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SiD’s next guest workshop Tom N Rob: Dancing Together

A one-day workshop led by Tom N Rob 
On Tuesday 5th December 2023 
10am – 4.30pm at the Gateway Centre, Shrewsbury SY1 1NB
Cost – £30 

Join Contact Dance Company for a one-day workshop led by Tom N Rob. 
Tom and Rob (Tom Bright and Rob Hemming) are dance theatre artists who make and perform dance, celebrating their shared love of dance, theatre, laughter and improvisation. Their combination of physical energy, partner work, great dancing and comedy has wowed audiences wherever they perform. 

The workshop is open to Contact Dance Company dancers and people who are D/deaf, disabled, neurodivergent and non-disabled, who have previous high level dance experience. We would particularly like to reach out to dancers based in Shropshire or the West Midlands who don’t regularly dance with SiD. 

In the workshop, Tom N Rob will be sharing how they dance and make dances together through their non-verbal creative practice. On the day you will also get to watch their most recent short film ‘Happy Okay Mate’ which will inform some of the workshop content. The workshop will explore Partner skills, improvisation and creating work in duets and small groups. They will give an insight how to use these tools for choreography.

Contact Dance Company are an inclusive dance company produced by Shropshire Inclusive Dance. CDC meets to explore and experience dancing together, to express artistry through dance and to create powerful contemporary dance performance.

How to Book
Please email on officesidance@gmail.com to request a place on the workshop, If places are available we will then send a booking form with payment details.

About The Venue. 
The workshop will take place at The Gateway, Chester Street Shrewsbury.  

  • The Gateway is an accessible venue. There are a range of facilities including lifts to all floors, wide corridors and electrical opening entrance doors. 
  • There are 3 Disabled Parking Spaces  

The venue is close the train station and town centre car parks. There is some on street parking close to the venue.

More information can be found here:
https://hlnsc.ac.uk/apprenticeships/the-gateway-adult-and-community-education- 

Any Questions  

For more information, or to talk to us about what you might need to be able to access the workshop, please email SiD’s Co artistic director Ray Jacobs at directorsidance@gmail.com or call him on 07817194644 

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SiD’s Summer Celebration 2023 and Food Festival Performance on Film

SiD shared a fantastic night of dance film and dance performances with a packed audience at The Hive in Shrewsbury.

Groups from SiDs weekly classes and its new project for 16 – 30 yr olds Darwin Dancers, shared amazing dances on film and on stage.

The evening culminated with the premiere of SiDs new professional touring piece
‘Here There Everywhere’

The new work choreographed by Siobhan Hayes and performed by Mervyn Bradley, Chander van Daatselaar, Beth Gardiner and Anna Belyavin was immensely enjoyed by the appreciative audience.

Below is a film of the evening created by Calum Barre capturing the unique atmosphere, commitment, skills and creativity of all the dancers involved.

Contact Dance Company performed Here There Everywhere to appreciative audiences at The Shrewsbury Food Festival. The work really captured the attention of festival goers, audiences literally stopped in their tracks to watch this powerful & unique work. The short film clip below was created by film Maker Calum Barre to support future touring of this eye catching inclusive dance show,

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Contact Dance Company perform Skirting Around The Edge

On Friday 24th September, Contact Dance Company performed a new duet as part of the FEAST Festival in Malvern. ‘Skirting Around The Edge’ performed by dancers Beth Gardiner and Anna Belyavin, is a lyrical exploration of connection and boundaries. The two dancers navigate the space, exchange glances and like so many of us during this time, experience being together after a long time apart.

The packed FEAST festival audience who were enjoying a sublime selection of poetry, music, performance art and physical comedy were entranced by the dance piece and the dancers. The audience were there with the dancers for every swing, turn, leap, touch and thanked them with rapturous applause at the end of the piece.

Skirting around the Edge, directed by SiD’s co-artistic director Rachel Liggitt was accompanied by the beguiling music track ‘Vardeldu’r by Signor Ros. Contact Dance Company continue to make dances which share the power and importance of human connection at a time when everyone needs it.

Shropshire Inclusive Dance are accepting bookings for this new work please contact directorsidance@gmail.com with enquiries.

Images by Ray Jacobs

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SiD Contemporary Dance Class on Zoom

Contact Dance Company dancers and guests have been taking part in a SID Contemporary Dance Class on zoom. The 1hr 15 minute weekly class led by Contact Dance Company dancer Poppy Mansfield is a chance to learn dance technique and move creatively in the comfort of your own home.

As well as joining in with dance sequences and creative tasks participants get to meet our company of dancers and share in the dance, together on screen.

The class takes place on Wednesday mornings and is suitable for people with and without disabilities with some dance experience. Places are limited and the class is popular but do contact us if you would like a place in the class. officesidance@gmail.com

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Contact Dance Company present ‘Being Seen’ on film.

In the summer of 2019 eight dancers with and without disabilities from Contact Dance Company worked with director and choreographer Jo Fong to create a new dance work for touring titled ‘Being Seen’.

The dancers were Becky Keir, Anna Belyavin, Chloe Shepherd, Rachel Liggitt,
Andrew Kelly, Mervyn Bradley, Amal Neffi and Kevin Shepherd

Creating the work with Jo Fong was an intensive, joyful and rewarding experience for the company. We are very proud of the piece that was created and performed.

‘Being Seen’ was exactly that, a call for performers to be seen as their selves, powerful, vulnerable, poetic, playful, graceful and human

Below is a 9 minute edited version of ‘Being Seen’ filmed live by JTV Production at Theatre Severn in Shrewsbury, July 2019.

 

Contact Dance Company received very positive feedback from it’s premier at Theatre Severn in Shrewsbury

‘I enjoyed the close proximity of the dancers and the sounds of the wheels. I liked seeing the dancers, the objects and the interactions between them. I enjoyed the connection between people and the real closeness that was conveyed’

‘It felt  so personal, so raw, as if we were all part of it’.

‘Intricate, graceful, joyful and absolute pleasure to watch’.

Jo Fong’s work reflects the need in these times for people to come together. Her practice has been informed by notions of inclusivity, participation and is about being present, this moment, communication, listening, face to face encounters and the idea of forming community.  This work will be more important then ever as part of the healing process after the collective trauma of the Covid-19 crisis.

Being Seen is available for touring throughout 2020, please contact the company for more details.

 

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Duets on Film – Father Daughter

This week we are highlighting a beautiful duet first performed in 2017
Father –  Daughter. The duet performed by real life father daughter, dancers Kevin and Chloe Shepherd. has been performed at a number of theatres, conferences and events.

Father Daughter is a tender portrayal of a father and daughters relationship.

The dance is inspired by Kevin and Chloe’s shared love of dance and their family home, a secluded cottage nestled in a wood.

The piece is directed by by Rachel Liggitt 

Music by; Best of Village Harmony, The Full English, M.Ward & Kayhan Kalhor

‘We witness the hard work of winter life at the cottage, the chopping of wood and the fuelling of fires. Throughout the narrative, Chloe’s journey to maturity is conveyed by hints of gentle conflict between father and daughter; her desire for independence confronting his awareness that parental protectiveness must now be accompanied by detachment and an encouragement of freedom. He retreats into the shadows and we are left with Chloe in a spotlight, standing alone, venturing forth as her own self-reliant woman’

The highlights below were edited from a film made by JTV Production at The Gateway , Shrewsbury in 2017

 

 

 

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Duets on film – Unspoken

Shropshire Inclusive Dance is proud to present a series of duets filmed live during our shows. Today we share ‘Unspoken’

Unspoken was captured on film at The Elmhurst School of Dance Theatre in Birmingham
It is performed by Mervyn Bradley and Rachel Liggitt . The work was choreographed and directed by SiD’s co artistic director Rachel Liggitt.

Unspoken is a moving, powerful duet about friendship.
How do we speak without words ?

Dancers, Mervyn Bradley and Rachel Liggitt have worked together for over a decade, their friendship, playfulness and connection is there for all to see in this duet.

The music is by Peter Broderick and is reproduced with permission from the musician.

The duet was beautifully filmed by  JTV Production

 

 

 

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Contact Dance Company presents duets on film. ‘Human Range’

Shropshire Inclusive Dance is proud to present a series of duets filmed live during our shows. First we would like  to share with you ‘Human Range’.

In July 2019 we premiered two new pieces to a packed audience at Theatre Severn, Shrewsbury. The show began with this powerful and playful duet’.
It is performed by Delphine Wise and Poppy Mansfield. The work was choreographed and directed by SiD’s co artistic directors Rachel Liggitt and Ray Jacobs.

The piece explored notions of Human Range, how far can we reach ?
The music is by Nils Frahm.

The duet was beautifully filmed by  JTV Production

 

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Contact Dance Company at The Feast Festival.

Contact Dance Company performed Human Range and Being Seen to a packed house at the fantastic FEAST – Theatre Festival in Malvern. The dances were as powerful as ever, with brilliant performances that reverberated in the hearts of so many that witnessed the show.

The company received fantastic feedback from the audience. Its a real pleasure for SiD to share performances by Contact Dance Company at the Festival. Below are images from the performances captured by our Co-Director Ray Jacobs