PRESS RELEASE

28 April 2014

Dance benefits from £150K Arts Council England grant

to Space at Dartington

Aakash Odedra, one of the most exciting prospects in British dance and a hugely sought after British choreographer and dancer, is the first residency at Space to benefit from the new £150K Arts Council England artists grant to Dartington.

Odedra is one of seven creative companies the new Arts Council England grant will enable Dartington to support over a two year period. Dartington will give the artists professional business support, a dedicated producer, studio space and opportunities to showcase their new and innovative work to audiences across the south west.

Space is fast becoming the place to be for dance companies and individuals who want to develop significant new works and collaborations. The Dance Studio at Space was built for one of the fathers of contemporary dance, Kurt Jooss, and attracts attention from artists who want to spend time immersing themselves in their own practice. Space has recently played host to Wayne McGregor, Mark Morris, Richard Alston and Rambert Dance.

Space was Odedra's chosen venue for developing his new solo work Murmur, which was co-commissioned by Arts at Dartington and will première on 6 May 2014 at International Dance Festival Birmingham, ahead of touring as part of a double bill with Inked, a new solo by Olivier-winning choreographer Damien Jalet.

Odedra will return to Dartington with Murmur, when he headlines at the Tagore Festival, 20 to 22 June. To coincide with the centenary of World War One, this year's festival will feature a range of world-class performers who will bring the theme of peace to life through music, dance and debate, representing the very best of East meets West.

In Murmur Odedra explores the idea of warped and exaggerated realities and the confusion a dyslexic person feels trying to make sense of language and literature. He explores how the physical experience of being dyslexic can be revealed through visual design, light, sound and movement. The exploration of language removed from the written form will incorporate Odedra's personal anecdotes from growing up dyslexic. The South East Asian form of Kathak is incredibly fast and the idea of residual traces being left around the stage will be extremely dynamic, as Odedra follows the percussive beat through rhythmic foot stamping and hitting where acoustic cues denote the pattern but the pattern is also ‘felt' through vibrations in the floor.

Located at the beautiful Dartington Hall Estate in Totnes, in the heart of Devon, Space offers a range of world-class studio facilities to support emerging talent. It attracts internationally renowned visiting companies, artists and producers who come to immerse themselves in their own practice, whether that's the research and development of new work, or a testing ground for new ideas and collaborations - a chance for visiting performers to try bold experiments with movement, sound, light and props.

Following Aakash Odedra's residency in January 2014, Space hosted dancer Roberta Jean in April and later in the year will host Richard Chappell Dance.

Bill Gee, Artistic Director at Space, says: "Our vision is to create a vibrant hub for the south west region and visiting national and international artists. A space where emerging talent can work alongside established artists at the top of their profession. A space in which we offer first class facilities for a range of art forms and which enables and encourages interdisciplinary collaboration.

"Space is not only the largest collection of high quality arts spaces available for hire in the South West, it provides an internationally unrivalled facility."

A creative centre of international significance, Space includes eight purpose built large performing arts studios, a large multipurpose makers' studio and workshop space, a gallery and two smaller rehearsal studios and meeting rooms, and can accommodate live performances, film and sound recording and catering for specialisms including music, dance, performance, and craft.

To hire a studio in Space at Dartington Hall email:bookingspace@dartington.org
or telephone:01803 847074.For residency bookings in Space, telephone:01803 847075www.dartington.org/space

ENDS

Notes to Editors

The Dartington Hall Trusthas an 80 year history of supporting artists from diverse backgrounds to produce work. Through Space it opens its facilities to a wide range of creative organisations and individual artists who wish to make new work. Dartington is a place of learning and experiment addressing some of the significant issues of our time.In its charitable activities, Dartington works to create social change in collaboration with pioneering thinkers, artists, entrepreneurs and activists in the UK and around the world. Its enterprise activities include The Shops at Dartington with 15 boutique shops, a conference centre with accommodation and the award-winning White Hart restaurant and bar. Over 1 million visitors annually come to visit Dartington.www.dartington.org.

The Aakash Odedra Company is a bold and dynamic dance company, using contemporary and South Asian movement to influence their narrative style of dance work. Originally trained in the South Asian styles of Kathak and Bharat Natyam, Odedra has developed a distinctive movement style following intensive training with some of the most prestigious choreographers in the world. 2011 saw Aakash working with renowned choreographers Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Russell Maliphant and his mentor Akram Khan, shadowing the creation of several of their works as they each made solos on him. The culmination of this was presented in the work 'Rising', which continues to tour extensively throughout the world. More recently he performed Akram Khan's solo work, 'In the Shadow of Man' at the Royal Opera House in London. Odedra choreographed for the Cultural Olympiad of the London 2012 festival and presented two works for HM The Queen as part of the 60th Jubilee Celebrations. He choreographed an adaptation by Theater Freiburg of God's Little Soldier, which premiered in May 2013. Supported by an award from the Sky Arts Fund, Murmur was developed in collaboration with Lintz based Ars Electronica, who, through media art, architecture, design, interactive exhibitions, virtual reality and real-time graphics support innovative people reconfigure available knowledge, build bridges to art, and come up with concepts designed to facilitate our interaction with the world of today and tomorrow.

For further press information and images please contact:

Chrissie Williams or Jane Adkins at A Head for PR

Chrissie@aheadforpr.co.ukTel: 07715 816363

Jane@aheadforpr.co.ukTel: 01935 813114