July 2017 Newsletter
Hello to all of our KND followers!
Welcome to our summer newsletter – we hope that you are all enjoying the sunshine and letting it feed your days. As is always the way at KND, there’s lots to update you on.
What have we been up to at KND?
- We are over-joyed to have received support from the Linbury Trust and Arts Council England for our Professional Development activity in 2017. More details below…
- Kerry was invited to judge the Seniors Contemporary Cup at Tring Park. The standard was incredibly high and she loved meeting the students afterwards to feedback her observations and thoughts.
- An Easter trip to Vienna saw Kerry judging at the Vibe Festival. Within 4 days, she watched hundreds of pieces (literally hundreds!), taught workshops (and had 62 people in one particular class!) and found the most amazing winner…it was a fantastic event and wonderful to share with such a fun and inspiring panel.
- Kerry has taught company classes for Company Wayne McGregor at their new studios at HereEast.
- A vibrant intensive week for Rambert School students in May followed where Kerry delivered technique, creative and career development sessions. The students met the work with both hands and were a joy to work with.
- The sold-out KND May masterclasses were a great opportunity for sharing together at the new Studio Wayne McGregor building. Greatly supported by our Projects Assistant, Vivienne West, there was lots of hard work, sharing, pushing and driving. It was a fabulous opportunity to connect and reconnect with you all.
- Alongside these masterclasses above, we offered individual KND mentoring sessions that also sold-out! We are thrilled to be able to keep supporting you all in this way, and will continue to provide these opportunities whenever we can. Stay tuned!
- Kerry has just completed her 3rd year choreographic commission at Northern School of Contemporary Dance in Leeds. Within a fun-packed three weeks and with a 16-strong cast, ‘Skein’ was created and will be performed at the Riley Theatre from this Wednesday 5th to Saturday 8th July at 19.30. Book your tickets here…
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‘Skein’ in rehearsal
Photo by Drazen Priganica ©fotopriganica
Looking forwards!
- Kerry is travelling to Cardiff next week to continue her work with National Youth Dance Wales in rehearsing and preparing for their performance at the U Dance event on 16th July in Birmingham. Find out more information about the valuable festival here.
- Moving on from Cardiff and Birmingham, Kerry will co-mentor alongside Christopher Hampson within the Scottish Ballet Creates programme in Glasgow. 6 Scotland-based choreographers have been selected for this 2-week mentorship scheme and have unprecedented access to explore their craft with the dancers of Scottish Ballet.
- Staying in Scotland, later in the year Kerry is delivering a Professional Development opportunity for Dance House Glasgow. Applications are no longer accepted and successful applicants will be notified in August. Kerry is looking forward to working with a small group in an intimate and rigorous setting. You can find out more here
- Huge congratulations to the Royal Ballet School who have had their degree programme validated by the University of Roehampton. The first cohort of this degree programme starts in September and Kerry has been invited to be the Module Leader for the Contemporary strand of the course. Kerry is extremely excited to work with the contemporary faculty to achieve a rich and current learning platform for these exceptional and versatile young dancers.
What’s next for our KND In-house Activity?
There’s a lot going on in the next few months so do make sure you don’t miss getting involved!
- KND Professional Development Lab
Our Professional Development Lab in August at English National Ballet studios is now sold-out! We are also holding some waiting list places just in case schedules change. Do let us know if you would like to be placed on this first-come-first-served list.
We have a few places left for the second week of master classes wk/c 14th August. Be speedy if you’d like to play a part in these classes and visit our website for more information.
- KND Pre-Professional Intensive
Again, we have a few places still remaining for the Pre-Professional Intensive wk/c 14th August at English National Ballet Studios. All details are on our website if you’d like more details, but for those of you still in training this would be a great opportunity for you to begin your planning to be industry-ready when you graduate.
- KND Performance Mentoring Programme 2017
The KND Performance Mentoring Programme is back – and with an extended 3-week studio intensive to kick-start the 4-month process. Currently, we are featuring some PMP Alumni on our Facebook page so that they can tell you more of their experience on the programme, so do visit us there if you’d like to learn more. We have already started to receive applications but we want to hear from more of you so visit our website for more info on how to apply. The closing deadline to apply is 18.00 on August 18th and we look forward to hearing from you!
Do get in touch with us at info@kerrynicholls.com if you are interested in applying for any of the above – and we’ll endeavor to get back to you as soon as possible.
KND news – a warm welcome to Erica Campayne - KND's new Producer!
The more discerning of readers will have noticed in our last newsletter that we announced Emma Abbey as KND's new producer. Emma has been offered a fantastic opportunity that unfortunately means she is unable to continue with KND. We are very pleased to announce that we were able to appoint a brilliant new Producer to support KND's work. Erica Campayne joins KND with a wealth of experience.
Erica was formerly Senior Producer at LIFT where she led large scale commissions with international dance and theatre artists, as well as outdoor work and shows with non professionals. She now works as a freelance producer leading on projects with organisations including the National Theatre and Royal Court Theatre, and works with independent dance and spoken word artists to develop the scale and reach of their work. Erica contributes to the programming of culturally diverse artists at Bernie Grant Arts Centre, Tottenham, and reviews and promotes children's books which feature lead characters from diverse ethnicities through her blog and instagram Kwame's Bookshelf.
We are very much looking forward to working with Erica and know she will bring some fresh inspiration to our work.
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Photo by Hannes Langolf
Do get in touch with us about any of our upcoming activity or if you have any ideas for future projects that you’d like to discuss - it’s a great excuse to make friends with Erica too! Erica@kerrynicholls.com
To inspire our quote for this newsletter, it seems like the right time to think about what we—as artists and as citizens—can do to make the world a better place. As an artistic community we can use each other to reignite our sense of hope, our resilience and our sense of purpose.
"The smallest act of kindness is worth more than the grandest intention..."
Oscar Wilde
Sending much kindness and motivation in your direction and hope to see you soon – both in and out of the studio!
Warmest wishes,
Kerry and the KND team!
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KND is generously supported by:
 
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