Reflections on your work and its presentations

Interview with Elisabeth Schilling

Before each platform we ask our participating artists to reflect on a few questions about their work and about their participation with Kaleidoscopic Arts. We then film an interview with them on the performance day and you can find interviews with Feet off the Ground Dance, Helen Cox, Jayne Port and Lucidez Dance from our last platform over on our Vimeo channel.

However, Elisabeth Schilling, who presented the photography exhibition STADTKÖRPER, which she curated and co-created with a group of photographers, flew into the performance later in the evening and so we didn’t get a chance to film an interview. We didn’t want to miss a chance to catch up with her though and so you can now read her thoughts right here! 

On style, movement language and working processes as a choreographer

Interview with Michaela Cisarikova of MCDC

On the weekend of the first May Bank Holiday Breakin’ Convention took place once again at Sadler’s Wells Theatre in London.

Founded by Jonzi D. “Breakin’ Convention is the award-winning and critically acclaimed organisation that represents the origins and evolution of hip hop culture from around the world and around the corner. Working with the most respected, innovative and inspirational artists, Breakin’ Convention seeks to position hip hop dance alongside more historically established art forms, through our world-renowned international festivals, professional development, youth projects and educational programme.” ~ http://breakinconvention.com/about-us

This year, Michaela Cisarikova, artistic director and choreographer of Michaela Cisarikova Dance Company, was invited to showcase her work ‘aLove Story’ and we joined the festival to see her work and experience the excitement, thoughtfulness and excellence of hip hop dance theatre.

We were struck by the beauty of Michaela’s work and we were curious to learn more about her work and her movement language.

© Imoje Aikhoje – Michaela Cisarikova performing ‘aLove Story’

Guest post by Maria Hardcastle

Interview with choreographer Kaia Goodenough

Following her latest performance, choreographer and artistic director of Limb Dance Co., Kaia Goodenough, talks feminism, artistic inspiration, and the issues with cross collaboration.

Abstract Romanticism by Limb Dance Co., photograph: Michelle Rose

On sacrifice, opportunity, bureaucracy and bringing about change

Susan Kempster’s work ‘Black Widow’ was showcased as part of this year’s Resolution, The Place’s annual festival for emerging artists. Amongst other themes the piece tackles the issue that dance artists do very little dancing, but lots of other work. It is part of our mission to enable artists to grow artistically and to help them understand and be efficient with all the other work they need to do to make their career work. Therefore we wanted to hear more about Susan’s ideas.

Susan Kempster and Nicholas Minns in ‘Black Widow’

Emerging or ‘Impressing the Grand Duke’

As part of Resolution 2017, The Place’s annual festival for emerging artists, Simone Mousset and Elisabeth Schilling performed ‘Impressing the Grand Duke’, a piece about everything to do with the process of “emerging”. Since Kaleidoscopic Arts’ mission includes supporting emerging artists, we wanted to know more about Elisabeth’s and Simone’s ideas.

Photo: Bohumil Kostohryz

A different perspective #2

When seeking equality it is important to keep one’s discourse open to outside opinions so as to see things – in this case Kaleidoscopic Arts Platform – from multiple perspectives. This both strengthens our understanding of our own thinking and lets us consider questions we may not otherwise ask.

In the spirit of equality I’ve asked a few men in the dance community to give their opinion on the state of equality with choreographers, and on Kaleidoscopic Arts Platform’s mission.

Here is the second of several interviews done with that different perspective in mind. It comes from Doug Hooker, a contemporary dancer and rehearsal director currently based in Minneapolis.

A different perspective

When seeking equality it is important to keep one’s discourse open to outside opinions so as to see things – in this case Kaleidoscopic Arts Platform – from multiple perspectives. This both strengthens our understanding of our own thinking and lets us consider questions we may not otherwise ask.

In the spirit of equality I’ve asked a few men in the dance community to give their opinion on the state of equality with choreographers, and Kaleidoscopic Arts Platform’s mission.

Here is the first of several interviews done with that different perspective in mind. Our first featured choreographer is Andrew Pearson – L.A. based choreographer and dancer.

Advice and assurance: an interview with MonixArts’ Monica Nicolaides

Monica Nicolaides. Photographer: Teresa Wilson (2015)

Monica Nicolaides very generously shared her time and experience with us as a guest speaker at our most recent professional development meeting about Grants for the Arts at Siobhan Davies Dance Studios. You will be able to read up on it soon. We asked her about her projects, how she works, and if she could give any final advice for those wanting to progress as choreographers.

You can read all about MonixArts here. Scroll down and you will also find their contact details and links to Twitter, Facebook, Vimeo and Instagram and more ways to keep up to date with MonixArts.

Meet the choreographers: Sarah Louise Kristiansen

Kaleidoscopic Arts Platform is excited to announce the final interview in a series profiling the upcoming choreographers and artists for our third platform, which takes place Tuesday, November 10th at The Galvanisers Union. 

Be the first to hear from the choreographers about their work and thoughts, and get an insight into their process and rehearsals.

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Sarah Louise Kristiansen: As a dance maker Sarah Louise is on a mission to educate the public about the intelligence of dance. She does this by telling beautiful stories on stage, establishing connections with communities worldwide and allowing for discussions and conversations to open up with fellow practitioners and the public. It is Sarah Louise’s belief that dance (and the arts) have a profound way of changing lives and that embodied learning and its discourse have been lost or somewhat all together misrepresented. She is confident that the next generation of dance makers, including herself, has the ability to change this. For more info on Sarah you can visit the Kaleidoscopic Arts Platform Website.

Meet the artists: Vasiliki Stasinaki

Kaleidoscopic Arts Platform is excited to announce the fifth interview in a series profiling the upcoming choreographers and artists for our third platform which takes place Tuesday, November 10th at The Galvanisers Union. 

For this interview be the first to hear from one of the two visual artists showcasing work at the platform. 

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Vasiliki Stasinaki: Through her work Vasiliki attempts to question and explore her place in the world from a social and political point of view by creating performative interventions that take place in a defined space. She is interested in building environments and creating situations that induce a specific emotional state in the audience by prompting it to observe, question and participate. She uses sculpture, textile and printmaking based techniques and processes to create installations and site specific pieces that put the audience and its experience at the centre of the attention. Her work is informed by her practice both as an artist and as a dancer-performer.