We are currently assessing how many people would be interested in this fantastic opportunity and would ask that you get in touch with us by phone,text or e mail to register a no-obligation interest.

07854 910926

info@ffindance.co.uk

Company dancers Mike Williams and Megan Griffiths will be leading our volunteers company, New Ground, in working with the children at Six Bells.

The project has been made possible by GWIRVOL and the Communities First Trust Fund.  Partners include Six Bells Communities First Youth Committee, Ty Ebbw Fach and FFIN DANCE

Have a look at the Facebook page for Guardian

Nice article written by Huw Johns

Tickets will be on sale for our show at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival as follows:

• from 10th June 2012 0131 226 0000
• from 29th July 0845 260 1234

www.edfringe.com
www.CtheFestival.com

www.danceformsproductions.com

Tickets £10.50 (Concessions £8.50 and children £5.50)  Booking here

We will be keeping you updated with our news and performance information on this page on a fairly regular basis – please keep in touch.  We will be performing in C Venues in Edinburgh on August 4th & 5th 2012 at 11am

Danceforms’ The 60^th International Choreographers’ Showcase brings together award-winning choreographers from the UK and the US. Gary Lambert, one of Britain’s finest contemporary dance makers presents “Synapsequence” with music by Ronen Kozokaro. The dance unveils movement innovation developed by Lambert with Ffin Dance Company from South Wales.  Jenefer Davies, director of W&L Repertory Dance Company, Vincent E. Thomas of VTDance, Rina Van de Kamp, director of Daughters of Zion perform astonishing modern works. Dancers from Washington & Lee University enjoy the physical beauty of “Queen Moo” choreographed by Susana B. Williams to music by Gabrielle Roth & The Mirrors

We spent time this week doing schools and community group workshops alongside rehearsing for our final show of this leg of the Connections tour.  The numbers participating have been tremendous, even excelling our highest expectations, and the standard was amazing.  Most of the groups consisted of young dancers with whom we have worked doing holiday clubs, weekend residencies and regular weekly classes: it felt like we were performing for a vast extended family – the FFIN family!

It was great to see old friends too in the audience, the atmosphere felt warm and inviting for the dancers.  Some new friends in the audience watching modern dance for the first time made some incredible observations.

Working with Jenny Jackson and Platform 4 this season has been really special and having them play last night was fantastic, we all really felt in total harmony.

Please enjoy looking at some of the rehearsal shots taken during the day

Last night, Show 1, was a really refreshing and mixed bill of work. Pieces shown both in Laban Theatre and also a site-specific work inside a small quadrangle.  It was great to see such a variety of work showcasing the vast talents at the Conservatoire in terms of both performers and choreographers.  Great to see excellent performances by Lizzie Croucher and Julian Lewis, both of whom attended our Easter Intensives 2012. And a piece by a fellow Welshy, Luke Ganz.  A beautiful and fitting programme dedicated to the memory of Marion North, President of Trinity Laban, who passed away recently.

Moving on to Show 2 which is later tonight, choreographies and performances by more of our Easter Intensives 2011 and 2012 friends – Sam Kennedy and Julian Lewis.  And 2 of our ffin2 company presenting work – Russell Preston Fine and Catrin Lewis, both of which I await with great anticipation  Catrin Laban Rehearsals Snip – Medium

Maybe I’ll see you later at Laban Theatre?

sue lewis

Gary Lambert, choreographer of Synapsequence, one of the pieces in Connections, will be presenting other works at the castle as part of a high profile cultural programme that takes place at Burg Namedy.  We are lucky enough to be invited too!

Please click on Burg Namedy -Medium to have a look at the lovely castle which will be home to FFIN DANCE for a week in August.

We’ll send you a postcard!

sue lewis

Matthew Sandiford is a final year BA Hons Dance student at the Trinity Laban Conservatoire in London.  He is an old friend of the company having spent time with us at Intensive programmes and following our performances  over the past few years.  He is currently undertaking research in rehearsal techniques.  The following conversation was the result of an online interview that we had recently.

MS

My I.P (Independent Project)  is based on the use of unison within choreographic works and the want for perfection. To make myself clearer the question I’m asking is; ’Can I ever achieve perfect unison within my works? & how will my rehearsal techniques benefit this?’
The whole process I’ve been looking at finding perfect unison and discovering just how particular I am with details.The questions I’m asking you are as follows;

1.When choreographing/rehearsing a dance work involving sections of unison how particular are you with the unity?

2.What do you believe perfect unison is? & Do you believe it’s possible to achieve when working with different bodies?

3.What rehearsal strategies/techniques do you use to improve and ensure unison is at its absolute best?

SL

• At FFIN DANCE, we spend a lot of time with intricacies and details in terms of both esoteric understanding and technique.  We will devote a lot of time to achieving good unison believing that one can create something very special with more than one  person performing the same or similar material, at the same time.
• To me personally, I believe that unison isn’t just about the same thing at the same time, it can also involve similarity and complimenetary action and accompaniment.  For instance, dancers doing similar movements to similar places in the music.
• Yes I do believe that unison can be achieved working with different bodies.  Of course timing issues and spatial issues need to be addressed for it to appear united to the onlooker.
• Before repetition is employed in rehearsal, there has to be a clear understanding from the choreographer to the dancers.After that we spend time filming the sections so that the dancers can take action individually on discrepancy (iPads and iPhones are brilliant for this!).  Finally we will use good old-fashioned repetition and notes ad infinitum to achieve the desired quality.  As much of our work centres around musical correlation, unison can be more easily achieved.  However in our new work Five Dances, there are silent sections performed in unison, which have required a lot of mutual trust and kinesthetic awareness.  Needless to say, this has taken a lot of all of the above strategies.

sue lewis

Image Paul Trask