Recent and forthcoming work and performances

DEC Drawing Dance
Regular sessions by the DEC team resumed in the autumn culminating in collaboration in the acclaimed performance New moves, new sounds at the Pegasus Theatre on 3rd December with Oxford Improvisers as part of the 10th Cohesion Festival. For discussion of this occasion check out Oxford Dance Writers website.

Work continues developing further performance projects at URC with a core team of Susie Crow and Ana Barbour (dancers), Malcolm Atkins and Bruno Guastalla (musicians) and Clare Bassett, Kassandra Isaacson and Susan Moxley (visual artists) – watch this space! Meanwhile a bi-monthly programme of workshops for established artists wishing to draw dancers in action with live music is open for bookings – next session Monday March 26th 2012. Please contact Susie or Kassandra for details at k.isaacson@btinternet.com

New Dances at URC
Following enthusiastic response to the Masterclass in March, BiSS hosted an evening of work in progress, New Dances at URC, 29th October 2011. Six Oxford dance artists working in a variety of genres showed emerging pieces and received valuable audience feedback both in discussion and in writing: Joe Lott, Ségolène Tarte, Amarita Vargas, Laura Peña, Paulette Mae and Susie Crow with musician Malcolm Atkins and visual artist Clare Bassett. Watch out for performances of some of this work in finished form at the Place in Resolution! (Joe Lott) and during the Dancin' Oxford 2012 Festival at the Pegasus Theatre (Amarita Vargas) and Old Fire Station (Paulette Mae).

Inside Out and Commedia

May-June 2011: Ballet in Small Spaces presented new works by Susie Crow. Imagined by and in memory of theatre director Sebastian Graham-Jones, Commedia captures the spirit of Claude Harrison's fantasy paintings of commedia del arte figures in landscapes, set to Robin Holloway's evocative Serenade played live by the Exuberant Players. Inside Out invites the spectator to see ballet from the inside; pianist Peter Jacobs and expert classical dancers interpret and reveal the lyrical beauty of Alan Bush's 24 Preludes. Stage designs are by Ellen Stewart, and lighting design by Guy Hoare.

This project has been generously supported by the Exuberant Trust which supports emerging artists in Oxfordshire, and the National Lottery through Grants for the Arts.  Production was facilitated by the Castle, Wellingborough and the North Wall.

Performances took place at The Castle Wellingborough 18th May, The North Wall, Oxford (20th and 21st May), The Theatre, Chipping Norton (31st May), and Cornerstone Arts Centre, Didcot (2nd June). An Exuberant Trust Gala matinee performance at the North Wall on 21st May included Commedia and featured talented young artists who have been supported by the Trust.

Drawing the Dance, Dancing the Image

As part of Oxfordshire's ArtWeeks 2011 Festival, drawings and paintings inspired by and inspiring dance frame BiSS performances at The North Wall. In the exhibition Drawing the dance, dancing the image at the North Wall Gallery 16th-28th May, a selection of Claude Harrison's paintings reveal sources for Commedia, and their interpretation for the stage by young designer Ellen Stewart. In juxtaposition, works by established Oxfordshire artists Clare Bassett, Antonia Bruce, Kassandra Isaacson and Susan Moxley reveal line, movement and expression captured in the dancing moment. These works emerging from ongoing Drawing Dance sessions, and last year's DEC project at the OVADA Gallery, complement Susie Crow's Inside Out. A Drawing Dance workshop will be lead by some of the exhibiting artists; for details please contact: k.isaacson@btinternet.com

Dante In The Chapel

A further chance to see the highly successful Dante Project, this time in the beautiful setting of the Chapel of Mansfield Collge, Oxford on Sunday, 28th November 2010 at 8.00 pm. Talented dancers from Oxford are joined by the Cappe Sextet, with readings from Dante's Divine Comedy by Robin Kirkpatrick. Tickets available on the door, to reserve in advance please contact Susie. You can also download our flyer by clicking here.

Poetry, Dance, Music and Drawing

Following the work of DEC in April, Susie Crow, composer/improviser Malcolm Atkins and visual artist Antonia Bruce will be presenting improvised responses to Robin Kirkpatrick's poem 'After Prospero' at Robinson College, Cambridge on Saturday, 30th October as part of a day devoted to the Arts in Cambridge Festival of Ideas. Devised by Robin Kirkpatrick, the day will bring together artists, academics and students in performance and discussion around collaboration and improvisation. Further information can be found by clicking here.

The Dante Project at Cambridge Summer Music Festival

Emmanuel United Reformed Church, Trumpington Street, 24th July 2010
"Midway through life’s journey, I found myself lost in a dark wood…" Following the success of last year's Experience Dante performances at Robinson College, a dramatic programme of dance and music performed by BiSS and the Cappé Sextet, vividly re-imagining Dante’s journey of enlightenment through Hell, Purgatory and Paradise. Includes music by Beethoven, Ligeti, Cheryl Francis Hoad, Jeremy Thurlow and Roxanna Panufnik, with original choreography by Susie Crow.Booking information here.
www.cambridgesummermusic.com/events/view/25

Va Va Viola! presented by Pembroke Arts - 6th June 2010

A rich evening of music and dance directed by Benjamin Ellin and Patrick
Wood at the lovingly restored Pembroke House in Walworth, South London,
brought together talented musicians and dancers in a choice collaborative
programme celebrating the viola, and featuring Russian violist Grigori
Tsyganov and violinist Artem Kotov. Choreography included a powerful new
work by Yael Loewenstein to Ellin's "The White Crucifixion", Ann Dickie's
evocative solo, "Any Queen", Wood's "Her Review" and two miniatures by Susie
Crow. Her "Elegie" from 2004 was eloquently danced by Bethany Elliott and
Richard Ramsey, and a new piece set to John Woolrich's "Ulysses Awakes"
featured Wood in a reflection on events from the Odyssey. Pembroke House link:
www.pembrokehouse.org.uk/index.php

BiSS Incubator week at The Castle, Wellingborough

Susie Crow spent the first week of May 2010 as guest of The Castle Arts Centre, Wellingborough, part of their Incubator programme which donates free rehearsal space to artists 3 times a year for the development of work. A wonderful opportunity for ideas to germinate without the pressure of a fixed end product in view. Susie began work on a new piece with dancers Bethany Elliott, Katherine Kingston and Jo Meredith, and looks forward to a continuing relationship with welcoming Wellingborough…
www.thecastle.org.uk

Demonstration: Explorations in Collaboration
Wednesday 21st - Saturday 24th April 2010
OVADA Gallery, Oxford
www.ovada.org.uk

Since October 2009 Susie Crow and Oxford based musician/composer Malcolm Atkins have been improvising in collaboration, taking as a starting point the poem, After Prospero, by Robin Kirkpatrick from Cambridge. The work was initially shown at Café Reason's Diamond Nights evening in October 2009 and then at Oxford Improvisers' Cohesion Festival in the Jacqueline Du Pré concert hall at St Hilda's College in November.
www.cafereason.com/main/cafe_reason.htm
www.oxfordimprovisers.com:80/oxfordimprovisers/home.aspx

Dancer and musician then teamed up with four visual artists with a longstanding interest in drawing dance; Clare Bassett, Antonia Bruce, Kassandra Isaacson and Susan Moxley. The group began meeting fortnightly to explore the interaction between art forms, including ultimately the use of video and projection. A residency at the OVADA gallery provided a chance to share not only resulting drawings, dance and music, but also working process, providing an intensive opportunity for the artists to develop their work, not only as individuals but in complex relationship in the moment and through live video projection. As part of the continuing dialogue they also began to explore a new poem by Robin Kirkpatrick, Envoi, written in response to their work in progress.

The residency opened the work out to other local artists, enthusiasts and academics, through opportunities for guest improvisers across art forms to actively participate, an open drawing dance workshop, and a seminar on artistic collaboration and improvisation organised by Miranda Laurence under the Dance and Academia programme, which brings together arts practitioners and academics in discussion.
http://oxforddancewriters.wordpress.com/dance-and-academia-moving-the-boundaries/
Two accounts of the event can be read on the Oxford Dance Writers blog site.
http://oxforddancewriters.wordpress.com/2010/05/11/no-world-but-persons-dec-at-the-ovada-21st-24th-april-2010-by-barbara-berrington/
http://oxforddancewriters.wordpress.com/2010/04/29/dec-demonstration-exploration-collaboration-and-dance-and-academia-seminar-by-dana-mills/

Susie Crow has recently worked with members of Cambridge University Contemporary Dance Group on “That Second Realm”, a new work with commissioned score by composer Jeremy Thurlow based on the Purgatorio. This was performed at Robinson College, Cambridge on Saturday 25th April as part of the Dante Experience, a programme of experimental works in music, dance, film, poetry, drama and visual arts inspired by Dante's Divine Comedy, organised by Dante scholar and translator Professor Robin Kirkpatrick. Following the success of this evening a further performance of a condensed version of the programme including “That Second Realm” was shown at Robinson College on Tuesday June 23rd. You can see the video of the performance on YouTube by clicking here.

Two works from the Solos Project 2009 were shown as live interludes in themed screenings at the Ultimate Picture Palace in Oxford Documentary Film Festival (OxDox). Anuradha Chaturvedi'sTarana was shown with the documentary "Bilal" on Tuesday 21st April, and Boom and Bust with choreography by Susie Crow was performed by Debbie Camp alongside "Cityboy" and "I.O.U.S.A." on Friday 24th April.

The Solos Project

The Solos Project showcases the diversity of dance talent and professional practice in Oxford in the intimate surroundings of the Burton Taylor Studio Theatre.  Artists based in Oxford and the surrounding area develop and present new solo works, reflecting the dance traditions they work within and their own individual ideas, experience and skills.  It is curated by Susie Crow and hosted by Oxford Playhouse.  Following the sell-out performance week of the  first Solos Project in January 2008, a second Solos Project was programmed with performances in January 2009.  This included an extra performance for a student audience as part of Dance Writers of the Future, a project aimed at encouraging student communities in Oxford to write about and review dance.

'The Solos Project 2009 '

'The Solos Project' 2009' week, performed at the Burton Taylor Studio on the 14th to 17th January included an extra performance for a student audience as part of the Dance Writers of the Future, a project aimed at encouraging student communities in Oxford to write about and review dance.

“Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail. ”Ralph Waldo Emerson"

Routed

Dance and choreography: Hannah de Cancho
Sound design by Steven Skinley including tracks: Beatbox Harmonica by Yuri Lane, Ave Maria by Celtic Woman and On by Aphex Twin.

Hoop

Text and movement: Fiona Millward
Sound: Chopin: Mazurka in F Sharp Minor, Op. 6, No.1. Béla Fleck & Joshua Bell

Boom & Bust

Dancer: Debbie Camp
Choreography: Susie Crow
Music: Conlon Nancarrow, Studies for Player Piano 3b and 2B Mike Wofford, Quietsville from Morton Feldman Jazz Tributes.

Love After Love

Dance and choreography: Ruth Pethybridge
Music: Katherines Wheel by DuoTone Dancing with myself by Nouvelle Vague
Poem: Derek Walcott

Solo #4: Blotter

Conceived and Performed by Thomas JM Wilson
Costume made by Celia Perkins
Music: Max Richter

Tarana

Dancer: Anuradha Chaturvedi
Dance developed from choreography by: Pt. Arjun Mishra
Music Composition: Ustaad Gulshan Bharati

Costume Design by Celia Perkins
Lighting Design by Jason Kirk
Curated by Susie Crow

'The Solos Project 2008 '

'The Solos Project' 2008' week, was performed at the Burton Taylor Studio on the 9th to 12th January.

"Oh note, watch, Find in dance what it is to be me." From “Dancer” by Shane McCauley

Frantic Nymph

Choreographed and performed by Elly Crowther
Music: Juan Loco by Rodrigo y Gabriela

Hecabe

Choreographed and performed by Jane Connelly

Le Chant des Pierres (the song of the stones)

Choreographed and performed by Joëlle Pappas

Clytie's Posion

Choreographed and performed by Adrienne Hart
Music: Contempt by The Books and Like hearts swelling by Polmo Polpo

Baggage

Choreographed and performed by Anna Barbour
Music: Malcolm Atkins

Home Is Where The Heart Is

Performed by Lisia Moala
Choreographed by Susie Crow
Music:   Malcolm Williamson Piano Sonata No 3, 3rd Movement – Brincando Frank Bridge 1st of Three Improvisations for the Left Hand - At Dawn

Costume Design by Celia Perkins
Lighting Design by Scott Stewart
Curated by Susie Crow