Dance Preview: Cloud Dance Festival - Showtime At Bernie Grant Arts Centre

By Lise Smith Last edited 124 months ago
Dance Preview: Cloud Dance Festival - Showtime At Bernie Grant Arts Centre

John Ross performs at Cloud Dance festival: Showtime

Independent dance platform Cloud Dance Festival returns to the Bernie Grant Arts Centre in Tottenham next weekend with Showtime, a three-day showcase of new and established choreographic talent.

For the first time, the festival is funded by Arts Council England, allowing festival producer Chantal Guevara to extend the artist development role of the festival. "This is the soft launch of the plans we've been working on to offer the choreographers we work with significantly more support, not just from us, but from other parts of the industry as well. We've received Arts Council funding for the first time to help us achieve this, and we're finally able to offer the choreographers financial support," says Guevara.

This autumn's festival kicks off on Friday 15 November with Bricolage Dance Movement's Story Of A Night Pianist. Other artists featured on Friday include former member of 2-Faced Dance Johnny Autin, and Newcastle's Lo-Giudice dance company.

Rambert dancer Mbulelo Ndabeni presents a new duet on Saturday, and is joined by New Adventures Choreographic Award winner John Ross with his latest work Wolfpack. Sunday's lineup features two works by Shobana Jeyasingh dancer Avatâra Ayuso and a new piece by Liverpudlian Cloud Dance Festival favourites Taciturn.

"We're determined to find ways to help really promising choreographers receive the support and recognition they deserve," adds Guevara. "We've been getting a lot of interest in this festival from key industry people, which is wonderful as we've got such a strong lineup this time — not just from London but also Birmingham, Liverpool and Newcastle."

For the first time, Cloud Dance festival also offers a professional development training programme. Workshops for emerging dance writers will be led by critic Donald Hutera, and there will also be training sessions in dance photography and videography.

"I'm really excited about the workshops," says Guevara. "It's been wonderful putting them together, and seeing the amount of interest in them — after all, where would dancers be without people to film, photograph and review them?"

Cloud Dance Festival welcomes additional public support via Indiegogo.

Showtime runs 15-17 November at the Bernie Grant Arts Centre, Town Hall Approach Road, London N15 4RX; tickets are priced  £12 (£10 concessions) and can be purchased on 0208 365 5450 or at berniegrantcentre.co.uk. For more information please see cloud-dance-festival.org.uk

Last Updated 05 November 2013