2013 CLOUD DANCE FESTIVAL Set for Bernie Grant Arts Centre, Now thru Nov 17

Fresh from the relaunch festival in July, Cloud Dance Festival returns in November with Showtime, its first Arts Council-funded festival, which sees Cloud Dance Festival taking its first steps before its rebranding next year. Showtime will be held tonight, 15 - 17 November 2013 at Bernie Grant Arts Centre in North London.

Cloud Dance Festival is committed to selecting exciting and promising contemporary dance and ballet artists at all stages of their careers - from Royal Ballet School students to Jenni Wren of Slanjayvah Danza, preparing to celebrate her first ten years of choreography - and from all over the country; in addition to companies from Leeds, Liverpool and Newcastle, we will also be presenting a trio of works from Birmingham-based choreographers.

Highlights of Showtime include:

- two new works by Shobana Jeyasingh dancer Avatâra Ayuso, who has a thriving choreographic practice in Germany but whose works are rarely seen in the UK.
- New Adventures Choreographic Award winner John Ross will be presenting his latest work Wolfpack, following the sneak preview in our July festival.
- Jo Meredith, a prolific choreographer, best known for her work with National Youth Ballet.
- Declan Whitaker, a final-year student at LCDS. In recognition of his choreographic ability, he has been awarded the Peggy Hawkins Scholarship Fund, and has had his work shown at the Royal Opera House as part of their in-house choreographic platform Draft Works.
- Johnny Autin, the recent star of highly-regarded all-male urban contemporary Dance Company 2Faced Dance, will be presenting the finished version of his new work Taksim Square Reloaded, which was premiered at Cloud Dance Sundays in July.
- Rambert Dance Company dancer Mbulelo Ndabeni will be presenting a new work, while his colleague Estela Merlos will be performing in a new solo byAvatâra Ayuso.
-As no Cloud Dance Festival is complete without a performance by Liverpool-based company Taciturn, they will be presenting an extract of their latest work Femme.

Past Cloud Dance Festival participants have included Ballet Black, James Cousins, James Wilton, Joss Arnott, Mavin Khoo, Drew McOnie, Tommy Franzén, Kristen McNally, Jonathan Goddard and Gemma Nixon, and we are confident that many of these artists will follow in their footsteps on their way onwards and upwards.

As part of its growth, Cloud Dance Festival will also be launching a programme of professional development workshops for emerging dance writers, photographers and videographers during the three days of Showtime. The dance writing workshops are in partnership with English National Ballet and A Younger Theatre; the dance photography workshops will be held by leading dance photographer Chris Nash and supervised by dance photographer Cathy Martin, and the videography workshops will include sessions with Henry St Clair, Artistic Director of Crystal Ballet, and a dance film director, to be confirmed. The workshops will be run in partnership with IdeasTap, and will be formally launched on Monday 7 October.

Cloud Dance Festival is now in its seventh year of showcasing the best in contemporary dance and contemporary ballet, and making both dance styles more accessible to the wider public. We are committed to promoting and supporting emerging dance companies, choreographers, dance writers and dance photographers, and as part of our redevelopment, we are seeking ways to expand the support we offer across the emerging contemporary dance and ballet industries. Cloud Dance Festival: Showtime is supported by Arts Council England, with partnerships with IdeasTap, English National Ballet and A Younger Theatre.

Cloud Dance Festival: Showtime
Dates: 15 - 17 November 2013
Times: 7.30pm - 9.45pm
Venue: Bernie Grant Arts Centre, Town Hall Approach Road, London N15 4RX
Tickets: £12 (£10 concessions)
Box Office: 0208 365 5450 or www.berniegrantcentre.co.uk
Website: www.cloud-dance-festival.org.uk

Pictured: Johnny Autin

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