40 Years: What Dance Can Do
Over the 2009/10 academic year The Place celebrated its 40th anniversary. A year of celebrations brought together artists, audiences and participants old and new to share in the past achievements, current projects and future ambitions of The Place. The year’s events got off to spectacular start in September 2009 with Taste The Place, a weekend of free dance classes in a huge range styles. Over 1,000 people took part, with classes for all ages and experience levels led by artists and teachers from The Place.
Our celebrations ended with a tremendous bang in May 2010 with Something Happening and This is The Place. Something Happening was a two-day multi-stage festival, animating the whole building including the theatre, cupboards, studios, staircases to the stretching zones and to celebrate the range of the artists who call The Place home. Over 50 companies performed over the weekend.
The Place also commissioned Aletta Collins to create a work celebrating The Place’s history. Aletta began dancing at The Place as a child, going on to graduate from LCDS to work with London Contemporary Dance Theatre. She now now creates shows all over the world. Aletta’s commission This is The Place led the audience on a journey of the building celebrating some of the extraordinary work and people responsible for carving out its unique identity. The audience were treated to extracts from seminal works, intertwined with video footage in an exciting, exhilarating and emotional performance.
The Place’s 40th anniversary celebrations were generously supported by the International Foundation for Arts and Culture (Chairman: Dr Haruhisa Handa).
Learn Physical Interactive
Building on findings from our pilot project ‘A New Place for Dance in Schools’, The Place launched a major research project to explore LearnPhysical interactive - our new model for cross-curricular teaching, which has been delivered in partnership with the Open University.
Through this research project we have been able to develop an approach that delivers high-quality cross-curricular lessons in any subject area, which integrates interactive whiteboards with handheld digital technology. The programme also includes a strong professional development element, helping teachers make the approach their own and integrate it into their normal teaching style.
A New Place for Dance in Schools was supported by the Paul Hamlyn Foundation and the John Lyon's Charity. We would particularly like to thank the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation for their generous grant to help us research and develop LearnPhysical interactive as a new learning and teaching initiative.
New Professional Development & Commissions Opportunities
Building upon the successes of Choreodrome, the UK’s largest professional contemporary dance research project and Spring Loaded! which commissions emerging choreographers to create and platform new dance works, The Place created a new initiative that connects the benefits of these two thriving programmes.
The Place selected Hanna Gillgren and Zoi Dimitriou to take part in this initiative, through which they benefited from a professional development package tailored to their individual needs and a commission to create new work for The Place’s 40th anniversary celebrations. This pilot project is a key part of the ongoing development of our provision for dance artists at pivotal stages in their careers.
The Place would like to thank the Columbia Foundation Fund of the Capital Community Foundation for its generous support towards this new initiative.
We would also like to thank the British Council and the Embassy of Sweden for their support of ChoreRoam 2010.
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