hello, just wanted to send you and email to say how much I enjoyed your Sunday workshop. It was so well constructed and I really felt I learnt about your process and more about physicality of character through movement. And if you do anymore I’d be there with bells on."
"I was delighted and terrified for the opportunity to play with the rich mix of things that you threw at us all... I really appreciate your attention, meticulousness and rigour to originality, detail, music, subject matter, theatre, experiment and dance within the art form, which I feel is being lost at times, within our artistic world."
Istanbul Queer Art Collective. Photo by Eda Sancakdar