East London Dance Under The Hood – Sharing what East London Dance does best!

Supporting great artists – East Wall Warm-Up

East London Dance is committed to connecting with, nurturing, supporting, producing and promoting the best dance talent connected to East London. When a project comes along that gives us the ability us to do all of these things at the same time we get very excited!

East Wall Warm-Up allowed a group of seven of the most exciting up-and-coming choreographers that we know to take part in a two-month residency with Hofesh Shechter and his company, culminating in an outdoor performance at Roof East on 2 July as part of LIFT 2016.

We wanted to take this opportunity to shed a little light on these artists and highlight how we have been able to support them through their careers to date.

Our relationship with Becky Namgauds started fairly recently in 2015 when she choreographed a solo work for Blueprints, an East London Dance event that celebrates and provides a platform for emerging choreographers. Since then, Becky has participated in our Dance Enterprise Hub forums and has joined our Artist Bank workforce as a freelance teacher.

Having danced with a range of companies such as Boy Blue and ZooNation, Duwane Taylor made a strong impression on us when he won the Stylefest Krump Battles (presented by Boy Blue Entertainment and Kymberlee Jay Productions) back in 2009. Duwane caught our eye again when he performed and choreographed at Collabo and from there we commissioned and produced his work for the Hip Hop Dance Summit with our partner, Pavilion Dance Southwest in Bournemouth in 2015. This year we invited Duwane to remount this piece for our Weekender event, Physical Justice.

Lee Griffiths first came to our attention when she choreographed and led Kingston University in a production we produced for the Queen’s Coronation Concert in Buckingham Palace Gardens in 2013. Like Becky, Lee also presented work at Blueprints in 2015. We’ve admired her work as she’s developed her artistic voice over the last year and found it to be a perfect fit for our Physical Justice Weekender last April.

As an Avant Garde Dance company member Robia Milliner has performed at numerous Collabos. Robia taught the first iteration of our youth dance company, Brink Dance, and created new work to perform alongside Early Opera Company as part of Montiverdi Ballets – a programme we commissioned with Spitalfields Music at Village Underground.

Joseph Toonga was a member of our very first youth dance company and his career has intertwined with East London Dance ever since. He was involved in Street Stories our major project with the Royal Opera House, has been a Blueprint Bursary winner and has most recently been advising young men how to build a career in the arts as part of Ignition, our joint initiative with Frantic Assembly.

Hannah Anderson-Ricketts has also had a long history with East London Dance. Hannah was a participant on our Royal Opera House partnership Street Stories: Dance Collaborations and was one of three artists chosen to create a new piece of work for the Linbury Studio with a company of young dancers. She has graduated from our future dance innovators programme, The Fi.ELD, and we have continued to support her with an idea launched during the programme, Dance Film Festival UK. Hannah is also one of our freelance teachers.

East Wall Warm-Up has been our first time working with Hofesh Shechter Company member Erion Kruja and it has been a great opportunity to have forged this new relationship alongside so many others, including all the incredible dance talent that the choreographers brought onto the project.

At East London Dance we feel privileged to see the artists we work with take on new challenges and grow creatively as they move from project to project bringing their unique voices, choreographic styles and artistry to tackle the most relevant contemporary themes and ideas that resonate in modern society. We believe that the platform and support we provide these artists makes a vital difference and know that we wouldn’t be East London Dance without them.

East Wall Warm-Up was produced by East London Dance and Hofesh Shechter Company, commissioned and presented by LIFT and Historic Royal Palaces, and supported by Roof East and University of East London.

Images: (top row) Becky Namgauds, Duwane Taylor, Lee Griffiths, Robia Milliner, (bottom row) Joseph Toonga, Hannah Anderson-Ricketts, Erion Kruja, group photo with Hofesh Shechter.