Dance Enterprise Ideas Fund awards 8 outstanding dance creatives £25,000

23 March 2016

Dance Enterprise Ideas Fund Winners 2016. photo: Jeremy Freedman

The Dance Enterprise Ideas Fund awards eight outstanding dance creatives at the 2016 Dance Enterprise Ideas Summit, hosted by East London Dance.

Bursaries totalling £25,000 were awarded to eight outstanding dance creatives at the 2016 Dance Enterprise Ideas Summit, a day-long event on Monday 21 March, hosted by East London Dance at Stratford Circus Arts Centre. 

The Dance Enterprise Ideas Summit is the first of an annual event offering artists, producers, venues and organisations from east London and beyond the opportunity to share and exchange enterprising ideas in dance.

The day culminated in the final round of pitches for the Dance Enterprise Ideas Fund, as 23 shortlisted artists, selected from a high-calibre pool 89 applications, pitched their ideas to the Dance Enterprise Ideas Fund panel: Polly Risbridger from East London Dance, Sian Astrop from Canary Wharf Arts + Events, Fleur Derbyshire-Fox from English National Ballet, Jonny Sidall from Redbridge Drama Centre, Rhiannon Wilkins from Rich Mix and Eva Martinez from Sadler’s Wells.

The session showcased a raft of innovative and exhilarating dance projects and enterprises that will be developed over the next few years, and eight winners were announced.

Polly Risbridger, Director of East London Dance, said:

“The Dance Enterprise Ideas Fund panel were overwhelmed with the quality of the ideas being pitched today and with the confidence and panache in which the pitches were delivered. It was an extremely tough decision making process but the selected ideas demonstrate an eclectic and diverse range of projects that have huge potential for the future. The pitches were testament to the creativity, entrepreneurialism, and generosity of the UK independent dance sector. Each and every one showed such passion about the impact they wanted to make. We can’t wait to see where they go next.” 

The winners:

Anna Buonomo
Project: Water Under the Bridge
Awarded £2,950 to develop an outdoor promenade performance inspired by the phrase “water under the bridge” with older people from East London.
@bulletnb   |   www.annabuonomo.com
 

Cindy Claes
Project: The Dance Backpackers Talk and Documentary TV Show
Awarded £2,425 to film a pilot of a new talk show and documentary based on international dance exchanges between emerging artists.
@dancebackpacker   |   www.cindyclaes.com
 

Lee Griffiths / The Company
Project: Artists 4 Artists
Awarded £5,000 to establish a network of hip hop influenced individuals that want to create change within the dance profession and deliver a 3 day event of discussions, workshops and performances.
@LeeNgriff   | @The_Companytc
 

Lanre Malaolu / Protocol Dance Company
Project: I Can’t Breathe
Awarded £2,260 to create a dance theatre production inspired by the cases of police brutality towards black men in America and the UK and taking an in-depth look at racism in our society.
@LanreMalaolu   | www.Protocoldance.co.uk
 

Wayne Parsons / Wayne Parsons Dance
Project: Vestige
Awarded £5,000 to develop a new dance theatre work which takes posthumous fame as its starting point, examining how we reconstruct the lives of the dead by looking at what they left behind.
@wp_dance   | www.wayneparsonsdance.com

Joanna Rhodes
Project: Challenge 59
Awarded £985 to research how to roll out her successful dance film project that invites schools and community groups to create short creative films that inspire young people and their families to take responsibility for their lifestyle choices.
@jo_rhodesdance
 

Jade Shaw / Parkour Dance Company
Project: Sacred Sons
Awarded £4,910 to devise a parkour-dance project with young men and their families resulting in an outdoor site-specific performance.
@ParkourDance   | www.parkourdance.co.uk

Cathy Waller / Cathy Waller Company
Project: The Sensory Sound Project
Awarded £1,470 to collaborate with sound engineers, deaf artists, young people with hearing loss and an audiologist to research a new innovation to break down access barriers for deaf audiences watching dance.
@CathyWaller   |   www.cathywaller.com

The Dance Enterprise Ideas Fund was established in 2015 to enable dance creatives to research, test and/or launch new artistic and entrepreneurial ideas. The Fund offers an award of up to £5,000 plus in-kind support from its supporting partners: Hoxton Hall, Studio Wayne McGregor and the University of East London. The Dance Enterprise Ideas Fund is presented as part of the Dance Enterprise Hub – a programme of skills development, creative incubation for new ideas, start-up funding and mentoring to enable dance artists to establish sustainable and successful creative businesses and/or careers. It is supported by Foundation for FutureLondon.

The 2016 Dance Enterprise Ideas Fund shortlist was: Adrienne Hart, Ali Kaviani, Anna Buonomo, Antoine Marc, Cathy Waller, Cherrie Cheok Leng Lau, Cindy Claes, Danielle Teale, Hannah Anderson-Ricketts, Jade Shaw, Joanna Rhodes, Lanre Malaolu, Lee Griffiths, Lorenza Peragine, Luke Jessop, Nefeli Tsiouti, Rachel Kay, Rebecca Evans, Renaud Wiser, Sean Graham, Sian Meyers, Theo Lowe and Wayne Parsons.