• I went to NYC in February and worked with the graduating year at the The Juilliard School. They were a particularly gracious, talented and curious group, who met me and my work with open hearts and minds. My time there continues to feed me in so many ways and I have already scheduled a longer residency to work with their students in the next academic year.

• On my return from the USA, I immersed in my Rambert School commission with ten of their 3^rd year students. It was fantastic to have the opportunity to collaborate again with the fantastic David Walters on this original sound score. The students rose to the challenge and together we have created something wonderful - ‘The Absence of Light’ will be performed nationwide up until July. Tickets can be booked directly from Rambert School. 

 

• I have been spending many a train journey passing through the stunning landscape of the Lake District, on my way to Scottish Ballet this year. I am leading two projects in Glasgow which will both culminate in Edinburgh in the middle of this month. In February, 12 students came from SOTA (School of the Arts) in Singapore to join the 10-strong Scottish Ballet Youth Exchange company. We had a fun-packed week of dancing, sharing, and comparing weather notes (the guys from SOTA loved the Glaswegian rain!). I returned to Glasgow in April and created ‘Tundra’ with the Scottish Ballet Youth Exchange cohort. This piece will be performed later this month in Edinburgh, and at the ‘Strive Festival’ at the Southbank Centre in August. Alongside this, I have been mentoring 5 Scottish-based choreographers as part of the ‘Anserinae Project’. With a brief of creating work with DNA from 'Swan Lake’ – mirroring the new Scottish Ballet work by David Dawson – these choreographers will share their research in the same evening in Edinburgh. This group have been a delight and I am so excited to see how their work flourishes in these last few weeks.

• Auditions are now complete for National Youth Dance Wales 2016 company. I met some fantastic young talent at the final audition a couple of weeks ago, and I am eager to see them all together and get started in Cardiff this summer! I am thrilled to have Neil Fleming-Brown working beside me in the re-working of ‘aM’, as well as sharing the company with Eleesha Drennan who will create a short new work. I loved mentoring Eleesha within the KND Performance Mentoring Programme last year and it will be super to see what she creates with these fantastic, young dancers from Wales.

• Mentoring continues to be a huge part of my schedule and one that I am adoring. I am supporting some brilliant individuals at present - artists who have reached out to KND, a few company dancers, and other artists through the One Dance UK mentoring initiatives - all with an interest in exploring a varied range of directions. I have recently started mentoring on the ‘Young Arts Academy’ at the Barbican too. Good luck to all those that I have the pleasure in working with – keep forging ahead!

Watch this Space!
KND is going to be leading a series of masterclasses in September hosted at Rambert’s studios on the Southbank. These are our first since 2014, and continue our passion for high-quality training for professionals in the sector. There will also be opportunity to book individual mentoring sessions after the classes too. We hope to see you there – more detail and booking procedures to follow.
 
We will continue to surge ahead with our 2017 plans and you will be the first to hear details of our activity when they are confirmed. We will use this quote to spur us on, hope it helps you too!