Dance Days
Across Swansea
12-13 July 2008
Q&A with Sybil Crouch, the woman behind Dance Days, manager of Taliesin Arts Centre, Head of Cultural Services at Swansea University and former Chair of the Arts Council of Wales
What made you decide to hold a dance festival in Swansea?
Taliesin has developed an audience for dance over the past 10 years and we are always looking to do new things and develop the interest in dance in the city. Dance Days builds on our commitment to showcase and celebrate contemporary dance, together with our commitment to international work & to develop audiences. We hope that by taking dance out of a theatrical space, and by involving some community dance groups as well as artistes of international renown we can create a real thirst for dance in Swansea.
What was your inspiration for an outdoor event?
We have had a relationship with artists and arts organisations in Barcelona for 10 years or so. They have a very exciting Dies de dansa, which is a weekend of dance in urban spaces. It was started in 1990 and has developed into a network of Cities that Dance across Europe & South America. I always thought it would be great to have something similar in Swansea & the funding from the Arts Outside Cardiff scheme has made it possible for the festival to continue this year.
How did you decide which choreographers would be involved in the project this year?
Le Gami found us! Following last year’s event, director Luca Nava approached us with a proposal to bring his company to this year’s event. He sent us a DVD of the work being performed in Bologna and it looked great, so we decided to fly them over for the festival. With the exception of Luca Nava, all the choreographers are people with whom we already have a connection - members of the Feathersonehaughs & the Cholmondeleys and Kwesi Johnson have all performed in Taliesin quite recently, and the boys from the Featherstonehaughs did such a good job with the CYDC last year. Marc Rees, Doug Comley & Sean Tuan John - are local "boys" - with international reputations & we very much wanted to support & showcase Welsh talent.
How will this year be different to last year’s event?
Well hopefully the weather will remain the same! Last year we had the most glorious sunshine all weekend which really did help. This year we are working with the new NationalWaterfrontMuseum to use both the building and its environs extensively, meaning that this year, even if we do suffer bad weather, many events can take place under cover. We’ve also got a stage in Castle Square this year thanks to the involvement of the city council.
We’ve introduced workshops into this year’s programme, a chance for all the family to be introduced to the rhythms of flamenco with Edinburgh Fringe favourites Flamenco for Kids giving the younger members a chance to join in a performance workshop that has just been a hit across the United States.
There is also a bit more of a multicultural feel to this year’s events with Indian dance students Shishya performing as well Samba Tawe.
We’ve condensed the performance site this year as well following feedback that people found it difficult to catch all the different pieces, so now the distance between sites is very small with performance only taking place in Castle Square, Dylan Thomas Square and of course at The National Waterfront Museum. Last year’s festival proved very popular, we hope that this year’s will be even better
For updates on Dance Days visit www.swanseadances.co.uk
SWANSEA: A CITY THAT DANCES
Sybil Crouch
Assistant Director & Head of Cultural ServicesTaliesin Arts Centre
University of Wales Swansea
Singleton Park
Swansea
SA2 8PZ
UK
Tel.
(01792) 295491