Revealing the Fi.ELD’s prime pitchers!
23 May 2014
East London Dance’s future innovators, The Fi.ELD, are currently in full creative flow. Under the direction and facilitation of Kate Scanlan (Scanner’s Inc) and Emma Kerr (East London Dance), the group of 12 emerging professionals, meet monthly for in depth learning, hands on experience, networking sessions, Fi.ELD trips, masterclasses and intensives (including a whole day with Hofesh Shechter Company), gaining valuable knowledge and insight into the industry. Part of their professional development process is the developing, pitching and presenting of an idea to secure investment of up to £2,000 to produce their own event or project.
The selection panel, (or Dragons of the dance world) were Polly Risbridger (Director, East London Dance), Kate Scanlan (Fi.ELD Facilitator) Ian Abbott (Head of Creative Programmes, Pavilion Dance South West) and Kirsty Anderson-Tyrrell (Programme Co-ordinator, East London Dance). Eight out of the group of 12 put themselves forward to pitch and our Dragons were incredibly impressed by the standard and creativity that came from the year 2 group.
Four pitches were awarded investment, totalling £6000, which will be presented at The Fi.ELD Festival at Stratford Circus on Saturday 9 and Sunday 10 August 2014:
Amy Swalwell – Jack & The Boombox:
Jack & the Boombox is a dance event that marries together house dance and house music with the aim to share, educate, pay tribute to and celebrate. Rooted at Stratford Circus, this exciting dance event sprouts House dance workshops of foundations and musicality. Growing upwards it educates on the culture and history by branching out with symposiums that investigate the movement of house music from Chicago to New York and discussing the transition of club dances to stage. Finally, the festival nurtures to pay tribute to Frankie Knuckles, the Godfather of house music through DJ sets and an installation, The Music Room.
Shelby Osbourne – Between the Lines:
Combining the comedic story of Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” with the explorative and dynamic narratives of Dance. “Between The Lines” challenges choreographers to embark on this classic journey of love, passion, confused identity and trust. Choreographers are given a chronological extract of the play and are invited to artistically tell their extracts back to back in this intimate and collective setting. Followed by a Question and Answer session, the audience are given the opportunity to watch, share and advise. What will you see Between The Lines?
Loi Xaun Ly – The Slit Scan Mirror:
The Slit Scan Mirror – an interactive Digital Mirror that transforms the users movement into an augmented reality using the photographic process of the slit scan effect. Experiment, have fun and share your own live stream film at The Fi.ELD Festival. It’s a project that iterates the importance of today’s open source technology and it’s potentials within the art that aims to inspire creativity in the community.
Hannah Anderson-Ricketts and Anna-Lise Marie Hearn – Dance Film Festival:
A one day Dance Film Festival that celebrates the collaboration between dance and film. This festival will give professionals and emerging dance filmmakers a physical platform to show their work; alongside workshops to educate and inspire budding filmmakers and choreographers wanting to create dance films. All the while offering a fun and exciting day of dance film for the whole family. We welcome makers from all dance styles at various different levels of their creative practice and invite all to come and experience dance film in a fun festival setting.
New to this year’s Fi.ELD programme is a partnership with Pavilion Dance South West based in Bournemouth.
Ian Abbot, Head of Creative Programmes at Pavilion Dance South West says:
“Pavilion Dance South West (PDSW) are delighted to be involved with the second iteration of The Fi.ELD. Hosting a retreat in Bournemouth for a dozen young dance entrepreneurs, taking part in the selection process for The Fi.ELD Festival and being able to offer a slot in Collabo for one of their own creative interventions are just some of the ways PDSW have been involved. The Fi.ELD invests in young people creatively, financially and trusts them to deliver, it is an empowering process and we cannot wait to get involved again in 2015.”
The Collabo Pitch winner to go to Pavilion Dance South West is Brian Gillespie (B-Hybrid Dance):
Brian Gillespie (B-Hybrid Dance) presents ‘The Pace of Persistence’ – an exploration into the relationship between dance, light, darkness, and the spaces in between. What you work towards may not necessarily become clear when expected or anticipated. However, knowing that success does not come in a straight line allows the shades of grey between clarity and confusion to overlap, revealing what it was that you set out for. Dance and light unconventionally meet resulting in an interdisciplinary performance where audience members are encouraged to open their ‘third eye’ to see what might or could be.
Director Polly Risbridger states:
“I was totally blown away by the level of pitching and the ideas that came forward this year. They were forward thinking, culturally relevant and really exciting. I am so proud of the group and feel privileged to be part of this best practice model that seeks fresh original ideas from emerging professionals that would not usually get the support to make their ideas happen. We are also really honoured to partner with PDSW on this, as it means The Fi.ELD is not just about making work in London, its then about brokering relationships nationally and taking the work out offering our future innovators different perspectives.”
