Six young dancers are finding out what life is like for the professionals as they prepare to tour Wales with National Dance Company Wales.
The dancers – who are all recent graduates or current undergraduate dance students – are taking part in an eight-week project giving them an understanding of the workings of a professional dance company.
The project, called Plunge, sees the dancers put through their paces with six weeks of rehearsals where they create a piece under the guidance of a choreographer and learn a work from the Company’s repertoire, before touring five Welsh theatres with their double-bill of performances.
Up Close And Personal contrasts the passionate movement of contemporary dance with the classical music of Mozart. Choreographed by Roy Campbell-Moore, NDCWales’s Artistic Associate and Founding Artistic Director, it was previously performed by the Company and explores what was going through the young composer’s head when he penned his music.
Embark is an emotionally driven and highly charged production from Welsh choreographer and former NDCWales Company member, Phil Williams, from Ebbw Vale. Set to a haunting original score by composer Benjamin Talbot, it takes the audience on a moving and unforgettable journey through a resurrected past, as the dancers fly, swoop and dive in a furious flood of dance.
Plunge is part of National Dance Company Wales’s commitment to nurturing young talent and enhancing their training and experience. Their full-time schedule mimics that of the main company with the Plunge dancers also taking part in workshops in schools local to the venues in which they are performing. They are also encouraged to integrate with their counterparts in the main company, taking part in dance classes together and watching them in performance.
Phil Williams said: “It can be a steep learning curve for the dancers as it is different from anything they will have done in college. They have to learn, perform, teach and go on tour with a full-scale production.”
He thinks the experience will stand participants in good stead for their future careers. He said: “When you come out of college, it can be hard to get experience. Most companies won’t even look at you unless you have experience with a professional dance company but no-one is willing to give you that experience.”
He hopes this project will bridge that gap, giving participants a valuable experience they can tell potential employers about.
Twenty-year-old Andrew Smith, from Ebbw Vale, is Plunge’s youngest participant. He’s currently studying for a degree at the Scottish School of Contemporary Dance in Dundee. He said, “It’s good to be home, to be involved in a professional company that you’ve been inspired by forever. I started dancing at 16 and ever since then, NDCWales have been ‘it’.”
Plunge will be at the following venues:
Cardiff
Dance House, Wales Millennium Centre
01-02/04, 8pm
029 2063 6464
wmc.org.uk
Carmarthen
The Lyric
06/04, 7.30pm
0845 226 3510
carmarthenshiretheatres.co.uk
Ceredigion
Theatr Felinfach
08/04, 7.30pm
01570 470697
theatrfelinfach.com
Cardigan
Theatr Mwldan
13/04, 7.30pm
mwldan.co.uk
Abergavenny
Borough Theatre
15/04, 7.30pm
01873 850805
boroughtheatreabergavenny.co.uk
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