PROJECT | CONNECT – ‘Uniting the conversation between what has happened, what is happening and what is going to happen in dance.’

by Anna Cabré-Verdiell Bosch

Summer 2019 will see the launch of PROJECT | CONNECT an unprecedented dance festival taking place in the magnificent city of London. What began as a reunion of ex-colleagues and friends orchestrated by Robert Dungey, has bloomed into a three week summer intensive which brings together the international crème de la crème of dance.

Robert Dungey has gathered an exclusive faculty of artists from Netherlands Dance Theatre, Dance Theatre of Harlem, American Ballet Theater, Alvin Ailey, Compañía Nacional de Danza, National Ballet of Canada, Béjart Ballet Lausanne, Staatsballett Berlin, Batsheva Dance Company and Complexions Contemporary Ballet amongst many others, to come together and help the new generation of dance artists dive into the profession. To accomplish this goal, PROJECT | CONNECT has programmed an intensive schedule of master classes, which range from traditional ballet to Ohad Naharin’s unique Gaga style, repertoire workshops exploring the works of renowned choreographers such as Glen Tetley, Hans van Manen, Maurice Béjart, Ohad Naharin, Mats Ek and Nacho Duato, choreographic residencies and career advice. From July the 22^nd to August the 9^th the PROJECT | CONNECT experience will take over the Wayne McGregor studios, an extraordinary and museum like space in the epicentre of East London.

Au-di-tions.com wanted to find out more about the collective of artists behind PROJECT | CONNECT, so we’ve had the pleasure to converse with some of its core team. Sadé Alleyne, Rick McCullough, Karen Brown, Ronda Nychka and Shamel Pitts speak with our writer Anna Cabré-Verdiell on dance and the relevance of PROJECT | CONNECT.

A.C.- How does ‘Dance ARTISTS International’ get together as a group and decide to create PROJECT | CONNECT?

Shamel.- I was very inspired by the personal story behind the festival: Robert Dungey used to be a dancer with Netherlands Dance Theatre and then he left the dance world for many years. After decades, he came back to it specifically for this project which is a testament to how powerful dance is within us, it never really leaves us as our urge to stay with dance can be long lasting.

Ronda.- Robert, who has crossed paths with pretty much all of the faculty members, had this vision of gathering artists who are passionate about passing on their tradition and keeping the integrity of choreographers. It’s almost like being a bridge for the next generation of dancers, bringing them to what will come in the future of dance.

A.C.- Why is London the choice of setting?

Sadé.- London is a fantastic city and although it does have a wide offer of workshops and summer intensives, there isn’t really a big festival where you have artists from around the world coming together. This aim to connect Europe and the US is beautiful, because these are regions with a huge diversity of techniques and there are so many different companies across these borders. London and Europe don’t necessarily train for the US scene and vice versa, but these continental dynamics are changing and we want to embrace this global exchange of training. London is the city where many artists want to come, so this is the perfect opportunity to spend three weeks meeting the city, its companies and its possibilities.

A.C.- With a range of big festivals happening in Europe over the summer season, what makes PROJECT | CONNECT unique?

Rick.- The faculty is highly diverse, skilled and experienced; a very international group with people from the United States, Canada and all over Europe who have an immense range of experience not only as instructors and teachers, but also as artistic directors and as choreographers. Not only that, at the end of each week there’ll be a showing of the work and it’s been arranged for company directors and choreographers to be invited, which will give the participants the opportunity to be seen by people who might be interested in working with them.

Ronda.- Everyone that is on the faculty has directly worked with a choreographer themselves and they’ve had pieces that have been created just for them. Therefore, they have first hand knowledge of Maurice Béjart, Hans van Manen, Ohad Naharin,… and so we are able to pass that on. It will also be like a springboard, a trampoline for a dancer to be able to launch themselves into a company.

Sadé.- PROJECT | CONNECT is the perfect opportunity for the European dance scene and the American dance scene to connect and create strong collaborations. Because of the distance between both continents, this is a unique chance to meet with artists that one looks up to but may not be within one´s reach; here we bring these two sides of the ocean together to make the opportunity happen. The sessions are structured in the shape of a dance workshop, but inside of that there comes the mentoring, the careers advice and the personal feedback. What is also beautiful about the project is that it gives the participants open space to go up to leading pioneers of the contemporary world, which wouldn’t necessarily happen in a normal environment.

A.C.- One could say that PROJECT | CONNECT will open up an artistic conversation between the dance scenes in the US and in Europe. What can the old continent learn from the US dance world and vice versa?

Karen.- When we talk about conversation, the first thing that comes to my mind is an exchange of ideas and a mutual respect for the approach to the art form. I want all dancers to know that no one school can give you all of what you need, because as you are developing there are different codes, different techniques that you need to add to the tool kit of your skill set. Like with any elite athlete, they have several kinds of coaches who teach them and train them in different yet complementary ways.

Shamel.- America has such richness in dance history. Many pioneers like Cunningham, Graham, Alvin Alley… offered something that was pivotal at the time and that has become a strong foundation for modern dance; yet we’ve evolved since then and I think that Europe has a closer sense of connection into this evolution in dance, in terms of where the dance work is heading. However, you don’t know where you are going unless you know where you’ve come from, so as we move forward it is good to keep in mind in a close proximity to the lineage of where things were based. Joining these two forces is going to create a new openness for the future of dance, as this festival is uniting the conversation between what has happened, what is happening and what is going to happen.

A.C.- The festival has a strong emphasis on ballet, how would you encourage dancers from a more contemporary or modern background to join PROJECT | CONNECT?

Rick.- I like to think of ballet as being a training system, one particular way of knowing the human body and how it might function. I don´t think anyone needs to be afraid of high power ballet technique; it is a training method the same way that Horton or Graham may be training methods for the human body to be an instrument for dance. For dancers it is important to be able to deconstruct boundaries and definitions in order to have more options for moving, for creating or for being cast performers. What I’m telling my students today is ‘you may be comfortable in one technique but you need to know many approaches so that job opportunities won’t elude you’. In 1986 at Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre in Pennsylvania, Ohad Naharin had his very first American commission and it was for a ballet company; a lot of ballet dancers said ‘I’m not good at this’ and they wouldn’t even try, but the ones that did were able to create ‘Tabula Rasa’ one of his earliest and very strongest works. That is because they were open and they had skills and the kind of training that would make that kind of dancing not scary to them.

Shamel.- Offering classical training is a contemporary state of mind, it’s a matter of listening to what is behind us in order to move things forward. I would encourage people to be brave towards touching and tasting these classical forms and including them in their passion to dance.

Find out more about the program and the faculty on PROJECT | CONNECT website or social media: Facebook | Instagram | Twitter