SEEDS, DREAMS & CONSTELLATIONS
Dates: Thursday 25th May 2023 - Saturday 27th May 2023, Riley Theatre
Time: 7.30pm
FROM EARTH, TO SKY AND BACK AGAIN.
Inspired by journeys of migration and tales of new beginnings, two women with creative roots in Leeds - musician Corinne Bailey Rae and choreographer Sharon Watson - join forces to craft a brand-new work about the infinite potential of the human spirit and our place in the cosmos.
Blending evocative music with powerful dance and stunning visuals, SEEDS, DREAMS & CONSTELLATIONS asks - to what extent can we influence the future or reimagine the past? Do we always reap what we sow? Performed by a cast of over 35 dancers drawn from Leeds-based dance companies award-winning Mobius Dance, Watson Dance Project and VERVE, the piece meditates on the potential we all have for growth and total transformation.
Made possible with the generous support of Northern School of Contemporary Dance and Mobius Dance. With seed commission funding from Leeds 2023 and supported by Arts Council England.
ARTISTIC TEAM
Choreographer: Sharon Watson MBE
Music: Corinne Bailey Rae
Mobius Dance Performers: Carlos J. Martinez, Mayowa Ogunnaike, Yuma Sylla
Watson Dance Project Performers: Nicolas Belopoposky, Lucas Chery, Hannah Durkan, Piera Gentile, Ben Yorke-Griffiths, Syvie Holder, Kate Howden, Alexia Forshaw-Kalogiannidis, Emilia Rose, Chasmine Fay Roma Tangen, Da Yueqi, Angela Zenare
Verve Performers: Kachal Blumer, Maria Vittoria Bortolotti, Jorden Brooks, George Burton, Daisy Dancer, Alice Heimstaedt, Pietro Carlo Mazzotta , Sari Mizoe, Zara Phillips, Fabio Pronesti, Ella Roberts, Lucy Rutter, Andrew Scott, Jack Trotter , Allegra Vistalli , Molly Williams, Jason Yip , Jules Young
Set Design: Aimee Grundell
Costume Design: Andi Walker
Light Design: Mark Baker
Curious Playground
Imagined with a group of diverse artists across a range of disciplines, Curious Playground is a technological interactive performance taking you, the audience, on an immersive, playful adventure.
ARTISTIC TEAM
Choreographers: Jamaal Burkmar (Duet), Annie Hanauer (Trio) and Amy Voris (Solo)
Performed by: Charlie Hogan, Maya Carroll, Mayowa Ogunnaike, Iolanda Portogallo
Visual artist: Jake Dubber
Set designer: Aimee Grundell
Artist & designer: Oli Bentley
Costumes: Melissa Parry
Music: Otis Jones
Lights: Joe Moorhead
Created with: Alex Gosmore, Charlie Hogan, Imogen Wright, Iolanda Portogallo, Maya Carroll and Naomi Chockler
Curation: Gianluca Vincentini
About the set
The set works as an interactive installation which you, the audience, can access after performance. The set uses lighting and sensors to react to its surroundings, lighting up when it detects noise, vibration or touch.
The two screens display live generative animation which can be interacted with by the dancers and audience. The bodies of people in front of the screens are tracked and drive movement on the screens, which in turn inform the users' movements.
Funded by Arts Council England, City of Bradford Metropolitan District Council and Kala Sangam. Supported by: Leeds City College, Leeds Dance Partnership, Yorkshire Dance, Split Design, AG Studios and Figueres Es Mou.
Encounter Three | Photographic Exhibition
This is a series of three fine art prints by Gianluca Vincentini, artistic director of Möbius Dance and digital artist Ben Lewis.
They have been created as part of Möbius Dance's third film project Encounter Three — Within Each-Other, which was shot at The Lockup, Leeds.
The work is a response to the ideas of what happens behind close doors. It has an up close and personal physicality, exposing power for its subtly turbulent dynamics.
Encounter Three — Photographic Exhibition is open to public 17 January - 28 February 2020 at Opposite Café – Chapel Allerton.
Funded by Arts Council England
Supported by the following partners: Leeds Dance Partnership, Leeds City College, Kala Sangam, Northern School of Contemporary Dance, Yorkshire Dance, Moving Art Management, Phoenix Dance Theatre, Opposite Café Chapel Allerton, Chilled Events and The Lockup.
Encounter Three — Within Each-Other
Gianluca Vincentini’s screen dance, Within Each-Other, is a response to the ideas of what happens behind closed doors. It has an up close and personal physicality, exposing power for its subtly turbulent dynamics.
ARTISTIC TEAM
Concept & Direction: Gianluca Vincentini
Co-Creators and Performers: Theo Arran, Shawn Willlis, Stefania Pinato and Iolanda Portogallo
Music: Otis Jones
Costumes: Melissa Parry
Film and Editing: Kieran Dawes & Duncan McMannus
Möbius Dance is proud to be supported by Arts Council England and collaborates with the following partners: Leeds Dance Partnership, Leeds City College, Kala Sangam, Northern School of Contemporary Dance, Yorkshire Dance, Moving Art Management, Phoenix Dance Theatre, Opposite Café Chapel Allerton, Chilled Events and The Lockup.
Photos: Kieran Dawes & Duncan McMannus (Mobius Dance copyright)
Vibrant Matter
Wilhelmina Ojanen’s Vibrant Matter, explores the question: How do emotions and memories that are lodged in the body affect our bodily being?
ARTISTIC TEAM
Choreographer: Wilhelmina Ojanen
Assistant Choreographer: Kardo Shiwan
Performers: Iolanda Portogallo, Fabian Jackson, Maya Carroll, Shawn Willis, Theo Arran
Music: Andrew Marriott
Lighting Design: Barnaby Booth
Costume Design: Melissa Parry
Artistic Director: Gianluca Vincentini
Co-Producer: Rachel Jean Birch
Film & Edit: Kieran Dawes
Möbius Dance is proud to be supported by Arts Council England and collaborates with the following partners: Leeds Dance Partnership, Leeds City College, Kala Sangam, Northern School of Contemporary Dance, Yorkshire Dance, Moving Art Management, Phoenix Dance Theatre, Opposite Café Chapel Allerton, Chilled Events and The Lockup.
Human
In summer 2019 Möbius Dance was part of a cultural exchange in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, where the work Human was created. The piece is a collaboration between Möbius Dance and Kenny Shim Collective.
Human explores the entwined nature of movement and emotion, while looking at the current condition of humanity
Happy smile
Happy war
Happy living together
But perhaps not to close.
Excitement yields calm
Calm turns melancholic
Melancholy induces panic.
Our senses mute
Such hopeful desperation attempts harmony.
ARTISTIC TEAM
Concept & Direction: Gianluca Vincentini
Co-creators and Performers: Alistair Wroe, Ana Fernández Melero, Charlie Hoga, Iolanda Portogallo, Kenny Shim, Lim Pei Ern, Lim Hui Huang (Will), Nan Sukarno, Stefania Pinato
Music: Olafur Arnalds, Caetano Veloso, Patrick Wolf, Alistair Wroe
Filmed & Edited: Josh Woo
Time Moves Slow
Time Moves Slow is seen through 4 different perspectives, inspired by 4 different songs, acknowledging 4 different heroes tasked with the climbing the same mountain and overcoming the same challenge, embracing the choice to do it together rather than alone.
ARTISTIC TEAM
Choreography: Jamaal Burkmar
Co-creators and Performers: Robert Anderson, Ana Fernández Melero, Stefania Pinato and Iolanda Portogallo.
Lighting: Luke Haywood
Costumes: Valentina Golfieri
Duration: 30 min
Funded by Arts Council England
Supported by Leeds Dance Partnership, Northern School of Contemporary Dance, Yorkshire Dance, Leeds City College, Phoenix Dance Theatre, Kala Sangam, Instituto Italiano di Cultura Londra, The Civic, Yorkshire Sculpture Park, York Dance Space, Moving Art Management and Sadler’s Wells.
Photo: Danilo Moroni
Dramatis Personae
A meeting of contrasting personalities leads to weird and wonderful, occasionally awkward behaviour. Sometimes we have to put on a brave face to get along with each other.
ARTISTIC TEAM
Choreography: Douglas Thorpe
Performers: Robert Anderson, Ana Fernández Melero, Stefania Pinato and Iolanda Portogallo.
Music: The Foundry, Harold Budd. Rigoletto, Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra. Rich Woman, Robert Plant and Alison Krauss. The Marriage of Figaro, Deutsche Oper Berlin and Karl Bohm. Goths, Mika Vainio. There, There, Radiohead.
Lighting: Luke Haywood
Costumes: Valentina Golfieri
Duration: 20 min
Funded by Arts Council England
Supported by Leeds Dance Partnership, Northern School of Contemporary Dance, Yorkshire Dance, Leeds City College, Phoenix Dance Theatre, Kala Sangam, Instituto Italiano di Cultura Londra, The Civic, Yorkshire Sculpture Park, York Dance Space, Moving Art Management and Sadler’s Wells.
Photo: Danilo Moroni
Encounter Two | Photographic Exhibition
This is a series of five fine art prints by Gianluca Vincentini, artistic director of Möbius Dance, Ben Lewis, digital artist, and Stefania Pinato, performer and digital marketing assistant of Möbius Dance, featuring Benjamin Skinner, performer and illustration artist.
They have been created as part of Möbius Dance's second film project Encounter Two, which was shot at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park.
The work explores masculinity, what it means to be a man in today’s society, & why men are still discouraged from showing emotions.
Encounter Two — Photographic Exhibition is open to public 18 January - 15th of March 2019 at Opposite Café – Chapel Allerton.
Funded by Arts Council England
Supported by Leeds Dance Partnership, Northern School of Contemporary Dance, Yorkshire Dance, Leeds City College, Phoenix Dance Theatre, Kala Sangam, Instituto Italiano di Cultura Londra, The Civic, Yorkshire Sculpture Park, York Dance Space, Moving Arts Management and Sadler’s Wells.
Encounter Two — The Lost Child
The work explores masculinity; what it means to be a man in today’s society and why men are still discouraged from showing emotions.
If man is only a machine, what happens when that machine breaks down?
‘What is masculinity if not taking the weight / of a boy and straining it from oneself?’ Andrew McMillan
ARTISTIC TEAM
Concept and Directions: Gianluca Vincentini
Co-Creator and Performer: Benjamin Skinner
Music: Otis Jones
Director of Photography: Danilo Moroni
Production Assistant: Stefania Pinato
Funded by Arts Council England
Supported by Leeds Dance Partnership, Northern School of Contemporary Dance, Yorkshire Dance, Leeds City College, Phoenix Dance Theatre, Kala Sangam, Instituto Italiano di Cultura Londra, The Civic, Yorkshire Sculpture Park, York Dance Space, Moving Arts Management and Sadler’s Wells.
We’ve Got It Coming
Where do you stand? What do you stand for? Where do you draw the line? When do you speak up? Möbius Dance asked themselves questions of how to live, respond to, or survive in a political and social landscape that is marked by on-going gender and racial inequalities and neoliberalism. Some might say we live in a traumatizing society. Is this a time of great urgency or opportunity?
ARTISTIC TEAM
Concept and Direction: Susanne Thomas (Seven Sisters Group)
Co-creators and Performers: Tom Davis Dunn, Ana Fernández Melero, Stefania Pinato.
Lighting: Luke Haywood
Music: Sergueï Prokofiev, “No. 13 Dance of the Knights”, The Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Mark Ermler; Antonio Vivaldi, Summer - The Four Seasons – Concerto for Violin and Strings In G Minor, Op. 8, No.2
Script containing edited versions and excerpts of: Kate Tempest, The Woman The Boy Became, in ‘Hold Your Own’; Meagan Day, Under Neoliberalism, You Can be Your Own Tyrannical Boos, in Jacobinmag.com, Network (1976 film), I’m As Mad As Hell speech, written by Paddy Chayefsky, directed by Sidney Lumet
Costume Advice: Sophie Jump
Script Advice: Richard Hurford
Dramaturgy Advice: Lucy Campbell, Deniz Johns
Funded by Arts Council England
Supported by Leeds Dance Partnership, Northern Ballet, Phoenix Dance Theatre, Northern School of Contemporary Dance, Leeds Beckett University, Moving Art Management, Yorkshire Dance, Barnsley Civic and Sadler’s Wells.
Iconic
The shell is cracking and we dance like the whole world is watching.
ARTISTIC TEAM
Concept and Direction: Valentina Golfieri
Co-creators and Performers: Tom Davis Dunn, Ana Fernández Melero, Stefania Pinato
Lighting Design: Luke Haywood
Music: Pachelbel, Canon in D Major performed by the London Philharmonic Orchestra; Puccini, Tosca, Vissi d’Arte performed by Pia Brodnik, Peter Gabriel; Heroes, Radiohead; Hunting Bears, Like Pinning Plates; Untitled, Beethoven, Symphony no. 9 in D minor, op. 125, Choral, Ode an die Freude performed by the London Philarmonic Orchestra.
Costume Design: Valentina Golfieri
Funded by Arts Council England
This project is supported by Leeds Dance Partnership, Northern Ballet, Phoenix Dance Theatre, Northern School of Contemporary Dance, Leeds Beckett University, Moving Art Management, Yorkshire Dance, Barnsley Civic and Sadler’s Wells.
Wild Card | Sadler's Wells
Wild Card: Gianluca Vincentini
Sadler’s Wells Lilian Baylis Studio, EC1R
Thursday 23 & Friday 24 November 2017
Sadler’s Wells Wild Card returns offering a bespoke evening of works curated by the next generation of dance makers. This edition invites Italian choreographer and curator Gianluca Vincentini to the Lilian Baylis Studio on Thursday 23 & Friday 24 November 2017. For this Wild Card, Vincentini showcases some of the most promising dance makers based in the North of England and introduces London to his company Möbius Dance.
Alongside Möbius Dance, Vincentini showcases works from New Adventures Choreographer Award-winner Jamaal Burkmar, UK Critics’ Circle National Dance Award nominee Carlos Pons Guerra and Leeds based contemporary dancer and choreographer Crystal Zillwood.
Vincentini presents a short dance film and a structured improvisation with Möbius Dance artists entitled Encounter One. The work features musician Otis Jones, artist Ben Skinner and dancers Stefania Pinato and Amarnah Amuludun.
Jamaal Burkmar’s The Calm is a physical and feel good work that takes memories about home and family to create an abstract piece rooted in neo-soul music and movement. The work was originally commissioned by New Adventures as part of the New Adventures Choreographer Award Showcase. Carlos Pons Guerra presents O Maria: A Divine Comedy of Ham and Bondage, a Spanish kitschy kitchen drama where a heavenly apparition unleashes a torrent of unquenchable passions for an oddly paired couple. Crystal Zillwood presents Evolutio, an articulate and thoughtful solo which suggests an expansive vision within a miniature work. Evolutio combines an athletic, fluid movement style with clear musicality.
Supported by Arts Council England
Wild Card is supported by The Mercers’ Company
Encounter One | Photographic Exhibition
This is a series of eight fine art prints by Leeds-based dance artist Gianluca Vincentini, artistic director of Möbius Dance, and Bristol-based artist Joshua Hughes-Games, featuring Amarnah Ufuoma Amuludun, Stefania Pinato and illustration artist Benjamin Skinner.
Encounter One — Photographic exhibition was exposed at Opposite Café – Chapel Allerton from 27 Nov 2018 to 11 Jan 2019.
The exhibition was firstly curated by Gianluca Vincentini as part of Sadler’s Wells Wild Card series presenting fresh perspectives from a new generation of dance artists in the Lilian Baylis Studio in November 2017.
The prints are stills from Möbius Dance's first film project, Encounter One, which was shot at Opposite Café – Chapel Allerton.
Encounter One — I find You in Me, you find Me in You
Encounter One — ‘I find you in me, you find me in you’
A duet with myself. A dilemma to follow, lead or co-exist within a world where boundaries shift and change - “fitting in a box” becoming increasingly redundant. Can I allow myself to let boundary lines blur while being within myself and accept compromise as part of co-existence?
Concept and Direction: Gianluca Vincentini
Co-Creator and performers: Amarnah Amuludun, Stefania Pinato
Music: Otis Jones
Lighting: Luke Haywood
Drawing: Ben Skinner
Costume: Valentina Golfieri
Film and edit: Joshua Hughes-Games for MFMfilms
This project was made possible thanks to the support in our crowdfunding campaign through which we received funds from over 80 different backers. We are highly grateful for the support!