Studio Sessions

Illustration by ostreet.co.uk 2020

Studio Sessions returned for 2020 as twelve UK and Ireland based artists / companies shared a live stream presentation of a work in progress. Connecting national and international industry professionals with creatives, these three informal presentations enabled presenters, funders and supporters to see work well before it hits the stage.

Curators: Oona Doherty, Seeta Patel and Lucy Suggate.

 

Presented by Dance Umbrella in partnership with Dublin Dance Festival, Dance4 and ResCen Research Centre, Middlesex University

Live Event

  • Venue: Past Event

Dance Umbrella Digital 2020
23–27 November

This event has passed.

2020 Studio Sessions artists +

Studio Session 1
Curated for Dublin Dance Festival by Oona Doherty

Mufutau Yusuf
THE BELFAST ENSEMBLE
Flora Fauna Project
Aoife McAtamney

 

Studio Session 2
Curated for Dance4 by Lucy Suggate

Farah Saleh
Amy Lawrence
Eve Stainton
Zinzi Minott

 

Studio Session 3
Curated for Dance Umbrella / ResCen Research Centre at Middlesex University by Seeta Patel

Akshay Sharma
Joseph Toonga
Stephanie D. Handjiiska
Barnaby Booth

Curator biographies +

Oona Doherty

Oona Doherty. Photo: Luca Truffarelli

Oona Doherty. Photo: Luca Truffarelli

Oona Doherty is an Irish dance artist based in Belfast. Doherty’s distinctive choreography has earned multiple awards.  Hope Hunt and the Ascension into Lazarus (2015) was awarded a Tiger Dublin Fringe Festival Best Performer Award in 2016, and subsequently a Total Theatre Award as well as The Place Dance Prize at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2017. Doherty was voted one of the top 10 Irish Artists in 2017 by the Irish Times.  Her first group piece Hard to be Soft – A Belfast Prayer (2017),  was then voted the UK dance show of 2019 by the Guardian. In 2019 she created Lady Magma: The Birth of a Cult, a group work. Further collaborations include Jamie XX I dont know (2019), The Rubber Bandits (2017-2019), (La) Horde, Ballet National de Marseille (FR) (2021) and Artnight London (2021).

In 2022 she will premiere her ambitious new work. www.oonadohertyweb.com

Lucy Suggate

Lucy Suggate. Photo: Olga Galona

Lucy Suggate. Photo: Olga Galona

Lucy Suggate is a dance artist and choreographer based in the UK.

Making working since 2003 producing articulate and engaging solo dance performances as well as group installations and public choreographies; responding to patterns of awareness, complexity and modes of cooperation and communal embodiment.

Her movement practice is an ongoing inquiry into the perceptual and physical expansion that occurs when engaged in long term moving and thinking. A Current focus is around finding choreographic iterations from transformative practices and developing reflexive movement-dance-choreographic spaces/models.

www.lucysuggate.com

Seeta Patel

Seeta Patel

Born in London, Seeta has worked with numerous Bharatanatyam and contemporary dance professionals and toured with companies including DV8 Physical Theatre, Shobana Jeyasingh Dance Company, Gandini Juggling, David Hughes Dance Company and Mavin Khoo Dance. She has produced and presented solo and ensemble works at the Southbank Centre Purcell Room, Royal Opera House: ROH2 and Sadler’s Wells.

Her collaboration with Australian choreographer Lina Limosani, Not Today’s Yesterday – a one-woman show taking a dramatic look at the whitewashing of history – premiered at the Adelaide Fringe Festival (2018) winning Best Dance and the Peace Foundation Award before touring the UK, India, Italy and Australia (2018/19/20).

Film and TV credits include producing multi award-winning short dance film, The Art of Defining Me (2013) and being a judge and mentor on the BBC Young Dancer competition.

Seeta created a Bharatanatyam version of The Rite of Spring (UK tour 2019) which will be expanded in 2022/23 at Sadler’s Wells.

www.seetapatel.co.uk

Previous Studio Sessions participants +

DU 2019 | Sadler’s Wells & The Place

Urja Desai, Pagrav Dance Company
Theo Clinkard
Botis Seva, Far From The Norm
Adrienne Hart, Neon Dance
Alexandrina Hemsley
Jamaal Burkmar
Sivan Rubinstein
Freddie Opoku-Addaie

DU 2018 | Rambert & The Place

Aakash Odedra
Mbulelo Ndabeni N’da Dance Company
Theo Clinkard
Lucy Suggate
Joan Clevillé
Georgia Tegou & Michalis Theophanous
Oona Doherty
Jen Malarkey
Elinor Lewis
Toni Adigun, Avant Garde Dance
Vicki Igbowke, Uchenna Dance
Frauke Requardt & Daniel Oliver

DU 2017 | Rambert

Kendra Horsburgh, BirdGang
Dan Canham, Still House
Julie Cunningham and Company
Richard Chappell Dance
Sasha Milavic Davies & Lucy Railton
Ivan Blackstock
Kyoung-Shin Kim
Patrick Eakin Young
Ben Duke, Lost Dog

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