Dance Conversations
Our Dance Conversations - Performance Group welcomes everyone who is keen to move and create.
We meet weekly to explore contemporary dance and work collaboratively to devise a performance. Our current cohort is a group of Crystal Palace, Penge, Croydon and Sydenham residents with various dance experience, including complete beginners. With our sessions taking place in Upper Norwood Library Hub we are easily accessible from the boroughs of Lambeth, Lewisham, Bromley and Croydon.
So far we have created; Conversations - Community Dance Film; Storyland - performed in RichMix and Stanley Arts; and Can We Meet - Community Dance Film. Fears and Dreams performed at Stanley Arts and Croydon Dance Festival.
Come, join us, move, and meet new people!
Sessions take place on Mondays 7:00-8:30pm
This project is supported by Upper Norwood Library Hub and Power of Change.
Please email ania@se19dance.co.uk for booking and more information.
Work created by Dance Conversations participants:
STORYLAND
"moving, relatable, genuine"
''each character was celebrated through its story''
premiered Spring 2022 at Richmix
Storyland is a journey through memories and stories of people just like you. From light reflections to personal discoveries, from those in our imagination to those very real, they create a landscape that is almost impossible to unpick. We all seek to keep only those that nurture us but, often those that we want to escape from really connect us with one another.
Dancers: Naomi Barnard, Chloe Bowman, Isabella Nilsson, Luli Segal, Rajinder Sodhi, Ellie Stevens, Magdalena Szulc, Mary Waddams
Choreographer: Ania Straczynska in collaboration with the dancers
Production Support: Upper Norwood Library Hub
Conversations
Community Devised Dance Film
This project invites members of our local community to participate in three 2h dance workshops introducing the basics of contemporary dance and choreographic tools. The three workshops, held once a week, culminated in a weekend of filming. The dance film produced was inspired by pre-collected interviews with our community, reflecting on lockdown experiences and daily routines during the pandemic. This project is a celebration of togetherness yet champions individuality. We have brought together 9 women of various ages and from different backgrounds. They met weekly and together devised choreography that caries a notion of community and cohesion.
Dancers: Imogen Bland, Mary Waddams, Suzie Partridge, Rachel Kerrison - Evans, Nathalie Brady, Alice Jemima Haddock Mary Moran, Katerina Papagianni, Gretha Gauhe.
Choreography, direction and editing: Ania Straczynska
Music: Galina Rin
Camera Operators: Galina Rin, Riamu, Rosa Wang, Ania Straczynska
Photography: Kamila Gorecka
Commissioned by Upper Norwood Library Hub
Funded by Arts Council England