Newcastle Sunderland

Commissions

Supporting artists to create bold, ambitious and original dance work is a key part of Dance City’s mission. Our commissions have enabled artists and companies to develop new ideas, take creative risks and bring exciting new work to life, contributing to a thriving dance sector in the North East.

While our commissioning programmes vary from year to year, they are designed to provide practical and creative support that helps artists develop their practice and realise new projects.

There are currently no commissions open for application. Future opportunities will be advertised on this page and through our Pro Artist e-newsletter and social media channels.

Current

Archive

Yewande 103

Alexandrina Hemsley started Yewande 103 in 2020 to formalise and expand their values of care, support and connection. Yewande is Alexandrina's middle name. It means, 'mother has returned’. There is a tender determination and commitment to both uphold and further understand intergenerational, cyclical patterns of...

J Neve Harrington

J Neve Harrington, awarded the Dance City 2022/23 commission, is an interdisciplinary artist whose works include movement, text and conversation, installation, costume and space design. She works mainly in gallery and non-stage spaces where her work prioritises explorations around access, play, agency, confrontation by times/scales...

Richard Chappell (Richard Chappell Dance)

Gillian Dickinson Trust Commission (Spring 2023) Richard Chappell is an internationally renowned and award winning choreographer. His ensemble Richard Chappell Dance creates memorable and moving dance at the forefront of theatre, interdisciplinary collaboration and site responsive performance. RCD’s creative process is rooted in collaboration, co-authorship and emotional...

VOXED

Gillian Dickinson Trust Commission VOXED makes compelling genre-led dance-theatre works for physical and digital stages. They seamlessly blend bold new writing with distinctive choreography to create high-quality work for audiences to experience in person, on film, and online. Their storytelling explores and tussles with the world we live...

George Williams

Early Stage Commission George Williams is a dance artist, born and raised in the North East who first discovered his passion for dance at school in Middlesbrough. George is an Associate Artist with TIN Arts and has toured nationally with the company performing in both indoor and...

Rob Anderson

Early Stage Commission - Buckle Up (working title) Rob has been dancing for over 15 years working alongside multiple award-winning companies, teaching and performing internationally and across the UK. He trained at the Northern School of Contemporary Dance, graduating with the Carolyn Woolridge Award for Outstanding...

Pelican Theatre

Charlotte Grant Early Career Artist Award - Blue Mind Pelican Theatre is a physical theatre partnership between Ellie Trow and Pagan Hunt, who share a passion for making work that is worth making. They are driven by their desire to create authentic, multi-disciplinary and thought-provoking art, with the...

Lorraine Smith

Early Stage Commission - You Can Take Me Home Toni Lorraine Smith is a North East artist and former artistic director/choreographer of Silversmith Dance Theatre (2006–2014). She devises dance theatre and costume performance to draw audiences from all walks of life into intimate connectivity with intriguing...

Benedicta Valentina Mamuini & Lila Naruse

Artist Development Bursary Benedicta Valentina Mamuini and Lila Naruse are mixed-heritage, mixed-cultured North East-based freelance dance artists, who’s working together has developed through close attention to their creative passions. They are both working professionals, primarily in performance, and have combined experience and skills in collaboration, creation, and teaching contemporary dance. Motivated...

Jennifer Essex

Full Stage Commission - How Long is a Piece of String? With 20 years of professional experience, Jennifer Essex has presented work across Canada, Europe and Mexico. Her choreography has been supported by The Canada Council for the Arts, Arts Council England, Pavilion Dance, Middlesbrough Council,...

Fertile Ground

Full Stage Commission - Somnium Fertile Ground is the North East of England’s repertory touring dance company. Dedicated to talent development and retention in the region, their aim is to nurture, challenge and inspire a new generation of dance artists. Founded in 2013 by Dora Frankel...

Esther Huss

Artist Development Bursary - Stairwall Esther was born and raised in Freiburg, Germany. She trained at London Studio Centre, graduating with a BA (Hons) in 2003. Afterwards, she studied with Butoh master Yoshito Ohno in Yokohama 2015/16. Since then, Esther has performed at many venues including the...

Debbie Harbin

Artist Development Bursary - Sleep North East born dance artist and Director and Founder of The D Project Dance Company, Debbie is based in Darlington and has been dedicated to the development of dance for CYP and families in the North East for 15 years. The...

Beth Veitch

Charlotte Grant Early Career Artist Award – Waiting On It Graduating with a First-Class Honours at Dance City, Beth then joined Mapdance, postgraduate company at the University of Chichester, touring works by Anthony Missen, José Agudo, Didy Veldman and Liz Aggiss internationally and gaining a Masters...

Andrew Gardiner

Early Stage Commission - Would You Adam & Eve It? Society of Strays are interested in people and how we function in the face of adversity, where the only choice for humanity is to ascend or descend. They comprise of collaborators who have worked successfully in the...

Image by Luke Waddington

Dora Frankel

Artist Development Bursary - Turner in Venice (working title) Dora, who trained at Rambert School and The Benesh Institute is an established choreographer and educator and founding Artistic Director of Fertile Ground. She has a national and international career spanning almost 50 years and is currently...

HELD, image by Luke Waddngton

Company of Others

Full Length Commission - HELD Company of Others is a dance theatre company based in the North East of England, founded and led by Artistic Director and Choreographer Nadia Iftkhar. They co-create work which highlights and shares stories of the human experience from a diverse perspective...

5Women

5Women

Artist Development Bursary - 5Women The 5Women Project is a group of mature female performers and dance makers from Spain and UK, aged between 40-55 years old, who initially came together in Newcastle Upon Tyne between 2005 - 2007 to share their practice, ideas and stories. Elia...

Yuvel Soria (2)

Yuvel Soria

Artist Development Bursary - AJAYU TRANSITORIO AJAYU TRANSITORIO (Transient Soul, working title) is a performance/installation that explores the traditions, relationships with food, death and dying through the magic of Latin American traditional rituals and cultural practices. In Bolivia, Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) is...

Patrick Ziza

Patrick Ziza

Artist Development Bursary - Family Affair Understanding and expectations of success and fulfilment in life can vary significantly depending on one’s age and also the time of one’s arrival in ‘the West.’ Arguably, African parents often have a precise vision of their children’s future and the route...

Lila Naruse

Lila Naruse

Artist Development Bursary - Flow How do we find purpose and joy in the chaos of existence? Exploring happiness, existence and struggle. This work investigates the importance of human perception, addressing the psychology of happiness through Csikszentmihalyi's concept of the state of 'Flow'. Flow is an optimal experience...

What's that Dance

Megan Brown & Jennifer Chrisp

Charlotte Grant Early Career Artist Award - dare you: Question The Love Between Girls “dare you: Question The Love Between Girls” is a dance theatre work that explores the notion of female relationships, gender stereotypes and sexuality. About the company Following their training at Dance City, Megan and Jenny...

Ellen Hathaway

Ellen Hathaway Dance

Charlotte Grant Early Career Artist Award - Arose Ellen Hathaway is collaborating with Lebanese Creative Consultant Lucy Boulos to illustrate through dance a profound consequence of conflict; solidarity, unity and mutual support. The work will reflect on Ellen's experiences in Lebanon in 2018, Lucy's participation in a...

Patricia Suarez

Patricia Suarez

Early Stage Commission (contribution) - La Llorona La Llorona is a choreographic exploration of femininity, internalised emotion, and cycles of joy and violence through the juxtaposition of a Colombian oral tale of a woman who is abandoned and in her grief drowns her child and contrasted...

Alicia Meehan

Alicia Meehan

Early Stage Commission (deferred 2019-2020) - When Saturn Returns When Saturn Returnswill be a colourful, personality-full and rigorous exploration into the physical & psychological impact that societal ideas and narratives have on women. The creative process will be an embodied investigation that will stem from the autobiographical; unpicking...

2020 Artist Manifesto - Pictured Jennifer Essex

Jennifer Essex

Early Stage Commission - How long is a piece of string? Two creatures. Both covered from the tops of their heads to just past their toes in long floppy, heavy “hair”. A new work for children 3+ and their grown-ups, the show will use dance, acrobatics, slap-stick,...

Gavin Coward - Mr Numb

Gavin Coward

Early Stage Commission - Mr Numb Gavin is creating a dance theatre duet performed by himself alongside singer song writer Patrick Kelly. Bringing dark clowning, dance and live music together to tell the fractured stories of Mr Numb. Mr Numb feels nothing, he is confused in today’s...

Payal Ramchandani

Payal Ramchandani

Full Length Commission - The boy who grew a forest This inter-generational dance-theatre production-‘The boy who grew a forest’ will urge audiences to look beyond fairy tales, wake them up from environmental inertia and give them real life role models. Jadav Payeng’s adventurous journey of impactful...

Hit the Ground Running Dance Theatre Company

Hit The Ground Running Dance Theatre Company

About the Company Michael Heatley is a Choreographer/Dance Facilitator based in the North East with over 15 years of teaching experience and is founder/Creative Director of Hit The Ground Running Dance Theatre Company. His company Hit The Ground Running Dance Theatre, established in 2015, was awarded a...

Collision Dance Theatre

Collision Dance Theatre

About the company Alicia is a North East based dance artist, she trained in classical dance at Northern Ballet School then progressed on to study contemporary dance, graduating with a First Class Honors in 2011. Alicia expanded her creative performance practice further at Trinity Laban Conservatoire,...

Southpaw Dance Co

Southpaw Dance Company

About the company Southpaw Dance Company creates dance theatre across all contexts: small to large scale, indoor and outdoor audiences, touring and site-specific, with professional and community casts; accessible work with a distinctive choreographic vision connecting compelling narrative with explosive physicality. Southpaw has created five large scale...

Igor Tavares

Igor Tavares

About the Artist Igor Tavares is a dancer, poet, and visual artist of African and Portuguese heritage. A sense of rhythm imbues all of his creative work and is part of the way he expresses himself through poetry, painting and drawing, and through dance. Igor has...

Company of Others

Company of Others

About the Company Company of Others is a dance theatre company based in the North East of England, led by Artistic Director and Choreographer Nadia Iftkhar. 'We create work which highlights and shares stories of the human experience, drawn from the diverse communities we work with. By...

Mathieu Geffre

Mathieu Geffré

About the artist After training with the prestigious Paris Conservatoire, Mathieu Geffré has spent the last 12 years performing throughout the UK and Europe with companies such as National Dance Company Wales and working with leading choreographers including Itzik Galili and Didi Veldman among others. Since choreographing...

Nicole Vivien Watson

Nicole Vivien Watson

About the artist Nicole Vivien Watson is artistic director and founder of Surface Area Dance Theatre and has had a long term relationship with Dance City, having developed shown and premiered works with us in the past. She’s achieved phenomenal success with Surface Area, having been...

Greta Heath

Greta Heath

About the artist Greta Heath is a screen dance artist and contemporary dancer based in Newcastle who has recently graduated from Newcastle College with a BA in Creative Enterprise. The interest of her work lies in the concept of art as a therapeutic tool. 'I am interested...

Gillie Kleiman

About the Artist Gillie Kleiman is an artist living and working in Newcastle upon Tyne. Her work starts from interests in dance and choreography and manifests in performances, texts, and events, presented in venues and festivals associated with dance, live art, theatre and visual art, nationally and...

Alice Henry

ALICE HENRY

In her second commission from Dance City, Alice will be exploring a physicalization of what it is like living with the mental illness Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. For those suffering with OCD the mental illness can be restricting, debilitating, exhausting and frustrating. OCD also has a...

State of Grace

STATE OF GRACE

Full Commission - Silver Dog The Deep South, US. Mississippi Basin, early-fall 1980. Two young sisters set out on an extraordinary journey – an escape from a horror and across America to the tenement blocks and freezing nightlife of a New York winter. One dreams of freedom,...

Patrick Ziza

PATRICK ZIZA

Full Commission - Dandyism Patrick Ziza’s first full length work aims to explore and challenge views on black masculinity. Using dandyism as its vehicle, this piece will investigate, undermine and subvert the preconceptions of how a black male should act, dress or communicate his personality. The work...

Lizzie J Klotz

LIZZIE J KLOTZ

Full Commission - This is a show about Lying An exploration into the good, the bad and the ugly of lying. Beyond the lies of the notorious criminals, politicians and celebrities, there exists a world of untruths that – ultimately – constitute what it means to be...

Anthony Lo Guidice

LO GIUDICE DANCE

Lo-Giudice Dance are an internationally touring contemporary dance company based in the North-East of England under the direction of choreographer Anthony Lo-Giudice. Established in 2012, Lo-Giudice Dance create performances inspired by the beauty, darkness and fragility of human relationships using movement and theatre as conduits that aim...

Ther D Project - Creative Summer 2018

THE D PROJECT

Emerging Work. HEDGE is FUN, FRESH and EXCITING, drawing in children and adults alike to experience a performance with a difference. Welcome to a world that is ever changing, exploring the story of a hedgehog waking up from hibernation and everything is not as it once...

Joelene English

This is a stage 2 commission following on from last year's commission. Alice Joelene will develop a way of working bringing in new artists in order to look at other movement styles to gain a greater understanding of the choreographic journey of the work. ...

Vivien Wood

Vivien Wood is widely respected nationally and internationally as a choreograoher, theatre maker, dancer, rehearsal director and teacher. Born in the North East of England, Vivien took up a place at the Royal Ballet School in London at the age of 11. Following an international career...

Patrick Ngabonziza

As a person of Rwandan heritage, Patrick has always been inspired by African culture, music and dance. His style embodies the raw, unrefined energy and expressive dynamism of dances originating in Central-East Africa. Patrick is interested in exploring the idea of masculinity, fashion and identity through the...

Ella Mesma

Choreographer & director of Ella Mesma Company (2011), Ella's work has been described as ‘stunning,’ ‘provocative’ & ‘unabashedly emotional’ (The Guardian). Foreign Bodies Using Latin, Hip Hop & Contemporary dance theatre/culture, Foreign Bodies will explore what it is to be a 'citizen of the world', challenging notions of...

Robert Anderson

Robert began B-boying at the age of 15, through classes at Dance city. He eventually joined Bad Taste Cru, whom he has performed, battled and taught with across the globe, and continue to do so. He trained in Contemporary and Ballet at the Northern School of Contemporary Dance,...

Nicole Vivien Watson

Nicole Vivien Watson

Nicole Vivien Watson established Surface Area Dance Theatre in 2007. The concept and delivery of Cold Colour, aims to physically communicate – through the mediums of movement and choreography, the affects of colour and light on emotional and psychological responses. Image courtesy of Moving Cities North East...

Alice Henry

Alice Henry is a freelance performer and choreographer who graduated from the Northern School of Contemporary Dance in 2015. She moved to the North East following her degree to hone, challenge and question her practice on the Expanding Horizons Programme, to continue training, receive support and to utilise the...

Robby Graham

Lazarus (working title) will be an exploration of the movement vocabulary and choreographic techniques informed by BBoying, contemporary dance, and physical theatre, among other movement disciplines, that Robby has accumulated over the past 10 years. Southpaw Dance Company was set up in 2013 under the artistic...

Peter Kerry Forbes

Not So Silent: Dance Theatre was created in 2015, under the artistic direction of Peter Kerry-Forbes, and is based in the North East of England. Their goal is to create work that blurs the lines between pedestrian movement, action, text and contemporary dance. The companies work looks...

Joelene English

Joelene English Dance Theatre Alice - The lost chapter will be Joelene English Dance Theatres impression of the conceptualisation of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson best known as Lewis Carroll and his enchantment with obscure imagination. Who was Alice? Why her? Are the characters a figment of her imagination or are they...

Jennifer Essex

Jennifer Essex works as a choreographer, dancer, and teacher on projects across the UK and internationally. Her choreography for award winning visual artist Corin Sworn was shown at the Whitechapel Gallery as part of the Max Mara Art Prize for Women. She has developed movement...

Charlie Dearnley

Charlie Dearnley’s interdisciplinary practice uses performance to investigate themes of spirituality and mortality. Using text as a basis, Charlie performs utilising dance, spoken word and digital media in acknowledgement of the inadequacy of words alone to convey experience. Charlie has shown work throughout the UK,...

Alex Rowland

Alex is a freelance contemporary dance performance artist based in Newcastle upon Tyne, currently creating work through Trashdolly Dance Theatre. The company specializes in making immersive dance theatre that may be presented within both indoor and outdoor performance spaces. His choreographic interests and artistic style predominantly focuses...

Take Off Commission

Theatre Hullabaloo in partnership with Northern Stage, Live Theatre and Dance City have offered three new commissions to artists based in the North East, or with a strong connection to the region, who are interested in developing theatre for young audiences. Live Theatre : a writing...

Viv Wood & Co

Butterfly Effect This new work explores tipping points; the fulcrum of unasked for change, a moment when our whole life turns around on its axis and we know we are not the same, and cannot go back. "I remember that it all started with sound - for...

Lizzie J Klotz

To Suit Choreography – Lizzie J Klotz Performers – Charlie Dearnley and Alys North ‘To Suit’ is an exploration of interaction and relationship between man and woman. Developed through an investigation into human communication, the work draws comparisons to animal courtship rituals, specifically exploring the behaviour of birds....

Tim Rubidge

The Hope Etudes Tim graduated from Sigurd Leeder's international studio school forty years ago. Like apprentices, he learnt his work directly from Sigurd – very much developed with Rudolph Laban in Germany – and virtually all of this was done through learning etudes – miniature studies...

James Southward

Working title: Boy James Southward, from Middlesbrough, graduated from the northern school of contemporary dance with first class honours and was also awarded the Carol Woolridge prize which is given to one student each year for outstanding performance. Since graduating he has been working internationally as...

Newtons Ladder

Formed in 2010 Newton’s Ladder have performed in theatres, corporate events, cabaret and festivals all over Europe. Their focus lies in the exploration of new apparatus with different approaches to aerial in relation to dance and theatre as opposed to its circus origins. Mona is a...

Surface Area Dance Theatre CIC

Raft A young man is standing on a raft. He is alone. His eyes see colour. Not the colours of land or objects. He stares at a line in front of him. Below that line a protean aether. Multifarious and whole, in which can be perceived,...

Adam Russell

Working title Looking Outside from the Inside. Originally from Carlisle, Adam Russell is a northern based freelance dance artist. Alongside working as a performer Adam enjoys creating work. Most recently he produced and choreographed Living History, a community performance project in Carlisle working with a cast of all ages,...