Happy New Year friends and colleagues
2012 was a very exciting and busy year for Rosie Kay Dance Company, and so we wanted to share the highlights with you. We rebranded the company last year and for those of you who have not yet seen it, we have a shiny new website to go with our new look rosiekay.co.uk

Rosie Kay Dance Company were very proud to be nominated as Best Independent Dance Company by the National Dance Awards, Critics Circle 2012.

LEVERHULME ARTIST IN RESIDENCE @ UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD
RKDC are proud to announce that Rosie Kay has become the first choreographer appointed as Artist in Residence at the University of Oxford’s School of Anthropology and Museum Ethnography. Kay’s residency is funded by the prestigious Leverhulme Trust Artist in Residence grant, which has been awarded to the School.
Beginning in January 2013, Kay’s year of residence will take place at the Unit for Biocultural Variation and Obesity (UBVO), part of the School of Anthropology. Kay will work in close collaboration with Professor Stanley Ulijaszek, Dr Karin Eli, and other UBVO anthropologists to develop new ways of understanding eating disorders through a synergy of anthropological research and contemporary dance practice.
Kay’s residency will lead to the development of an original dance work exploring the experiential realities of eating disorders. The dance work, which Kay will choreograph, based on the research from her residency, will be produced by Rosie Kay Dance Company in 2014. Join us for a seminar on our research so far at Dancin Oxford details below. www.anthro.ox.ac.uk

THERE IS HOPE
A brand new production, There is Hope was a major part of 2012 

In May 2012, Rosie travelled to India and worked with Gati Dance in Delhi where she joined in dance workshops and conversed with choreographers Aditi Mangaldas, Anusha Lall, before moving on to Chennai to meet with Anita Ratnan, and Padmini Chettur as well as visiting a Lepers Colony, in the countryside south of Chennai, where she taught workshops, and spent time at a Mormon baptism with missionaries. The last leg of Rosie’s travels was to China where she met with Tao YeofTao Dance, Beijing Modern Dance Company, Beijing Dance Company and Living Dance Company and led a 3- hour workshop. The planning of this trip was aided with support of Piali Ray at Sampad, Theresa Beattie, Donald Hutera and Professor Chris Bannerman, to whom she extends her thanks.
The new production was created over the summer and toured in Autumn 12 and will be going out on the road again in Spring 2013. See tour dates below.

Renowned for her exciting collaborations, this new work is no exception with the collaborative team including Louis Price (Film), Yann Seabra (Design), Annie Mahtani (Composer of soundscore), Chris Mapp (Musical Director) and Kevin Treacy (Lighting Design). A cast of 5 dancers // Chris Vann, Ria Uttridge, Corey Baker, Lisa Hood, Jake Nwogu and 3 live musicians // Chris Mapp (Bass and Electro), Mike Hurley (Keyboard and Drums) Sam Wooster (Trumpet).
This physical work looks at themes of faith, hope and religion and the
relationship between religion and the body. There is Hope is dark and
disturbing with lighter moments of beauty and comedy. There is a theatrical
structure that takes everyone on a journey, with a sense of live improvisation.
Expect to find meaning, see incredible dance and explore a world of emotion,
fantasy, heavens and hells. The live jazz score is performed by three incredible musicians and changes every night, with an electro acoustic soundscore by Annie Mahtani.
There is Hope is commissioned by DanceXchange and co-commissioned by International Dance Festival Birmingham 2012 and mac birmingham. Supported by Arts Council England.

SUNSHINE ON LEITH
Rosie Kay had the privilege of being Choreographer on a new feature film this winter. Directed by Dexter Fletcher and based in songs from The Proclaimers, Sunshine on Leith is due to be release in 2013. Sunshine on Leith stars Jane Horrocks and Peter Mullan, and younger stars are Frey Mavor (Skins), George MacKay, Antonia Thomas (Misfits) and Kevin Guthrie. www.proclaimers.co.uk/cpt_news/sunshine-on-leith-the-movie-filming- commences/

JERWOOD DANCE HOUSE – CHOREOLAB
As an addition to her artistic development, Rosie Kay was invited to be part of a choreolab hosted by the Jerwood Dance House in Ipswich. This consisted of a two-week intensive residency working with 12 dancers and resulted in creating 10+ short works over 14 days. This was at the invitation of Assis Carriero and under the Artistic Direction of Jonathon Lunn. The week was very useful in developing choreographic methodology for There is Hope. www.danceeast.co.uk

HOME
Rosie Kay was commissioned by International Dance Festival Birmingham 2012 as a choreographer for the project HOME. She choreographed professional dancers, community groups and CAT students for the finale on 13 May in collaboration with Director, Andy Brunksil. www.idfb.co.uk/whats-on/homRosie Kay was commissioned by International Dance Festival Birmingham 2012 as a choreographer for the project HOME. She choreographed professional dancers, community groups and CAT students for the finale on 13 May in collaboration with Director, Andy Brunksil. www.idfb.co.uk/whats-on/home

SIX SUMMER SATURDAYS
RKDC was commissioned by Six Summer Saturdays, part of Birmingham Hippodrome to create Mailbox Steps with 7 dancers, a site-specific performance running over 2 days and Augmented Reality, a series of secret performances using augmented reality technology. www.sixsummersaturdays.com

ENGAGEMENTS
As well
as the above Rosie Kay Dance Company has been involved and/or delivered the following activity:

• Speaker at the State of the Arts conference led by Arts Council England in January 2012 as an ‘Artist Shaping the World’ in the ‘Artists and Communities’ section of the event
• Speaker at the Dance UK launch of the National Institute of Dance Science Medicine, RSM, 2012 Speaker at the Bradford Launch of the Dance in Yorkshire season
• Commissioned by DanceXchange to create an education pack and lead an INSET training day for dance leaders in regards to the Cultural Olympiad project, Spill
• Created and delivered a ‘Continued Professional Development’ day at DanceXchange focusing on preparing dance leaders to work in the health sector, named Dance Active. Alongside this, Rosie created a full resource pack for dance leaders
• Performed Double Points: K and Asylum at UK festivals, 26 April at IDFB 2012, 27 April 2012 at The Stanley Burton, Northern Ballet Theatre Leeds, and 26 July 2012, Holt Festival, Norfolk
• • Presentation to the Institute of Cultural and Social Anthropology, University of Oxford on

  5 SOLDIERS- Embodying soldier’s physicality through research and training, November 2011 Presented at University of Kingston to a group of third year students, on ‘Living and Working in the Arts – An introduction to the highs and lows and other things that might be useful to your long term Career’ February 2012

• Key Note speaker at Leeds Youth Dance Journeys Conference 2012
• Rosie Kay in collaboration with Professor Dee Reynolds, Manchester University has written a chapter due for publication by Oxford University Press entitled Choreographing 21st Century Warfare: 5 SOLDIERS- The Body is the Frontline. A version of this article has been included in the Herbert Exhibition Catalogue for ‘Caught in the Crossfire- Artists responses to conflict, peace and reconciliation’, the publication will be released this year
• Watching Dance paper Responses to Sound and Movement in Dance Performance: a Mutli- Methodological Investigation by Reason, Reynolds, Kay, Jola, Grobras, Pollick is being submitted to appropriate journals
• 5 SODLIERS the film was screened at the International Dance Film Festival of Burgundy, France
• RKDC is part of Creative Bridge being mentored by Angela Maxwell, as well as part of the UK DTI Passport to Export programme.

RKDC DEVELOPMENTS
In 2012 we reviewed the company, and we are delighted to announce that Hannah Sharpe has become Executive Director of Rosie Kay dance Company. We feel this position reflects the close partnership between Hannah and Rosie and builds security for the development of the company in the future.

Looking forward towards 2013

5 SOLDIERS.CO.UK
We are very pleased and excited that our digital composition of the stage show, 5 SOLDIERS will feature as a video installation as part of the Caught in the Crossfire – Artistic responses to conflict, peace and reconciliation at the Herbert Gallery in Coventry, launching on 24 January 2013. It will be in situ for 6 months as well as being featured in the Herbert exhibition publication. www.theherbert.org/index.php/home/whats-on/caught-in-the-crossfire1

ACTS OF POSSESSION
In March 2012 Rosie completed a 1-week residency with Guilherme Miotto in order to research ideas for a new work and explore the idea of a future collaboration. The week was a huge success and the outcome is that Rosie and Guilherme are going to work together as choreographers and dancers to create a duet collaborating with Louis Price as video artist collaborator. The umbrella title Acts of Possession will contain a series of duets, the first of which Sluts of Possession to be created in Spring 2013 and taken to Dance Base in August 13 to be part of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival with the ambition of then touring in the UK and Brussells where Guilherme is based rosiekay.co.uk/work/acts-of-possession/

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN
Commissioned by VIVID art gallery in Birmingham, Ladies and Gentleman, How long will it Last is a new piece that Rosie Kay Dance Company will work in collaboration with visual and sound artist Justin Wiggan to open Premiere at Vivid on 22 February 2013. www.vivid.org.uk

DANCE AND ACADEMIA CONFERENCE: DANCE, BODY AND IDENTITY
Part of Dancin’ Oxford 2013, Saturday 9 March 2013, 10.00am – 5.30pm
This year’s Dance and Academia conference will bring together academics and dance practitioners from different fields and disciplines to explore themes of dance, body and identity. The day will include some practical activity and a range of talks to inspire debate and discussion, including a longer presentation from The University Oxford team and Rosie Kay. The event is open to anyone, with or without a specialism in dance or any academic subject. Please see dancinoxford.co.uk for more information on the day’s content.

SUMMARY LOOKING BACK AND FORWARDS
2012 was a very exciting year, with time for company and personal development at the beginning of the year and the cementing of the partnership between Rosie as Artistic Director and Hannah Sharpe now as Executive Director. The second half of the year saw incredibly exciting development for the company that stretches across theatre, film, art and music with a vital range of productions and projects, which are really starting to show the breadth of range of the company’s talents. 2013 will see more of these works come to fruition, with the opening of the gallery exhibition, the excitement of the film premiere, and the position at Oxford starting. We are keen to keep developing unique and exciting projects in live performance, film and in unusual spaces, and we have big ambitions for 2014 with a new production in the pipeline. We are always looking for new commissions, collaborations and engagements, so please get in touch if you would like to work with us.

THANKS TO
Family, friends, supporters, collaborators, company members and participants. Without you our vision would not be a reality.

SPECIAL THANKS
To DanceXchange for their on-going support of RKDC and to our dedicated and supportive board members. Rosie Kay is Associate Artist of DanceXchange www.dancexchange.org.uk

TOUR DATES
07/ 08 March BIRMINGHAM mac birmingham, B12 9QH 0121 446 3232 www.macarts.co.uk
12 March 14 March 16 April 25 April 26 April 30 April 3 May
LONDON Laban Theatre, SE8 3DZ 02083059300 www.trinitylaban.ac.uk/labantheatre HUDDERSFIELD Lawrence Batley Theatre, HD1 2SP 01484 430528 www.thelbt.org
BRISTOL Circomedia, BS2 8SJ 0117 922 3686 www.circomedia.com
COVENTRY Warwick Arts Centre, CV4 7AL 02476 524524 www.warwickartscentre.co.uk
HEREFORD The Courtyard, HR4 9JR 01432 340555 www.courtyard.org.uk
101 Ludgate Loft, 17 Ludgate Hill, Birmingham, B3 1DW info@rosiekay.co.uk www.rosiekay.co.uk


Beginning in January 2013, Kay’s year of residency will take place at the Unit for Biocultural Variation and Obesity (UBVO), part of the School of Anthropology. Kay will work in close collaboration with Professor Stanley Ulijaszek, Dr Karin Eli, and other UBVO anthropologists to develop new ways of understanding eating disorders through a synergy of anthropological research and contemporary dance practice.

Kay’s residency will lead to the development of an original dance work exploring the experiential realities of eating disorders. The dance work, which Kay will choreograph based on the research conducted during her residency, will be produced by Rosie Kay Dance Company.

Click here for link

http://www.criticscircle.org.uk/dance/?ID=305&PID=2

Over two periods, RKDC performed 6 shows at the Kunsthaus Tacheles.  Arriving in the midst of a storm over the future of the building (one of the oldest free arts buildings in Berlin), we were amazed to see the politics of the situation.  The audiences built up consistently each night, until we were at almost capacity and the cast received 2 standing ovations.  Post show discussions were equally interesting- a different reaction to a work about war than in the UK.

After the first 3 shows the company spent a 5-day period improvising and researching Rosie Kay’s new work.  Chris, Tilly, Chris and Michael were joined by former Wild Party dancer Sung-Im Her and by Rosie Kay dancing as well.  A very exciting week created new ideas and brought up a totally new world of adventure for the company

After the research week, the company set off for the west, driving to Paderborn to stay and perform at Normandy Barracks and to 5^th Battalion The Rifles.  Staying in the officer’s quarters and eating each day at the officers mess was quite new to the company, but it was the workshops with the daughters of soldiers and the performance itself that were the highlights.  The company spent 1 day working with 8 teenage girls to create a 7-minute version of 5 Soldiers, which was performed as a curtain raiser.  The show was then performed for pre-deployment troops- to whom the threat of injury is a very real danger.  In 6 months time these people will be in Afghanistan themselves.

Last night was incredible; ‘Thank you’ doesn’t seem enough…I think we have achieved what I personally, was trying to get which is more open and honest discussion about the realities of what is happening.  We all have fears to face but unless we talk about them and find a positive way to express them, they become demons.

By facing ‘demons’ before events happen you have the opportunity to develop strategies.  This surely would allow you to deal more practically with any event that presented itself.

Please leave knowing that you have definitely humanized many ‘taboo’ issues- you have lifted the forcefield of “it will never happen to me” and you have also brought two communities of young people together under a general understanding that whilst ‘the body is the frontline’ we are all human an that is ‘the bottom line’!

Thank you

With the deepest respect for all of you as professionals but also as people who have taken the time to see soldiers as human beings too.

By Wendy Faux, Childcare Business Support Manager, Army Welfare Service, Normandy Barracks

I was moved by both performances. This was a rare and unique opportunity for our young people and our community.  Thank you for putting the humanity of warfare at the forefront of the performance. In my work I only know soldiers as mums and dads, so it was brilliant insight for me.

Sandy- Youth Worker, Army Welfare Service, Normandy Barracks

Overall, we felt that the tour was a success, and it was incredible to present the work to a new audience with totally new perspectives, both in Berlin and Paderborn.  In fact the shows after Paderborn seemed to be infected by the realisation of how real the work is, and how much it affects soldiers, all of whom told us they loved it- one soldiers saying- it’s the only thing I’ve never drifted off in!  Thanks to Wendy Faux and Sandy as well as all the girls at Paderborn, and special thanks to Milos Vuijkovic and Linda at Tacheles.  Massive thanks to Tilly Webber, Chris Linda, Chris Vann, Michael Spenceley, Tomasz Moskal, Sung-Im Her,  Simon Broadbridge, Hannah Sharpe and Louis Price.

Rosie Kay Dance Company

The Dance Debate

What lies ahead for dance as arts spending cuts bite? Can it survive the withdrawal of public funds that support dancers’ training, choreographers’ creativity, employment costs and health care? Is protest necessary? A panel of the British dance world’s leading figures was brought together by theartsdesk for a major debate last Friday in central London, as dance faced its own Question Time.

Rosie Kay and Val Bourne, founder of Dance Umbrella, headed the contemporary dance brigade, Royal Ballet ballerina Tamara Rojo and English National Ballet’s managing director Craig Hassall led the ballet troops, , Alistair Spalding, chief executive of Sadler’s Wells, and Robert Noble, deputy managing director of Cameron Mackintosh Ltd and co-director of New Adventures, represented management and dance-theatre interests, TV celebrity and choreographer Arlene Phillips and Caroline Miller, director of the lobby group Dance UK, spoke up for West End and freelance dancers. The debate was chaired by theartsdesk‘s Ismene Brown.

See the full debate online and a transcript of the debate by following this link- THEARTSDESK

University of Oxford Presentation

On November the 9^th Rosie Kay was invited to present a seminar on her research methods and embodied practice at the School of Anthropology, University of Oxford.  Invited by Professor Stanley Ulijaszek, Rosie Kay is to collaborate with the School of Anthropology, University of Oxford.  Kay will begin research in the New Year, with more information to follow. OXFORDLINK

Hello Culture

On the 17^th November Rosie Kay will be on the panel for discussion on digital technologies, following the creation of www.5soldiers.co.uk.  Buy tickets here-

HELLOCULTURE

5 SOLDIERS world premiere at Edinburgh Film house

5 SOLDIERS the film is to have its world premiere at the Edinburgh Filmhouse on November 19^th.  This will be part of a special Dance Film season- see this link for more- Dancewithcamera

Double Bill success

On October 13^th and 14^th Rosie Kay Dance Company revived two works, Asylum and Double Points: K for the 10^th Anniversary season at The Patrick Centre, Birmingham Hippodrome.  Regular company dancers Chris Linda and Chris Vann joined Rosie Kay, as well as Berlin based dancer Manon Greiner.  A considerable success, the evening’s double bill has been booked for future performances in Spring 2012. Watch the interview of us in rehearsal-  RKDCinrehearsal

Other things-

Rosie Kay presented at York St John University on 5 SOLDIERS working methods, at The Rayne Foundation meeting with dance educators and will talk at the Rayne Foundation Board Meeting. Rosie Kay is collaborating with Prof Dee Reynolds and Matthew Reason on a paper on the watching Dance Project, and co-writing a chapter for a new book on War and Choreography.  Rosie Kay was on a panel discussion at Laban on Watching dance and gave an after dinner speech at the Royal High School London club annual dinner.

Looking ahead

The future is looking very exciting for RKDC, with preparation for a research and development phase for the new work, There Is Hope.  There Is Hope will go into production in 2012, touring Autumn 2012 and Spring 2013.  The new collaboration with The University of Oxford will lead on to a period of research and perhaps could have some very interesting future outcomes.  Rosie Kay continues her work with young people as the Subject Leader for the Centre for Advanced Training (CAT) West Midlands.

2011- an Incredible Year!

2011 has truly been an incredible year for the company, with the second UK and International tour of 5 SOLDIERS, which took in The Place, London, Town Hall Birmingham and a month in Germany with performances at Kunsthaus Tacheles and The 5^th Battalion The Rifles in Paderborn.  5 SOLDIERS-the Film was created and launched in March 2011, going on to be an installation during the festival at Dance Base, Edinburgh and receiving its premiere next week in Edinburgh.  The Great Train Dance was a huge success with hundreds of participants, CAT dancers, RKDC dancers and Mubu Music.  The Great Train Dance received huge regional coverage and was awarded the LOCOG Inspire! Mark.

Thanks to:

Hannah Sharpe, Louis Price, Chris Vann, Chris Linda, Michael Spenceley, Tilly Webber, Tomasz Moskal, Sung Im Her, Manon Griener, Brian Slater, Simon Broadbridge, Frances Clarke, James Allenby, Farah Baksh, Stefan Kay, Helen Kay, Donald Hutera, David Mead, Graham Coyle, Professor Dee Reynolds, Professor Stanley