Developing Practice Grants (or ‘go see’ grants) have been awarded to the following practitioners:

Rebecca Randall (formerly Becca Thomas) – Artistic Director of Here We Are Dance, Rebecca Randall will attend a four-day foundation core training in Playback Theatre techniques.

Mickael Marso Riviere – Support to develop inclusive/integrated practice with a specialism in street dance and breaking through an intensive with ILL-Abilities™ in Paris, alongside an opportunity to develop connections and networks in France and an understanding of their street-dance sector.

Sima Gonsai – Enabling research innovations in dance, science and screen distribution through a series of conversations with specialists in each field. The research will support the creation of Choreography of the Cosmos – a new dance film which explores connections within the cosmos.

Charlotte Gregory – Independent Producer Charlotte Gregory will undertake a professional development, research and networking trip to Hong Kong and Shanghai, marking a step change in her practice and approach to dance producing. In particular she has been invited to participate in West Kowloon Cultural District’s international Producers’ Network Meeting & Forum .

Shelley Eva Haden – Support to enable Shelley to work with Kerry Nicholls as a mentor, focusing on future practice.

Dance Hub Birmingham’s second round of Artistic Commissions are invested in five projects:

DeNada Dance Theatre: Mariposa, a Transgender Tragedy Inspired by Puccini’s Madame Butterfly
Mariposa will transport the iconic orientalist libretto of Madame Butterfly to Cuba, where a Caribbean rent boy falls in love with an American sailor who promises his love if the boy undergoes a sex change. Set to an original score by Spanish composer Luis Miguel Cobo, which will be inspired by Puccini’s composition and Hispanic/Caribbean music, the darkly comic tragedy tackles transgenderism and the sacrifices we are ready to make to be accepted.

Motionhouse: Nobody (working title)
Nobody is a new dance-circus work from internationally acclaimed Midlands company Motionhouse: their first made specifically for children and family audiences, which will be developed in partnership with MAC Birmingham and Gulbenkian Theatre, University of Kent. Nobody will integrate digital worlds with live action in an exploration of identity and finding our place in the world: a visual feast that will take audiences – throughout the UK and internationally – on a delightful, fantastical adventure. Made in the West Midlands, the work will premiere in 2020 and will be accompanied by a programme of workshops, audience talks and educational resources.

Jamaal Burkmar: Extended Play
Extended Play will bring together a new ensemble of Birmingham’s most dynamic dancers to generate a body of fresh new work to contemporary mainstream music for digital distribution, connecting in new ways with new audiences. A minimum of 12 works will be created, to be released monthly to a set pattern across a year, culminating in a live showcase event on the ensemble’s first anniversary.

Rutherford Dance Company: One
The creation of ONE, building on Adam Rutherford’s initial development in 2017 with DanceXchange and his support through Dance Hub’s Developing Practice bursaries. ONE is a technically frank and honest autobiographical solo, which will premiere at SHOUT Festival in November 2018 before touring venues and festivals throughout 2019. The work, draws on personal memories of a hostile political environment to develop a piece that will resonate with LGBTQI and wider communities.

Katye Coe: Blackbird
Coventry-based dance artist Katye Coe will collaborate with architect Stefan Jovanovic and film maker Charlie Cattrall to research a new site adaptable performance work, inspired by ritual and processes of revealing. Their intention is that this work might eventually appear in iconic spaces throughout Birmingham and beyond, engaging audiences in encounters that explore individual and group identity, and the relations between human, animal and their environment. A dance-rite for the blackbird, a dance of animism and non-binary constellations.

Monique Deletant, Director of Dance Hub Birmingham said: “Once again the quality of applications we received for both the Developing Practice Grants and Artistic Commissions was very high, clearly demonstrating the quality and breadth of dance in Birmingham and the wider region.

“Dance Hub Birmingham is bringing additional investment to the dance sector in the West Midlands ensuring independent artists have professional development opportunities and enabling more new dance to be created here. In doing so we continue to establish the region’s position as an international centre of excellence for dance.”