EVERY BODY DANCE! A celebration of lifelong creativity
Sage Dance Company with guest performers from Ready Willing Able Dance Company, Manifest Nation, SLiDE, Arts Educational Schools and Thomas Page Dances hosted an evening of dance for all at the Arts Educational Theatre in London, April 10th 2018.
DESFADO
Choreographer: Marie Forbes
Music: Max Richter Sleep; Ana Moura Desfado
Summary: Inspired by the song lyrics of Ana Moura’s ‘Desfado’, this piece lightly explores the uncertainty of life, portraying a group of people that move between being connected and disconnected: sometimes on the same trajectory and sometimes following their own individual path.
Performances:
November 2022 Every Body Dance! 2022 at Marylebone Theatre, London
June 2023 DanceWest Fest at The Rose Theatre, Kingston, London
SUGAR RUM CHERRY
Choreographer: Kim Mendez
Music: Duke Ellington Sugar Rum Cherry
Summary: Burlesque for a lunchtime cabaret at The Posh Club
Performances:
March 2023 at The Posh Club, London
CYGNETS
Choreographer: Kim Mendez
Music: Tchaikovsky: Swan Lake, Act II, Dance of the Cygnets
Summary: While teaching Sage ballet over the lockdown we often finished class with some tap routines. And so the Cygnets appeared, practised and perfected through the pandemic for your delight!
Performances:
November 2022 Every Body Dance! 2022 at Marylebone Theatre, London
March 2023 at The Posh Club, London
I AM
Choreographer: Fionuala Power
Music: Schubert Arpeggione Sonata, Allegro moderato
Summary: This piece is inspired by the poem, I Am a Thousand Winds. … I am a thousand winds that blow; I am the diamond glints on the snow. I am the sunlight on ripened grain; I am the gentle autumn’s rain. When you awaken in the morning’s hush, I am the swift uplifting rush of quiet birds in circled flight. I am the soft star that shines at night. Do not stand at my grave and cry. I am not there; I did not die.
Performances:
November 2022 Every Body Dance! 2022 at Marylebone Theatre, London
CIACCONA
Choreographer: Simon Rice
Music: Vivaldi Mandolin Concerto in C; Scarlatti Mandolin Sonata in D Minor; Merula Ciaccona Costumes: Stella-Jane Odoemelam
Summary: This baroque triptych was born during lockdown when the joyful optimism of Merula’s Ciaccona provided the necessary buoyancy to choreograph to this uniquely danceable music. Vivaldi’s Mandolin Concerto is a wonderfully incessant study of time pressing onward towards each pause in a cyclical manner, while the grace and beautiful fragility of Scarlatti’s Mandolin Sonata provides the heart of this triptych, inducing a quality that gently stills the mind.
Performances:
October 2021 Every Body Dance! at Conway Hall for Bloomsbury Festival, London
November 2022 Every Body Dance! 2022 at Marylebone Theatre, London
NICOLE THE GRANDMASTER
Choreographer: Alex Ferrelly
Performers: Sage Dance and Manifest Nation
Music: Wiseguys Say Ooh La La; The O’Jays Can You Come Out and Play
Summary: There are many stories that make HipHop what it is today. Mr Miyagi (The KarateKid) is an example of how HipHop has been inspired by the culture of martial arts. Here we blend the movements of Tai-Chi and HipHop exploring the connections between mind and body. Mr Miyagi is the story of an older man teaching a young boy, but in this piece the Sage Company become the students under the young watchful eye of the Grandmaster, Nicole.
Performances:
October 2021 Every Body Dance! at Conway Hall for Bloomsbury Festival, London
November 2022 Every Body Dance! 2022 at Marylebone Theatre, London
GO
Choreographer: Thomas Page
Music: Moderat No22 and Seamonkey
Summary: Using words and movement, this piece explores the journeys we make throughout our lives – from catching the same bus to work every day to a once in a lifetime trip to the moon. Journeys can be mundane, exciting, distressing, uplifting … but one thing is certain, as ever-curious human beings GO we must!
Performances:
October 2019 Move Over Moon for Bloomsbury Festival, London
OUT OF THE BLUE
Choreographer: Kim Mendez
Music: Kim Mendez
Summary: This amusing piece was inspired by her witnessing party-goers leaving a local celebration. Kim challenged herself to create both solo pieces without music making her own sound effects to move to.
Performances:
April 2019 Tate Modern, London
October 2019 Move Over Moon for Bloomsbury Festival, London
TREE FROG AFTER A THUNDERSTORM
Choreographer: Kim Mendez
Music: Kim Mendez
Summary: This solo is inspired by Kim’s life-long love of frogs! She loves the concept of sound and how it creates the movement; there has never been a piece of choreography whereby every single step has been voiced by the dancer.
Performances:
April 2019 Tate Modern, London
October 2019 Move Over Moon for Bloomsbury Festival, London
INFINITE SLOPE
Choreographer: Philippa Morgan
Music: skilldrick
Summary: Puppets or robots? Strings and wires get badly crossed by the end of this exciting company piece set to an electronic score.
Performances:
April 2019 Tate Modern, London
October 2019 Move Over Moon for Bloomsbury Festival, London
ARISE
Choreographer: Teresa Earle
Music: skilldrick
Summary: Teresa’s solo piece derives from Buddhist teaching. The bodhisattvas emerge dancing to live on this earth as ordinary human beings with the power to transform life and the environment for the better and to enable others to do the same.
Performances:
April 2019 Tate Modern, London
October 2019 Move Over Moon for Bloomsbury Festival, London
GITANES
Choreographer: Simon Rice
Music: Piéces Gigtanes
Summary: Danced to beautiful music taken from Vivaldi and the Baroque Gypsies, each of these four pieces is unique in mood and rhythm. The first is hypnotic, the second bold and energetic, the third humorous and the fourth mysterious.
Performances:
April 2018 Sage production Every Body Dance! Arts Ed Theatre, London
May 2018 Ignition Dance Festival, London
June 2018 Hammersmith and Fulham Festival, London
June 2018 Chelmsford Arts Festival, Essex
July 2018 Raising the Roof! Thanet Centre, London
April 2019 Flourishing Livesat Tate Modern
April 2019 Tate Modern, London
October 2019 Move Over Moon for Bloomsbury Festival, London
ZADOK
Choreographer: Simon Rice
Music: George Frideric Handel
Summary: A complex and uplifting work to the three pieces of Handel’s Zadok the Priest
Performances:
March 2017 Sage production The Rite to Dance, OSO Arts Centre, Barnes
May 2017 Whiteley Retirement Village, Surrey
June and October 2017 Breathe Arts, Guy’s Hospital, London
October 2017 Bloomsbury Festival, London
April 2018 Sage Production Every Body Dance! Arts Ed Theatre, London
ANOTHER PRESENCE
Choreographer: Fionuala Power
Music: Ron Ford
Summary: A duet exploring how one dancer’s presence affects the other as they connect, harmonise and transform together.
Performances:
October 2017 Bloomsbury Festival, London.
April 2018 Sage Production Every Body Dance! Arts Ed Theatre, London
April 2019 Tate Modern, London
FRIEND
Choreographer: Bren Gosling and Catriona Maccoll
Music: Henry Purcell, The Cold Song from King Arthur
Summary: A haunting duet about the break-up of a long-term relationship, inspired by Bren Gosling’s poem of the same name.
Performances:
June 2017 with Backstory Ensemble, Rose and Crown Theatre, London
June and October 2017 Breathe Arts, Guy’s Hospital, London
October 2017 Bloomsbury Festival, London
March 2018 Stage – Creative Performance and Medicine Symposium, Kings College, London
April 2018 Sage production Every Body Dance! Arts Ed Theatre, London
April 2019 Tate Modern, London
October 2019 Move Over Moon for Bloomsbury Festival, London
TRIFARIAM
Choreographer: Liz Heasman
Music: Jan Garbarek
Summary: In three ways; a quietly joyful piece which celebrates lasting friendships with grace and style.
Performances:
March 2017 Sage production The Rite to Dance, OSO Arts Centre Barnes
May 2017 Whiteley Retirement Village, Surrey
June 2017 Cubitt Summer Ball, Islington
October 2017 Breathe Arts, Guy’s Hospital, London
October 2017 Bloomsbury Festival, London
March 2018 Stage – Creative Performance and Medicine Symposium, Kings College, London
April 2018 Sage production Every Body Dance! Arts Ed Theatre, London
April 2019 Tate Modern, London
October 2019 Move Over Moon for Bloomsbury Festival, London
HIDDEN TWINS
Choreographer: Olivia Lousada
Music: Claudio Monteverdi, Pur ti miro
Summary: A duet expressing the relationship experiences of adult opposite-sex twins that emerged from the findings of Olivia’s doctoral research.
Performances:
March 2016 Sage production An Evening of Dance and Prose, OSO Arts Centre Barnes
PIECES OF EIGHT
Choreographer: Simon Rice
Music: Georg Philipp Telemann
Summary: Eight eclectic pieces that capture the joy and melancholy of Telemann’s life.
Performances:
March 2016 RichDance, Hampton
March 2016 Sage production An Evening of Dance and Prose, OSO Arts Centre, Barnes
June 2016 Cubitt Summer Ball, Islington
June 2016 Sage production More Tales of Dance and Prose, OSO Arts Centre, Barnes
July 2016 Big Bus Dance Festival, Twickenham
July 2016 Sagacity! Dance Festival, Bethnal Green
March 2017 Sage production The Rite to Dance, OSO Arts Centre, Barnes
May 2017 Whiteley Retirement Village, Surrey
June 2017 Breathe Arts, Guy’s Hospital, London
June 2017 Ignition Dance Festival, Rose Theatre, Kingston
March 2018 Stage – Creative Performance and Medicine Symposium, Kings College, London
March 2018 Bull Theatre Dance Festival, London
April 2018 Sage production Every Body Dance! Arts Ed Theatre, London
INVOCATION
Choreographer: Simon Rice
Music: Georg Philipp Telemann
Summary: A group dance of constancy that nobly moves on to its fractured ending.
Performances:
May 2015 RichDance, Hampton
May 2015 Cubitt Spring Ball, Islington
June 2015 FizzFest Islington
July 2015 Sagacity! Dance Festival, Bethnal Green
October 2015 Orleans House Gallery, Richmond
October 2015 Breathe Arts, Guy’s Hospital, London
CHASE
Choreographer: Fionuala Power
Music: Ron Ford
Summary: A piece inspired by and dedicated to Merce Cunningham, a choreographer at the forefront of American Modern Dance for over fifty years.
Performances
March 2014 RichDance Festival, Hampton, London
April 2014 Donald Hutera and Lilia Pegado Chelsea Arts Collective, St Luke’s, Chelsea
May 2014 Capital Age Festival, filming in Sir Robert Peel pub, Camden
July 2014 Capital Age Festival, Albany Theatre, Deptford
July 2014 Breathe Arts, St Thomas’ Hospital, London
July 2014 Sagacity! Dance Festival, Bethnal Green
September 2014 Sadler’s Wells Elixir Festival, London
March 2016 Sage production An Evening of Dance and Prose, OSO Arts Centre, Barnes
June 2016 Sage production More Tales of Dance and Prose, OSO Arts Centre, Barnes
March 2017 Sage production The Rite to Dance, OSO Arts Centre, Barnes
October 2017 Breathe Arts, Guy’s Hospital, London
October 2017 Bloomsbury Festival, London
April 2018 Sage production Every Body Dance! Arts Ed Theatre, London
April 2019 Tate Modern, London
October 2019 Move Over Moon for Bloomsbury Festival, London
MODERN LEGACY
Choreographer: Simon Rice
Music: Steve Reich
Summary: A collaboration with Acland Burghley High School. A work of vibrancy and sensitivity in which contrasting age groups worked together to great effect. Part of the Wilding Festival to celebrate 100 years since the death of Emily Wilding Davison, a prominent suffragette activist.
Performances:
June 2013 Wilding Festival, St George’s, Bloomsbury
June 2013 Shaw Theatre, Euston
SONG OF LOVE
Choreographer: Simon Rice
Music: Johannes Brahms, Piano Quartet No.2 in A, Op.26-2. Poco Adagio
Summary: The Brahms lyrical piano quartet, at times quiet and contemplative and at others soaring to an uplifting crescendo, was the inspiration for this beautiful balletic choreography with its intricate steps and shifting movements.
Performances:
May 2013 Keats House, Hampstead
May 2013 Thanet Community Centre, Camden
May 2013 Cubitt Spring Ball, Islington Town Hall
July 2013 Capital Age Festival, Stadium Suite, John Lewis, Olympic Park
WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO NOW?
Choreographer: Simon Rice
Music: Spike Milligan The Ying Tong Song
Summary: A work every bit as eccentric as the music of Spike Milligan and the Goons
Performances:
May 2013 Cubitt Spring Ball, Islington
DREAMING
Choreographer: Simon Rice
Music: Robert Schumann, Kinderszenen (Scenes from Childhood)
Summary: Thirteen dances, depicting scenes from childhood as the title of the music suggests, some energetic, some serene, all woven together to depict joyful and dream-like episodes.
Performances:
April 2013 RichFest, Hampton
June 2013 Whittington Park Centre, Holloway
June 2013 Finsbury Arts Festival, St Luke’s Community Centre, Islington
June 2013 Wilding Festival, St George’s, Bloomsbury
June 2013 Shaw Theatre, Euston
May 2012 Dreams in Bloom, Chisenhale Dance Space
May 2012 Big Bus Dance Festival, Islington
June 2012 Finsbury Arts Festival, Islington
June 2011 Claremont Centre, Islington
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