Silent Dancer goes abroad

Aim

To help fund my flights to Guatemala to perform in a critically acclaimed dance festival with Dance-Forms Productions .

4.33, by Mike Williams

'......a startling, intensely challenging piece'

'......very clever, challenging the viewer to watch the dance unaccompanied and to face up to their own discomfort'

Quotes by Steve Stratford, @SteveStratford9 at the Wales Dance Platform, Cardiff

I am a young up and coming choreographer who has been performing professionally as a freelance dance artist for the past 10 years. I have performed in a variety of company works (Earthfall Physical Theatre, FFIN DANCE and Exim Dance Company) and alongside several independent dance artists such as Chisato Minamimura, Melanda Dance Company, Candoco and Henri Oguike. 

Throughout 2015 I began to experiment and explore my first independent piece as a new emerging choreographer. Having recieved initial support from National Dance Company Wales through their Stage One Project and In Kind support from Earthfall, my first solo took form in the shape of '4.33', an intricate and highly detailed solo inspired by the anatomy, physicality and structure of the human spine in parallel with the silent score (ityself entitled 4.33) by the masterful post war composer John Cage. I later toured this piece throughout the United Kingdom, all through self funding, with great sucess and acclaim to the following venues:

 Bath Spa University: Pilot Platform, Feb 2015

Riverfront Theatre, Newport: Arrive Dance Platform, Feb 2015

Chapter Arts, Cardiff: Wales Dance Platform, July 2015

Paradise Green, Edinburgh: Edinburgh Fringe Festival, August 2015

New Diorama Theatre, London: Cloud Dance Friends, Nov 2015

Volcano Theatre, Swansea: Swansea Scratch Night, Feb and April 2016

After several attempts to get me to perform abroad in various venues, Amercian Choreographer and Director of Dance Forms-Productions, Susana B. Williams has kindly invited me to showcase my solo 4.33 at the 'Dance-Forms 73rd Internationla Choreographers Showcase at Theater Dick Smith of IGA in Guatemala City on October 5th 2017 and at the Teatro Municipal de Quetzaltenango in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala on October 6th'

This is truly an honour to have such an internationally acclaimed choreographer and director who has been bringing artists and companies together from across the world to share their work in some of the most prestigious venues (most recently the Dance Base in Edinburgh) and help forge new collaborations and partnerships bewteen different countries. 

As I begin exploring my newest solo, 'BoxedIN', a piece that explores one's identity and personal journey within a world that is so driven to keep us locked up in sterotypes and unmovable life choices and often prevents us from breaking free to be our true selves, I feel this expereience of taking my first professional solo to an international festival would be a turning point in my career as an emerging choreographer. To be able to share my work at such a level alongside artists from around the world will be highly rewarding at both a artistic and creative level and a business point of view with the potential to form new collaborations that will enable me to bring new and exciting work back to my home city of Swansea and country of Wales. 

I am lucky to have all my production costs covered by Dance-Forms Produections whilst out in Guatemala. This in itself is a huge weight of my shoulders as an independent artist who has fiercely fought to fund his own way and not seek help from the Arts Council. This I feel has both helped and hinderd my work as an artist in an area of Wales that does not always support its local artists that choose to remain and make work in their home city. It has made me think outside the box and so seek innovative ways of creating and touring work that hasnt as yet relied on a 'Yes' from the Arts Council. It has given me the luxury of time to truly explore an idea without the pressure of dicovering an idea during a weeks R&D. However, It has also preveneted me from developing my work at a higher level, forging new working relationships with other artists and reaching a wider audience. I feel this international opportunity, that again is currently all self funded will help cement me as an emerging choeographer that is willing to take risks, is forward thinking  and is looking to deepen his artistic practice.

I am hoping to raise some funds to cover the cost of the flight to Guatemala. These are quite expensive and I am hoping I can recieve your help so that i may take the next step into my artistic practice and preent my choreographic work at an international level. 

I would be forever thankful for any help offered. Love and Light to all :) 

This project successfully funded on 26th October 2017