SPRING 2022 PROGRAMME
MYTHS & DREAMS
A CAPTIVATING PROGRAMME COMBINING DANCE, FILM AND DIGITAL SCULPTURE
SOMNIUM
Concept & choreography by Malgorzata Dzierzon
Film direction by Filipe Alcada
Performance and choreographic contribution by Beth Veitch, Ellie Marsh, Esmée Halliday and Lila Naruse
Lighting design by Chris Swain
Music by Oliver Coates
Direction of Photography by Fabio Calascibetta
Editing and grading by Filipe Alcada John Antony Thadicaran
Fertile Ground’s Artistic Co-Director Malgorzata Dzierzon brings to the stage her new dance film Somnium. At the time of extended confinement during the pandemic, many of us have found ourselves sleeping and dreaming more. Somnium wants to capture and express our dreams, memories, anxieties and desires at this time of change. Somnium is a collaboration with filmmaker Filipe Alcada and composer Oliver Coates and is a Dance City 2021/22 Commission.
PLUBEL
Choreography by Fabritia D’Intino & Clémentine Vanlerberghe
Performance by Beth Veitch, Ellie Marsh, Esmée Halliday and Lila Naruse
Lighting design by Violaine Burgard with Pierre Staigre
Music by Federico Scettri
Plubel is an hypnotic journey of imitation, choreographed by a duo of rising European choreographers; Fabritia D'Intino and Clémentine Vanlerberghe. In this work, the two women explore chorality as an act of resistance and a tool to reveal what has been made hidden. From the mass, the group, each female figure is extracted to reveal their individuality as an attempt at emancipation.
LABYRINTH
Concept & choreography by Renaud Wiser
Concept & digital sculptures by Marie Lelouche
Digital installation by Florent Berthaut
Performance and choreographic contribution by Beth Veitch, Ellie Marsh, Esmée Halliday and Lila Naruse
Lighting design by Chris Swain
Music by Lukas Truniger, Lucas Paris, Zahn - Hatami - McClure
Labyrinth is a cross-disciplinary work by Fertile Ground Artistic Co-Director Renaud Wiser, freely inspired by the myth of the Minotaur. In contrast with the classical narrative, in Labyrinth the Minotaur is portrayed as a symbol of hybridity representing the complexities of modern times. In our creative process the dancers are immersed in a virtual environment created by sculptor Marie Lelouche and develop choreography in response to her sculptures. On stage, the performers’ movement reveals this virtual maze brought to life by projections and a haunting sound design.
ABOUT FERTILE GROUND
Founded in 2013, Fertile Ground is dedicated to talent development and retention in the North East and North of England. It aims to nurture, challenge and inspire a new generation of dance artists and to develop and present world class dance across the North. The Company’s vision is to make the North East of England the place to dance.
TEAM AND COLLABORATORS
Malgorzata is a dance artist and producer. Born and trained in Poland she performed with Rambert, Gothenburg Ballet and the Royal Danish Ballet amongst others. Her choreographic credits include Flight for Rambert, Sleepless for Ballet Central, Rasputin11 for Wroclaw Opera Ballet and film commissions from Serpenitine Galleries, Kettle's Yard Gallery and Dance City. Working with New Movement Collective she produced and co-choreographed several multi-media productions including Casting Traces, Nest, Please Be Seated, Collapse and Project XO. Malgorzata is a Clore Cultural Leadership Programme Fellow.
Born in Lausanne and trained with the Ballet Junior in Geneva, Renaud Wiser is a former dance with the Ballet du Grand Theatre de Genève, Ballet National de Marseille, Gothenburg Ballet, Rambert and Bonachela Dance Company. He is the Artistic Director of Renaud Wiser Dance Company. His work is known for its crafted and intricate vocabulary and has been presented throughout the UK in venues including Dance East, Pavilion Dance, Dance City, Platform Theatre and Greenwich Dance.
After graduating with a First Class Honours at Dance City, Beth went on to join Mapdance postgraduate company at the University of Chichester, touring works by Anthony Missen, José Agudo, Didy Veldman and Liz Aggiss internationally and gaining a Masters in Dance Performance with Distinction. Beth has since worked and performed independently with SBB Dance and Kiran Kumar and her work Kenopsic Subconscious has toured across the region with Lo-Giudice Dance. She is a 2021 recipient of the Charlotte Grant Early Career Artist Award from Dance City and looks forward to developing her first professional work ‘Waiting On It’.
Ellie Marsh trained at Tring Park School for The Performing Arts before completing her degree with a 1st at Northern School of Contemporary Dance in Leeds. Ellie then went on to join National Dance Company Wales as an apprentice where she performed works by Fearghus Ó Conchúir, Ed Myhill and Nigel Charnock. Ellie has worked with a variety of choreographers including Gary Clarke, Alexandra Waeirstall, Roisin Whelan, Anotnia Grove, Jamaal Burkmar and Bar Groisman. Ellie won The Nijinska Award for most promising female choreographer at National Youth Ballet of Great Britain and was invited to choreograph her work ‘Venn’ premiering at Sadler’s Wells in 2015. She has since worked for National Youth Ballet as a rehearsal director and teacher. Ellie is also a Level 4 qualified Sports Masseuse and Yoga Teacher.
Raised in Northumberland, Esmée began her training at Dance City, Newcastle. She went onto study Contemporary Dance at Trinity Laban, achieving a First Class honours degree, along with the Sylvia Bodmer Memorial Fund for Outstanding Achievement in Choreological Studies. Esmée continued her training with Emergence dance company , led by Joss Arnott performing works by Sharon Watson and Joss Arnott. Esmée received an MA in Professional Dance Performance, achieving a Distinction. Woven within her love for dance is Esmée’s passion for yoga. She completed her 500hr yoga teaching qualification in India at Sattva Yoga Academy . This has led to the creation of her brand esméeflow - drawing together her dance & yoga experience to create a complimentary blend of movement & mindfulness.
Lila Naruse is a North East based dance artist with mixed Japanese heritage. She is passionate about creativity, challenge and discovery.Lila deeply values honesty, joy and flow within her approach, and uses the philosophical and physical connection of the whole body as inspirationLila’s most recent work includes project FLOW and Earth Dance Symbiosis R&D taking place in 2020. She has also been employed by Company of OthersGrief Floats R&D 2020 and Northern Dance Kintsugi 2019.
Born in 1987, of French and German ancestry, Clémentine Vanlerberghe is based in Lille, France. She received dance education from the School of Ballet du Nord and at ArtEZ in the Netherlands. She has worked since 2006 with numerous choreographers in France and abroad, including Carolyn Carlson, the CCN de Roubaix, Cyril Viallon, Erik Kaiel, Amélie Poirier. She received in 2016/2017 the grant « Pas à Pas' ' from DRAC Hauts-de-France within Le Gymnase CDCN de Roubaix Hauts-de-France. Since 2016 she is mentored within the Junior Ballet : a space for emerging artists from Les Nouveaux Ballets du Nord- Pas-de-Calais set by Amélie Poirier. This year together with Fabritia D’Intino she will stage their work Plubel as part of Fertile Ground Myths and Dreams programme.
Fabritia D’Intino is a dancer and choreographer. Together with Clémentine Vanlerberghe she will stage their work Plubel as part of Fertile Ground Myths and Dreams programme. Fabritia graduated from Accademia Nazionale di Danza and ArtEZ. From 2013 to 2019 she has been the artistic coordinator of Barcelona International Dance Exchange - BIDE. Since 2018 she has been part of companies Chiasma and Cats & Snails as dancer and maker. Her activity includes stage performances, public space interventions, participatory projects and research formats. Fabritia’s work, mostly in collaboration with other artists, has been awarded with national prizes (Ingenerazione, Tu35 Expanded) and presented in different international contexts: Théâtre De La Ville, Festival Avignon OFF, Sadler’s Wells, Sismograf among others.
Marie Lelouche is a French artist whose practice questions space and volume. Born in 1984 in Saint Junien, she is a graduate of the Ensba de Paris, the Sorbonne, Le Fresnoy – Studio national des arts contemporains and is currently pursuing a doctorate in research/creation at the Université du Québec à Montréal and Le Fresnoy tittled « Post-digital Sculpture ». Her work, of minimal and abstract aesthetic, has been shown in Belgium at ArtBrussels, in France at the Musée du Lam or the Mirage Festival, in South Korea at the Studio National d’Art Contemporain, in Brazil at the Casa de Bailar, in Italy at Spazio Thetis and in Berlin at the Mazzoli Gallery. Marie Lelouche is represented since several years by Galerie Alberta Pane (Paris/Venice).
Filipe Alçada originally trained as an Illustrator and Animator. After graduating he set-up an animation company, with two colleagues. Their first project won best music video at the ‘New York Underground Film Festival’ and opened Nick Cave’s Meltdown at the South Bank Centre in London. Recently he has also collaborated in animated projects as a freelancer for Passion Films,. He also collaborates with musicians and contemporary dancers on Arts based projects producing work for live-performances, installations and several live-action short films. His film work has been shown at the Wolverhampton Art Gallery as part of ‘Sublime Spaces’, the Design Museum in London as part of ‘Sparkle the Dark Up’ and at Bloomberg Space as part of Comma 40-The place.
Florent is an Assistant Professor at the University of Lille, France and Researcher in the MINT team of the CRIStAL. He obtained his PhD in Computer Science from the University of Bordeaux, in the SCRIME/LaBRI and the INRIA Potioc team. He then conducted a two years project at the University of Bristol with a Marie Curie fellowship.His research focuses on building connections between the fields of 3D User Interfaces and of New Interfaces for Musical Expression. In particular, he has explored 3D interaction techniques adapted to musical interaction and mixed-reality displays for augmenting digital instruments on stage.
For the creation of her dance film and stage production Somnium, Malgorzata Dzierzon has invited cellist and composer Oliver Coates to create the music score. Oliver moves at the intersection of classical minimalism, ambient drone and doom metal. He has performed music by Pauline Oliveros and Morton Feldman, supported Radiohead, shared the stage with Mica Levi and Dean Blunt, collaborated with Arca on the soundtrack for the latest catwalk show from the house of Dior, and released a great deal of music for films and on albums (including on RVNG Intl).
Photography © Djenaba Davis-Eyo
Chris is a lighting designer based in Bristol. He has worked extensively with Gecko - lighting design for the company includes 'a little space', ‘The Dreamer’, ‘Time of Your life’, ‘Institute’, & 'Missing'. He is currently working with the company to develop their next production which will premiere in 2022. Other lighting designs include: multiple shows for Tobacco Factory Theatres - including 'Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf', 'Beautiful Thing', and ‘Blue Heart’, ‘We Can Time Travel’ for gig-theatre maker Dom Coyote, 'Oz', ‘Flies’ and ‘The Scarlet Pimpernel’ for Pins and Needles, ‘Paper Architect’ for paper and projection artists The McGuires, and designs for dance companies Fertile Ground, New Movement Collective, Renaud Wiser Dance, and TrashDollys. Chris has toured extensively as a production manager and re-lighter both nationally and internationally with companies such as Kneehigh, Headlong, Gandini Juggling, and Mark Bruce Dance Company.
TELL US WHAT YOU THINK
Please share your thoughts with us about Myths & Dreams via social media using the hashtag #MythsAndDreams or by contacting us at ad@fertileground.org.uk. To find out more about Fertile Ground visit www.fertileground.org.uk, sign up to our mailing list below.