Seeds were sown when Dora Frankel founded her Fertile Ground dance company in Newcastle – and now it’s time to bring in The Harvest.
That’s the name of the company’s mini-festival of contemporary dance in September, which current artistic director Renaud Wiser hopes will prove fruitful in many ways.
All are invited for a programme of workshops, discussions and performances aimed at highlighting the region’s “rich and growing” contemporary dance scene.
And in Renaud’s personal contribution as choreographer, a new 30-minute work called E-Motion, there’s an opportunity to participate in an original and very 21st Century way. But we’ll come to that.
What of this growing contemporary dance scene?
There have been local dance schools for decades, offering classes in ballroom, ballet and tap, but contemporary dance not so much. And how accessible was all this?
Young Billy Elliot, of screen and stage fame, stumbled into what was perceived as a girl’s world at the turn of the century.
With his triumphant final leap at the end of the film, he’s seen in the guise of a swan in Swan Lake – but this is Matthew Bourne’s cutting edge Swan Lake with a webbed foot in both classical and contemporary camps.
Recently in this region there has been innovative work devised by Meta4 Dance (at The Alnwick Garden) and Company of Others (in the sea at King Edward’s Bay, would you believe).
Autumn tours are planned by Hit the Ground Running Dance Theatre Company and Anthony Lo-Giudice’s company. BalletLORENT and Eliot Smith Dance never let grass grow under their feet.
If there’s a burgeoning scene, Newcastle-based Dance City, in its 40th anniversary year, has played a huge part, but so has Fertile Ground, established in 2013 to provide aspiring young dancers with professional performance opportunities.
“We’ve worked with a lot of people in the region over the years and every year we get a new cohort of dancers working with the company,” explains Renaud.
“There’s now this community of people in the North East who have worked with Fertile Ground and are involved in all sorts of activities.
“As the company has developed, we have also made lots of links with schools and local organisations.
“While we love the idea of doing evening performances, which is what we have always done, it’s just one aspect of what we do.
“Apart from performing, there’s teaching, getting people excited about movement and looking at how we can support young people starting on a career.
“To show the public all the things we do, a mini-festival seemed like the right format. We’ll try one and see how it goes.”
The language of dance is universal and its networks span the globe, which is both an attraction and a limiting factor if social or financial circumstances keep you in the North East.
Dora Frankel, though British, spent years in Scandinavia and America before settling in the North East where she established Fertile Ground to nurture early career dancers.
When she stepped down in 2018 (she remains on the board as artistic director emeritus) the reins passed to Renaud, initially in tandem with Polish dance artist Malgorzata Dzierzon, ‘Gosia’, who had choreographed for Fertile Ground.
Renaud, who is Swiss, came to the UK 25 years ago and danced with Rambert, the renowned contemporary dance company.
“That’s how I came to London,” he explains. “Then, with Rambert, I came to Newcastle and started to connect with the people at Dance City who ran the CAT (Centre for Advanced Training) there.
“Then I was supported by Dance City when I started developing my own work, so I had connections with Newcastle before I took over the company.
“When Dora stepped down it seemed natural to apply for the position.
“I’ve always been interested in working with young people and people training to become professional dancers, and I’d started to teach in schools. It’s something I’m quite passionate about.”
Fertile Ground is a continuing success story, helping to launch the careers of a growing number of North East dancers.
As its mission statement declares: “We believe that everybody should have the opportunity to experience dance and pursue a career in dance regardless of their socio-economic background or the place where they live.”
The concluding pledge is “to work relentlessly and passionately to inspire people to unleash their creativity”.
The Harvest is the latest manifestation of that and it will see Fertile Ground take over Dance City on Sunday, September 7.
Renaud sees it as “a space where people can connect through movement, learn from each other and be inspired by the incredible breadth of dance talent across the North East”.
And this whether you’re a dancer or just someone curious about contemporary dance.
Masterclasses include floorwork with Lila Naruse, classical technique with Amy Becke, choreographic practice with Pagan Hunt, sound and movement with Ashling McCann and an introduction to partnering in contemporary dance by Lila Naruse and Rosie Macari.
Olivia Paddison, one of Fertile Ground’s many alumni, will lead a masterclass in seated dance, exploring creative movement from a sitting position.
An afternoon showcase of works created by local community dance groups aided by Fertile Ground dancers will be followed by a panel discussion, Pathways to a Career in Dance.
The climactic evening performance is to be a triple bill beginning with Aetherbound, by Lila Naruse and Rosie Macari, and Obscura, by Pagan Hunt and Ellie Trow.
Then will come E-Motion, Renaud’s new piece which he believes breaks new ground by handing control to the audience.
“I think a lot about audience participation and what it means to be involved and have some agency,” he explains.
“I thought the idea of letting the audience have a say in what happens would be interesting.
“I’ve been working for a few years with a friend, John Rowe, who designs apps and connective technology.
“We talked about the possibility of creating a voting app that could let an audience decide on aspects of the performance, so that’s what we’re building.
“If all goes well, audience members will be able to answer questions on their phones, such as ‘In this first section would you like to see a solo, a duet or a quartet?’ Or ‘Do you want music that’s romantic or dynamic?’
“Then we could ask people about the type of movement. Do they want something happy or intriguing and quirky?”
As you can imagine, this has meant some challenging rehearsals for Fertile Ground dancers.
“It is quite complicated,” admits Renaud.
“We have prepared a solo, a duet and a quartet based on a similar dance vocabulary, but each dancer must be ready to adapt to what’s chosen.
“I find it exciting. The concept is something I’d love to show in other places but there’s an element of experimentation. It’ll be interesting to see what choices people make.”
Anand Bhatt, chief executive and artistic director at Dance City, welcomed the opportunity to partner with Renaud’s company.
“Fertile Ground produces work of outstanding quality and knowing many of their artists trained here at Dance City makes it extra special to be able to support them,” he said.
If you choose to accept Renaud’s invitation to attend The Harvest on September 7, you’ll find times and ticket details on the Dance City website.