Dance City is excited to announce that 4 out of 28 groups of young dancers selected to perform at U.Dance National Festival 2015 are from the North East.
Taking place in Plymouth on 22–25 July, Youth Dance England in partnership with Plymouth Dance present U.Dance 2015, the national festival that celebrates and showcases the very best youth dance work from across the country.
The participating companies have been selected at 10 different regional platform events and will be joined by the National Youth Dance Company. The young people will work with nationally renowned artists to help inspire them to develop their own dance skills and introduce them to new creative ideas.
The North East has a huge talent for dance, the groups selected to perform at U.Dance 2015 are:
Division – The Next Stage are a group of young dancers from Newcastle upon Tyne. They are presenting a twist on Little Red Riding Hood with their piece Happily Ever After? Choreographed by Claire Dixon.
TINeke present Crushes and Blushes choreographed by Tess Chaytor. This piece is performed by dancers with and without disabilities.
Vizavis Youth Dance Company are 11 young dancers from Dame Allen’s School and will perform Birds of Paradise.
Youth Dance Tynedale are a contemporary dance training programme from Queen Elizabeth High School will perform Je Suis Charlie. Youth Dance Tynedale and Visaviz were selected through the ‘New Dimensions’ strand at a selection event at the Southbank Centre that was open to groups from across the UK and both pieces are choreographed by Anthony Lo Giudice.
Helen Kumar, Dance Engagement Coordinator, Dance City said:
“The North East has a wealth of dance talent and our regional dance platforms have given around 1,000 dancers aged 11-19 years the opportunity to take to stages before this final selection was made. Our selected groups will fly the flag for the North East with four exceptional pieces showing the creativity and enthusiasm of our young dancers.”
Anthony Baker, Joint CEO and Artistic Director, Dance City said:
“U.Dance is a unique opportunity for young dancers from across England to show their work to many hundreds of other young people who are inspired by and love dance. Well done to all the young dancers from the North East for this amazing achievement. It promises to be a fantastic event.”
Olivia Walker, Division – The Next Stage dancer, aged 16 said:
“It’s so exciting and amazing to have this opportunity to perform at U.Dance. At Division we get lots of opportunities to perform in amazing venues including, Sadler’s Wells, Her Majesty’s Theatre, Dance City and we have even performed flash mobs at people’s weddings. At Division we are a family and we can’t wait to get to U.Dance and hopefully make everyone proud.”
U.Dance 2015 National Festival will take place in Plymouth 22 – 25 July 2015.
For more information on the festival go to http://www.yde.org.uk/programmes/u_dance/udance_national_festival
