Two’s A Company 2010 in partnership with EAST LONDON DANCE
FRIDAY MARCH 5th 8.00pm
Stratford Circus, theatre Square, London E15 1BX
In this wonderfully theatrical evening, some of the UK's most inventive choreographers will challenge the very concept of a duet.
Featuring: Impact Dance, Evolutionaries, Katie Pearson and Daniela B Larsen
(Two more acts to be confirmed)
ECLECTIC, SURPRISING AND DISTINCTIVE, THIS MEMORABLE EVENING OF DESIGNER "ONE-OFFS" WILL STRETCH YOUR IMAGINATION.
"remarkable variety that runs from high tech to deep soul...refreshingly honest"
Maggie Foyer, Dance Europe
Two's A Company is a concept created by Hakeem Onibudo of Impact Dance
and works in partnership with East London Dance.
Two's A Company began in August 2007 at the Spitz, the legendary music venue, bar and bistro based in Old Spitafields market. This venue has allowed many established groups and companies to share their work with sold out audiences and has, in many ways, become a second home to Impact Dance, having hosted an informal cabaret night there for the past decade.
Two's A Company I Spitz August 2007 Line-up: Flawless, Impact Dance, Boy Blue, Raw Skills, Flo'ography, Zooyouth, C12 Dance Theatre. Two's a Company went on to host two nights at Stratford Circus in conjuction with East London Dance as part of Dance Currents 2008. Two's A Company II Stratford Circus February 2008 Line-up: Impact Dance, Kofi Mingo, Avant Garde, Sezdrenah feat Raw Skills, 2FaCeD DaNcE, Flawless, Anthea Lewis, Flo'Ography, C12 Dance Theatre.
So why a night of duets?
"My feelings as a UK pioneer of street dance and Hip Hop Theatre dance is that the genre has a tendency to be stereo-typed to become “15 plus dancers on stage hooded up performing a routine in unison facing out to the audience”…There have been shouts in our direction that it has no vocabulary, no longevity and you do not need to have training for it. In response to this we argue that ourselves, alongside a selection of other companies in the UK, have been working hard to push the boundaries and to reiterate the need for training and exploration of vocabulary. We have been working with narrative work for the past ten years inspired by UK artistes such as Jonzi D and Benji Reid and in the last three to four years we have celebrated the successes of companies such as Zoonation, who maximised an opportunity at Sadler’s Wells and will be launching their company in London’s West End in 2008, Boy Blue Entertainment receiving an Olivier Award for their adaptation of “Pied Piper” not to mention Avant Garde working closely with esteemed institutions such as The Place. Despite all this, personally, I feel our genre can be predictable and repetitive in its output of performance, and rather than standing back and criticising I decided to try and raise the level, awareness and quality of performance by asking a selection of hand picked street dance companies to try something different. A duet, it can be argued, is not normally associated with street dance, so why not ask some of the leading street dance companies to create just that? To add to the mix I then invited some of the best Contemporary Dance Theatre companies to also produce a piece, sandwiched them together to make an amazing night of work…and here we are-TWO'S A COMPANY." Hakeem Onibudo
THE FUTURE
One of the main successes of Two's A Company was the 2-day choreographic lab where all choreographers who were developing pieces for the platform were invited to spend time working with fellow choreographers in studio space hosted by EAST LONDON DANCE.
Finally we would like to leave you with a question:
What is a Duet?
