Phoenix Dance Theatre Year in Review

Photo by Joe Armitage

Year in Review1 April 2015 – 31 March 2016

Core SupportersThe Liz & Terry Bramall Foundation,The Audrey and Stanley Burton 1960 CharitableTrust, The Emerald Foundation, EsméeFairbairn Foundation, The Idlewild Fairbairn Foundation, The Idlewild Trust, Weston Jerwood Creative Bursaries, PRS for Music Foundation, The Goldsmiths’ Company, Leeds Community Foundation

Access & Education Supporters and PartnersBreeze Youth Arts Festival, Leeds Short BreaksPartnership, The Leverhulme Trust, SchoolsPartnership Partnership Trust Academies, The Wade’s CharityCreative Employment Programme, Wellcome TrustChallenge to Yorkshire & Humber Schools Scheme(CAPE UK), The Big Lottery Fulfilling Lives: AgeingBetter Fund

Partner Schools & CollegesCockburn School, Cooperative Academy of Leeds,David David Young Community Academy, Leeds EastAcademy, Hovingham Primary School, Kiveton ParkMeadows, Holmfirth High School, BBG Academy,The Dance Space (Doncaster)

Artistic Director’s CirclePeter Claydon, Michael Buckingham

Choreographers’ CircleDennis Hardy, Simon Kamstra, Tim Ellidge, Ann Wallis

Dancers’ CircleMichaelMichael Wimbs, Richard Wilson, Brian Daniels, Lesley Jackson

Phoenix PatronsRobert CohanDavid Lascelles, Earl of Harewood

With special thanks to our Give 35 for 35 Years supporters

Phoenix Dance Theatre Principal Funders

01 Phoenix Dance Theatre Year in Review

Photo by Stephen Wright


As the 2015/2016 financial year drew to a close, Phoenix Dance Theatre put its artistic wheels into motion as it prepared to celebrate its 35th anniversary. FormedFormed in 1981 by 3 black men with a passion for dance, Phoenix is proud to commemorate 35 years of artistic excellence, innovation and diversity as it enters the 2016/2017 financial year. This achievement firmly cements the organisation’s position asas the longest standing contemporary dance company outside of London.

Welcome to Phoenix Dance Theatre’s Year in Review1 April 2015 – 31 March 2016

CONTENTS

Touring

Media

Creation of New Works

The Choreographers and Composers Lab

CCollaborations, Partnerships and External Commissions

Board of Directors and Staff

Fundraising

Access and Education

Notable Achievements

Find out more atphoenixdancetheatre.co.uk

Phoenix Patrons: Robert Cohan; David Lascelles, Earl of Harewood | COMPANY REG. NO. 1921513 | VAT NO. 206 0711 54 | CHARITY REG. NO. 516672

Photo Bloom by Brian Slater


The year began with Phoenix Dance Theatre’s rural tour, ReFINED - a mixed bill of work scaled down for small rural venues across 4 villages in North Yorkshire, delivered in conjunction with Rural Arts.

FollowingFollowing this successful initiative, the professional company continued the Spring Tour with Mixed Programme 2015 (featuring acclaimed choreographer Christopher Bruce’s Shift and Shadows, Sharon Watson’s TearFall and Caroline Finn’s Bloom) - to 5 venues across the UK.

TheThe Autumn Tour was punctuated by our annual showcase Phoenix@Home which featured a mixed bill of work from recent past repertoires, specially curated by Artistic Director, Sharon Watson. The performances took place within the intimate atmosphere of our home venue - the Stanley and Audrey Burton Theatre and received nearnear sold-out attendance. Phoenix@Home was preceded by Phoenix Presents, a special one-off show which brought to Leeds the work of the 2014 New Adventures Choreographer Award winners, Caroline Finn, Sally Marie and John Ross. Caroline was commissioned to choreograph Bloom in partnership with the New Adventures ChoreographerChoreographer Award for Phoenix Dance Theatre in 2014 and the piece was subsequently featured in our 2015 and 2016 mixed bills. Sally Marie’s company, Sweetshop Revolution performed I Loved You and I Loved You - a beautifully crafted piece of dance-theatre based on the life and loves of Welsh composer Morfydd Owen. JohnJohn Ross presented Eclipse, performed by Shoreditch Youth Dance Company, inspired by the Chinese mythology on the solar eclipse.

TOURING


Photo Until.With/Out.Enough by Stephen Wright

In the new calendar year, Triple Bill 2016 premiered on 17th February 2016 at the West Yorkshire Playhouse for a 4-night run and marked the celebration of our 35th anniversary and the beginning of our national Spring Tour for 2016. Triple Bill 2016 featured Undivided Loves by Kate Flatt; Until.With/Out.Enough by Itzik Galili; Melt (an old audience favourite) by Artistic Director, Sharon Watson and Bloom by Caroline Finn (the latter two are alternated at selected venues).

WhilstWhilst on tour, Phoenix seized the opportunity to perform and participate at the dance trade show British Dance Edition (Wales) and dance exhibition, Move It (London). Both events gave Phoenix the opportunity to network and showcase its company of dancers to producers, international festival organisers, tour booking agents, sponsors and dance artists - which led to interest from Asia and Europe.

At the end of the financial year, Phoenix had staged 39 performances by the professional company at 25 venues across the UK to audiences of over 19,000, with the average audience size per venue increasing by 35% compared to the year previous.

Photo Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell

The rise in audience sizes per venue coincide with a stronger presence in local, regional and national media and trade publications as well as a 200% rise in social media followers across our main digital platforms – Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube. Media highlights of the year included BBC Arts filming Phoenix dancers demonstrating the Martha Graham technique with commentary from Artistic Director, Sharon Watson and Phoenix dancers featuring in selected episodes of the BBC TV miniseries, Jonathan Strange and MrMr Norrell performing a choreography by Sharon Watson. The show received viewing figures of 2.5 million to 4.7 million per episode. ITV Calendar broadcasted a feature on Phoenix’s 35th anniversary with footage from the Triple Bill 2016 as it premiered at the West Yorkshire Playhouse, behind the scenes interviews and rehearsal footage.We also produced 6 Rehearsal Revealed videos, 10 show reels and a Vox Pop Trailer for the tours to give audiences a behind-the-scenes look at the creation process, interviews with the choreographers, previews of theworks and audience feedback.

MEDIA


Photo Undivided Loves by Joe Armitage

Two new dance works were created during the year. In June 2015, Phoenix Dance Theatre and The Royal Ballet co-commissioned renowned and multiple award winning choreographer, Israeli/Dutch Itzik Galili to re-stage the dance piece Until.With/Out.Enough. Set to music by Polish composer: Henryk Górecki - the piece subsequently premiered at the Linbury Studio Theatre, in November 2015.

LaterLater in the year, Undivided Loves - a co-commission with Watford Palace Theatre was created by Kate Flatt to mark the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death in 2016 using dance, dramaturgy and musical composition to explore a specific selection of The Bard of Avon’s sonnets. Featuring a newly commissioned score by Brazilian composer Adriano Adewale and funded by the PRS for Music Foundation, the piece offers a subtle and fresh take on the Shakespearean sources. Undivided Loves premieredpremiered at the West Yorkshire Playhouse in February 2016. Additional funding was provided by The Idlewild Trust and The Goldsmiths’ Company.

CREATION OF NEW WORKS


Photo Choreographers and Composers Lab by Brian Slater

Summer 2015 was an exciting time for the company with launch of Phoenix Dance Theatre’s Choreographers and Composers Lab, funded by the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation. The Lab brought together 4 choreographers and 4 composers who worked symbiotically with 4 musicians and 12 professional dancers, developing practical skills and professional knowledge in cross-discipline collaboration and artistic partnership of dance choreography and music composition, under the creative leadership and mentorship of Artistic Director Sharon Watson and Musical Director Ken Hesketh. The ChoreographersChoreographers and Composers Lab 2015 started with 24 specially selected attendees participating in a two-week intensive from Monday July 6 – Friday July 17, 2015 held at Phoenix Dance Theatre’s Leeds HQ. The intensive was delivered and facilitated by 6 guest presenters from the field of dance and music, ranging from dance veteran Robert Cohan to music impresario Peter Wiegold. The process culminated in a studio sharing of 4 collaborative works in progress presented to a studio audience from the creative arts sector.

The two-week intensive in July was followed by 2 Creative Sandpits held in October 2015 and February 2016, which brought together the participating choreographers, composers, dancers and musicians in an effort to evaluate their creative development and progress over the project. This was facilitated in an effort to deepen the mentoring and professional development relationships alongside providing further opportunities to share their experiences.

THE CHOREOGRAPHERS AND COMPOSERS LAB


Photo Carnival Ballet by Richard Moran

PhoenixPhoenix Dance Theatre joins in partnership with Leeds West Indian Carnival to celebrate Europe’s longest running Caribbean carnival’s 50th anniversary in 2017. With funding from ACE Exceptional Award - both partners will produce and deliver Carnival Ballet: a large scale dance production that aims to showcase thethe spirit, history and heritage of the Carnival to national and international audiences. Between January and February 2016, Sharon Watson and Susan Pitter of LWIC embarked on a research and development trip to Jamaica and Trinidad.

Phoenix Dance Theatre is one of the Performing Arts partners on the 2016 Leeds Creative Labs: DARE Edition which brings together academics and performing arts practitioners to explore new ways of working together to inform knowledge and creativity.

Phoenix Dance Theatre and Orchard Health & Wellbeing Clinic, in collaboration with the Harry Guntrip Psychotherapy Trust hosted the MindBody Conference in October 2015 on the theme ‘Suffering‘ at the Stanley & Audrey Burton Theatre, using performance art, presentations and poetry to examine the relationship between the physical and the psychological. The conference was attended by performance artists, psychotherapists and students. In the same month, Artistic Director Sharon Watson choreographed the mass dance participation production, Echoes of Oz; produced by Irregular Arts in Bradford City Park.

COLLABORATIONS, PARTNERSHIPS AND

EXTERNAL COMMISSIONS


Photo by Brian Slater

During the year, Phoenix Dance Theatre recruited 3 new Board members and the acting Chairperson - Keith Evans, was appointed as the new Chair. The Board members as of August 2015 are: Keith Evans (Chair), Susan Coffer (Vice Chair), Stephen Derrick (new), Andrew Fryer (new), Dominic Gray, Helen Jenkins, Simon Kamstra and Heather Paul (new).

Additionally,Additionally, there were some significant staff changes at Phoenix Dance Theatre this year. Our Executive Director of 7 years, Lesley Jackson left on the 26th August 2015 and was replaced by an Interim Executive Director, Chris Lloyd. Recruitment for a permanent replacement started in March 2016 and Mark Hollander was appointed as the new Executive Director to start in August 2016. Mark, whose appointments includeinclude Senior Manager at Arts Council England and Executive Director of the award-winning Unlimited Theatre, has over 25 years’ experience within the arts, cultural and business sectors.

A number of new posts were created and filled during this period as well as graduate fellowships and apprenticeships. This included a new part-time producer who started in April 2015 - significantly the first time a producer has been on staff. Within the Access & Education department, 2 new Officers started in October 2015. In terms of artistic staff, 1 new female dancer started in August 2015 and a Weston Jerwood Graduate Dancer FellowFellow started with the company in October 2015. In addition, Phoenix continued to host 2 dance apprentices from the Northern School of Contemporary Dance from September 2015 onwards. Within Administration, an Arts Fundraising and Philanthropy Fellow joined the organisation in January 2016 to assist with Development and Fundraising and an Arts Administrative Apprentice started with the company in February 2016 and will receive accreditation from Leeds City College. 2016 and will receive accreditation from Leeds City College.

Phoenix’s identity is strongly rooted in the support and development of young talent offering apprenticeships, internships and work experiences. A grand total of 18 students from secondary schools and tertiary institutions were offered work placements with Phoenix during the year in the following departments: Artistic, Marketing, Development, Wardrobe, Technical and Education.

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BOARD OF DIRECTORS AND STAFF


Photo by Tom Arber

Phoenix’s Development Team raised over £150,000 in match and project funding over the past year. In February 2016, Phoenix launched its biggest ever fundraising campaign to celebrate its 35th birthday and in an effort to build its stagnant individual giving scheme under the banner ‘Give 35 for 35 Years’. By the end of March 31, 2016, the number of individual givers had increased fourfold. Within the campaign, Phoenix publicised the damaging effects of the Boxing Day floods on equipment and costumes at our stores in Stourton, which helped our bid to receive flood relief funding from the Leeds Flood Grants Appeal Scheme. Notably, Phoenix Dance Theatre received funding (£39,773) from The WellcomeWellcome Trust in order to deliver the Science in Motion project – a dance and science initiative with primary and secondary school pupils using dance to engage and increase learning with selected areas of the science curriculum, opening up interest in both disciplines from young people not currently engaged with either.

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FUNDRAISING



Our artistic output has been equally matched by education and outreach activities of the highest quality. The company remains committed to widening access to and encouraging interest in dance by these means. Phoenix Dance Theatre’s Access and Education department continues to deliver a strong programme of activities within Leeds, the Yorkshire region and across parts of the UK, reaching individuals who would not normally engage with the arts. We demonstrate our commitment to deliver dance education to young people within schools, tertiary institutions and at our studios drawn from different communities. Access and Education celebrated a 43% increase of the number of education activitiesactivities delivered, exceeding our overall participation and engagement targets through collaborations and commissions with far-reaching effects. In this financial year, Access and Education delivered 1,073 dance education sessions involving a total of 6,539 unique participants. An increased audience of 102,239 viewed our youth participants perform live at festivals, arena and stadium venues; two of which were mainstream entertainment and sporting events.

Summer 2015 was a very busy time for the Access and Education team, with summer courses and intensives for young people, those in pre-vocational training, as well as for professional dancers and recent dance graduates. In addition, a commission from Rugby League Cares to deliver Join the Momentum, a series of workshops engaging 387 young people from 8 communities across the North of England, led to a mass participation performance of Try Then/Try Now, choreographed by Phoenix’s Artistic Director Sharon Watson. The young people performed this dance piece during half time at the Rugby League Challenge Cup Final at Wembley Stadium to an audience of 80,000 rugby fans in August 2015.2015. Moreover, a further 800 young people participated in our Spring, Summer and ResTec youth dance platforms, featuring pupils from schools in Leeds, Yorkshire and London who performed to sell-out audiences at our home venue following a series of dance education workshops.

Key programmes also included the 'Lord of the Flies Legacy' project, which engaged boys and young men aged 11-18 years in a series of workshops and performance opportunities to maintain their interest in dance, as one way of redressing the low participation of boys in contemporary dance. This led on from our successful partnership with Re:Bourne of Matthew Bourne’s New Adventures and Bradford Alhambra Theatre in 2014. In autumn 2015, Phoenix was commissioned by NVA to deliver Ghost Peloton at the Whisky Bond in Port Dundas, Glasgow as part of the LUCI ‘Cities Under the Microscope’ Event. Ghost PelotonPeloton was previously Yorkshire Festival’s headline event for the Grand Départ/Tour de France in 2014. Our Access and Education team also started a new initiative this year, working actively with socially-isolated older adults in their communities through the Young at Arts programme, funded by Time to Shine.

ACCESS AND EDUCATION

Photo Ghost Peloton by McAteer



Phoenix Youth Academy continues to offer pre-vocational dance training through weekly technique classes and holiday intensives to young people aged 13-19. In July 2015, selected students from the senior cohort auditioned for places at tertiary dance institutions; 100% of the audtionees were successful in gaining places on full time vocational courses at leading dance conservatoires across the UK. One of the highlights of the Phoenix Youth Academy calendar was their performanceperformance in partnership with RJC Dance at the BBC 1Xtra Live event at the First Direct Arena, Leeds performing to crowds of up to 10,000 music fans. Leading on from the successful Youth Academy programme in Leeds, the increasing demand for Phoenix Dance Theatre’s educational work was demonstrated through the recent launch of Phoenix Academy North East, in partnership with Gateway Studios. Phoenix Academy North East was set up in Gateshead in January 2016 in an effort to increase organisationalorganisational capacity, providing a high-quality training programme for talented young dancers aged 14 to 18 from across the North East. This expanded our geographical area of reach through this particular strand of our work, firmly cementing our position as an important provider of pre-vocational training within the North of England.

Regular weekly activity at our base in Leeds also includes the Illuminate Dance programme, which provides weekly dance workshops at our studios for young people with additional needs aged 6-18 years. This scheme continues to be oversubscribed, along with our Saturday School classes which provides 4 levels of contemporary dance training for young people and provides a clear pathway to Phoenix Youth Academy. In 2016, Phoenix’s Saturday School participants worked in partnership with The CityCity of Leeds Youth Training Orchestra, the Northern School of Contemporary Dance and Leeds DJ School to create a collaborative dance piece that featured live classical music and remixed music by young disc jockeys and performed to a live audience of 200 people in Leeds. This was part of CBBC Ten Pieces project which aims to open up the world of classical music to children and inspire them to develop their own creative responses to ten pieces of music through dance or other artistic disciplines.disciplines.



The Access and Education department has also expanded its core staff, employing two Education Officers for the first time which has positively impacted its capacity to deliver more workshops with regularity and with less reliance on freelance workers.

TheThe Schools Partnership Scheme continues to grow steadily as the department is continuing its relationships with existing schools, while building new partnerships with others – largely due to the PE and Sport Premium for Primary Schools. The programme is delivered primarily in Leeds but also across Yorkshire, providing weekly dance provision to engage school pupils with challenging behaviour; delivering GCSE and BTEC dance courses and the dance module in the PE syllabus; in addition to in-school and extra-curricular dance education sessions. Regionally, Phoenix was commissioned by the School Partnership Trust Academies Arts to work with CAST in Doncaster (performance venue) to engageengage school pupils in dance across 6 Doncaster Primary Academies, leading to performances at CAST in February 2016. Phoenix also continued to build on the successful delivery of the dance and literacy project for the JESS Cluster, Leeds by working with Cape UK as a delivery partner on its SLiCE programme. Through this, we delivered a similarly packaged dance and literacy programme to close the gap in Literacy and improve attitudes to learning and engagement amongst the lowest achieving pupils. Our team worked with 5 cohorts across 3 Yorkshire-based primary schools, which resulted in an increase of one and two sub-levels in the pupils’ reading and writing assessments compared to their scores prior to their participation on our arts integration programme.scores prior to their participation on our arts integration programme.

As an Artsmark and Arts Award supporter, fifteen young participants on Access and Education’s Catalyst Young Carers arts project each achieved an Arts Award at the Bronze level and two achieved at the Silver level. The young people were engaged on a 6-week project in partnership with First Floor, West Yorkshire Playhouse.

Last year, Phoenix delivered repertory workshops to over 20 schools, colleges and dance conservatoires across the UK supporting the company’s tour of Mixed Programme 2015 and Triple Bill 2016. Through these workshops we enhance student experience and provide the unique opportunity for young people across the UK to engage with our professional dancers and gain insight into the works performed. We delivered dance workshops and residencies for Centres for Advanced Training institutions, as well as CPD sessions for school teachers and Primary Education degree students at the Leeds Beckett University.

OneOne of our unique educational successes this year is the inclusion of Shadows choreographed by Christopher Bruce CBE, commissioned by Phoenix Dance Theatre in 2014, into the AQA GCSE Dance syllabus to be studied by thousands of young people every year from September 2016 onwards. Our inclusion in this new qualification enhances the company’s advocacy of the value of dance as a subject to be studied formally, and furthers Phoenix’s reputation as dance innovators and educators across the dance and education sectors.

14

Our Artistic Director Sharon Watson has been proudly representing the Company by:

• Being elected as the chair of the steering committee for Leeds bid for European Capital of Culture 2023.

• Being named in the Northern • Being named in the Northern Power Women Awards ‘Top 50 Power List’ – recognising the women leaders and change makers in the North and featured as a panellist on the Safe Dance Panel at the Move It trade show in March 2016.2016.

In response to national concern regarding the low level of high profile female choreographers within the sector, the company announced in March its very first internal commission under Sharon Watson’s directorship - a commissioned piece by company commissioned piece by company dancer Sandrine Monin will be created for the 2017 touring season. Sharon is currently one of the mentors on The Bench National Mentoring Programme to support an increase in female choreographers in the sector; she is choreographers in the sector; she is the only Leeds-based choreographer on this national programme.

DancersMarie-Astrid MenceSandrine MoninVanessa Vince-PangSam VaherlehtoCarmen Vazquez-MarfilPrentice WhitlowPrentice WhitlowNatalie Alleston (Junior Dancer)Jack Thomson (Weston Jerwood Graduate Dancer)Elliott Thompson (Apprentice Dancer)

Access & EducationDirector of Access & Education: Charis CharlesAccess & Education Projects Co-ordinator:Emily LabhartEmily LabhartYouth Academy Co-ordinator: Tanya Richam-OdoiAccess and Education Officer: Sam BroadbentAccess and Education Trainee Officer: Jerome Wilks

AdministrationMarketing Manager: Sian DudleyDevelopment Co-ordinator: Melody WalkerFundraising Fellow: Dafydd Fundraising Fellow: Dafydd WilliamsFinance and Office Administrator: Tony ShergoldCompany Assistant: Lesley BladesCompany Volunteer: Ugo Massabò

Associate ArtistsWarren AdamsAna Lujan-Sanchez

BoardKeith Evans (Chair)Susan CofferStephen DerrickAndrew FryerDominic GrayHelen JenkinsHelen JenkinsSimon KamstraHeather Paul

DirectorsArtistic Director: Sharon WatsonExecutive Director (Apr ‘09 - Aug ’15): Lesley JacksonInterim Executive Director (Aug ‘15 - Jun’16): Chris LloydExecutive Director (Jun ‘16 - pres): Mark HollanderExecutive Director (Jun ‘16 - pres): Mark Hollander

CompanyRehearsal & Tour Director: Tracy TinkerProducer: Rajpal PardesiTechnical Manager: Leon SmithCompany Stage Manager: Hayley SmithWardrobe Manager: Emma JamesTTouring Wardrobe Supervisor: Bethany Holmes


Photo by Joe Armitage

Phoenix Dance Theatre, St Cecilia Street, Quarry Hill, Leeds LS2 7PA Tel: 0113 236 8130Phoenix Patrons: Robert Cohan; David Lascelles, Earl of Harewood | COMPANY REG. NO. 1921513 | VAT NO. 206 0711 54 | CHARITY REG. NO. 516672Contact:: [email protected]

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Phoenix Dance Theatre Year in Review