June 2022 – DO-PO-DO

22. June 202228. September 2022

CoTeaching Exchange
Nomad Dance Academy at Codarts

A team from Nomad Dance Academy Slovenia visited Codarts to work with the Bachelor Dance Teacher course, exploring and sharing the principles of co-teaching.

This exchange followed an earlier meeting in Slovenia when a delegation from Codarts travelled to Nomad Dance Academy last November.

During this exchange, the teachers discussed and experimented with team-teaching/ co-teaching and created a dance piece together with students, which was performed in the school canteen.

While Nomad Dance has already been practicing co-teaching for several years, this way of teaching is just starting to develop at Codarts. The exchange was all about sharing experiences, formats and methods, with the aim of thinking about how the benefits of co-teaching can be usefully transferred to students and other teachers.

18. June 202227. July 2022

Tideland by Dance On Lab &
Relive by Sadler’s Wells Company of Elders

This afternoon performance celebrates the joy that dancing has on people’s lives, whatever age you may be. The show features performances by a range of non-professional groups from the UK and beyond, including Sadler’s Wells’ Company of Elders, Dance On Lab from Berlin, and Three Score Dance Company.

Sadler’s Wells’ Company of Elders presents Relive on stage, and in its original form – a short dance film created during lockdown in early 2021. Created by Eleesha Drennan, both the film and performance poignantly look at human connection and isolation. Relive unpacks the theme of memory through stories about what matters most in life: the people we share it with.

Dance On Lab, a group of mature non-professional dancers based in Berlin, presents Tideland. Working together since 2016, they are part of the DANCE ON initiative that values age in dance. This performance reminds us that only very special images remain in us, our bodies and our memories. In Tideland, they search the common and individual understanding of things.

Linked to the work of psychoanalyst Jessica Benjamin, Alone Together by the Three Score Dance Company looks at the motivations of human action; the need for different types of attention and the reaction to the attention we receive. The work utilises Harry Escott’s score to create a haunting atmosphere that evokes the human experience.

18. June 202227. July 2022

Panel of Experts at Tanzkongress 2022

With: Ty Boomershine, Alessandra Corti, Julie Anne Stanzak, Àngels Margarit Viñals | Moderation: Madeline Ritter

Four experienced dance artists engage in an open conversation about the process of continuing their active dance careers into their 40s, 50s and 60s, sharing their successes but also the pressures and expectations they have faced from a sector that still often expects dancers to be “young, silent, humble and exploitable” (Jacky Lansley, The Wise Body).

Inviting participation from the congress audience, they cover the following topics: The importance of representation – What happens when older dancers are visible and celebrated in companies and the independent scene? How can audiences of all ages see themselves and their experiences reflected on stage? How can we change negative perceptions of age and ageing in society more generally? The value of experience – Celebrating the role of dancers as keepers and transmitters of embodied knowledge, dance heritage and repertoire. The question of status – How does age affect hierarchical structures in the dance sector and the relationships between dancers, choreographers and company management? Practical considerations – What are examples of best practice, what can be done and what needs to happen now?

The quote is from the text “Some Reasons to Dance” (1997) by Àngels Margarit Viñals

16. June 202225. July 2022

Crone Alone by Liz Aggiss &
Lucky by Charlotta Öfverholm

Elixir Extracts 2022 opens with an evening of solo works from internationally recognised artists who challenge perceptions about dance and age. The evening will include short works by the UK’s Liz Aggiss and Charlotta Öfverholm from Sweden.

Crone Alone – Liz Aggiss
Liz Aggiss, ‘enfant terrible’ of the bus pass generation, and grand dame of anarchic dance is pondering on her past glories and catastrophes. She has decided to reinvent herself as a performance poet whilst embracing her inner crone as the ideal incarnation of herself, unruly, wise, fearsome, and just a bit gobby.

Lucky – Charlotta Öfverholm
She is longing for happiness, to die young, to live forever, or just in the moment. Dancing and laughing in a tragicomical landscape and letting the audience shine in the spotlight. “A technically drilled primal force that gives us hands-on perspective of life”.

A piece about sustainability in the sense that “the grass is not greener on the other side”, honouring the experiences and maturity to refine life on earth.

Dance, circus, text and music create a performance that questions, accepts and celebrates life and what might follow.

15. June 202225. July 2022

Elixir Extracts Festival
Performances, Workshops, Talks

This year’s mini festival celebrates creative ageing and presents a range of workshops, films, artist talks and performances by mature performers.

The festival includes performances by acclaimed professional artists along with the opportunity for non-professional dancers to showcase their work.

5. June 20224. July 2024

Juice
Charlotta Öfverholm and Anders Larsson

Charlotta Öfverholm and Anders Larsson have been producing films together since 2013. Anders has created three documentaries following the work of Charlotta’s project Age on Stage. Checking Out, a detective story, was their first dance film released in 2021.