Laboratori

Year 4 

Laboratori 2022 took place Monday 27 June - Friday 8 July 2022 and focussed on exploring collaborative creation.

Returning for its fourth year, National Dance Company Wales’ Laboratori invited choreographic artists to explore and develop their creative practice, and for the first time, we also invited independent visual artists.  

Artists were given two weeks of paid studio time to explore ideas together in collaboration with a company of dancers. Choreographers and visual artists will be offered supportive mentorship and guidance during this time from mentors Jo Fong, Sioned Huws, Hannah Firth and Caitlin Davies.

The partnerships were as follows:

In partership with: 

Supported by:
 
 

Year 3

This year Laboratori took place over two weeks in both North and South Wales; one week in the Dance House in Cardiff, through the medium of English, and one week in Pontio in Bangor, through the medium of Welsh. 

Returning for its third year, National Dance Company Wales’ Laboratori invites choreographers to explore and develop their creative practice, under the mentorship of leading figures in the dance sector. 

Giving choreographers a week of paid mentorship in the studio with NDCWales dancers, Laboratori creates a safe, open space for innovation and experimentation in which to try out new ideas and interrogate existing ones.  

Mentors - Caroline Bowditch & Sioned Huws
Choreographers - Josh Attwood, Billy Maxwell Taylor, Faye Tan, Tayla Smith, Angharad Harrop, Anya Sirina
Dancers - Natasha Dawkes, Lucy Jones, Sioned Bowen, Elan Elidyr, Aisha Naamani, Ed Myhill, Marine Tournet, Niamh Keeling, Tim Volleman, Angharad Jones-Young, Mika George Evans

"During the Laboratori Caroline is keen to work with each of the choreographers to uncover the choreographic stories that each individual feels they want to share. She’s interested in exploring what each choreography has come curious about, what authentic dances do they bring and what each individual wants to interrogate, question and delve into. There will also be the opportunity to think about embedding access as part of the creative process."

- Caroline Bowditch

Supported by:

Visit the South Wales 2021 Laboratori page 

Visit the North Wales 2021 Laboratori page

Year 2

Autumn 2020, NDCWales hosted the second Laboratori programme, bringing together established and emerging independent choreographers and NDCWales dancers with a group of exceptional Mentors, each of whom are experts and innovators in the field of contemporary dance.

Spanning four weeks and delivered through digital platforms, Laboratori offers participating choreographers the opportunity to explore and interrogate their own practice, whilst testing new choreographic ideas and ways of working with our team of professional dancers.

Lead Facilitator: Catherine Bennett
Mentors: Shobona Jeyasingh CBE, Bebe Miller, Frances Rings
Choreographers: Marcus J Willis, Richard Chappell, Bakani Pick-Up, Thomas Carsley, Eleesha Drennan, Faye Tan, Aisha Naamani, Ed Myhill

 “I am gratified that these internationally acclaimed choreographers have agreed to share their knowledge and experience through Laboratori. They all have artistic practices that are deeply relevant to the times we are in and their career resilience is also valuable to learn from”. 

-Lee Johnston

Year 1

National Dance Company Wales launched Laboratori in 2019 in partnership with Groundwork Pro, the Cardiff-based collective of independent dance artists. Laboratori is an opportunity to try new chorographic ideas and ways of working in the hope that, somewhere within the process, something new and unexpected might arise.

The whole process brings together a number of the things that are important for National Dance Company Wales: to be a place where new ideas can emerge, ideas that in the long run will excite our audiences in Wales and around the world.  We want to support the continued professional development of the artists in our company as well as dance artists in the independent sector in Wales, and we know that part of that professional development comes from making those creative links between us. Since National Dance Company Wales is often on tour, these moments of creative exchange with our dance colleagues in Wales are precious. 

Mentors -  Lea Anderson & Éric Minh Cuong Castaings
Choreographers and Dancers: Ed Myhill, Jack Philp, Gundija Zandersona, Eddie Ladd, Deborah Light, Tim Volleman and Nikita Goile
Dancers: Tim Volleman, Nikita Goile, Faye Tan, Elena Sgarbi, Paola Drera, Aisha Naamani, Lucy Jones, Anna Kazsuba, Osian Meilir Ioan, Camille Giraudeau, Paola Drera, Emma Lewis, Elan Elidyr, Shakeera Ahmun, Hanna Hughes, Ed Myhill, Folu Odimayo

“Finding out what doesn’t work is as important as knowing what does.  And having the time to see the potential of something that doesn’t seem to work right now is really useful – and something we don’t always have time for when we’re in our usual rhythm of making a piece of choreography." 

-Fearghus Ó Conchúir.