Fantasie

Performed at Sidney Sussex Chapel, Cambridge, December 2010

Music:


Dancer:

Chopin, "Fantasie Impromptu" performed live by David Earl

Saba Hinrichs

Please please please

Performed at Cloud Dance Festival,
Cochrane Theatre, Holborn, July 18 2010

Music:

Dancers:

Phillip Glass, "Company" Movements 2 and 3

Tzo-Zen Ang, Jennifer Hersch, Saba Hinrichs

"Haunting female sound bites, like the voices in your head accompany the three arresting female dancers... the mesmerizing motion of the ensemble keeps the audience captivated." - Jenny Teale

"The company explode the stage with flashes of bold energy as they continuously shift and pursue each other in the space." - Michelle Harris

Twisted Days

Performed at Manor College, Cambridge, July 17 2010

Music:

Dancers:

The Killers "I Can't Stay"

Ben Taylor, Lucy Crowe

What happens when an irresistable force meets an immovable object? This isn't the answer, but it was fun trying.

M'Intenda (Understand Me)

Performed at Robinson College, Cambridge, June 23 2009
Museum of Zoology, Cambridge, July 8 2009
and The Junction, Cambridge, July 9 2009

Revived at the ADC Theatre, Cambridge, 20 Oct 2009

Music:

Dancers:

Phillip Glass, "Company" Movements 2 and 3

Tzo-Zen Ang, Jennifer Hersch, Saba Hinrichs (June)
Tzo-Zen Ang, Sandy Kwok, Jennifer Harcourt, Vaughan Watts (October)

"Woman! What does she want?"
- Sigmund Freud


"If I could tell you that, I wouldn't have to dance it."
- Isadora Duncan

What I Want

Performed at Queens' College, Cambridge, March 10-11 2009

Music:

Dancers:

The Smiths, "Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want This Time"

Tzo Zen Ang, Jennifer Hersch, Sandy Kwok (Tuesday), Janet French (Wednesday)

Sometimes, the thing we seek has been right in front of us all along.

Barnet Schools Dance Festival 2009

ArtsDepot, Finchley, 9-13 March 2009

Dancers:

St Josephs Junior Y5, Claremont Primary Y3, St Marys CE High Y10-13

Choreography for the 19th annual Barnet Schools Dance Festival inspired by greetings and contact work, sports and games, and upbeat contemporary technique.

Moulins et Salutations

Performed at Sader's Wells Lilian Bayliss Theatre, Feb 4 2009
and ArtsDepot, Finchley, Mar 9 2009

Music:

Dancers:

Yann Tiersen, "La Noyee"

Y5 Dancers from St Joseph's Primary School, Hendon

Choreography created for the launch of the London Grid for Learning/Ballet Boyz schools contemporary dance project, usinng motifs inspired by Charles Linehan's "Jjanke".

Folk dances, contact work and travelling phrases combine in this lively and playful piece for boys and girls, showcasing the use of the new LGfL resources.

The Dinner Club

Music:

Dancers:

Laurie Anderson, "O Superman (For Massenet)"; De La Soul,"Transmitting Live from Mars"; Lou Reed, "New York Conversation"

Tzo-Zen Ang, Sandy Kwok, Jennifer Harcourt, Netta Shamir, Jennifer Hersch

You see us as you want to see us - in the simplest terms, in the most convenient definitions.  A drunk, and a vixen, and a basket case. A hostess... and a raging bull.
Five total strangers, with nothing in common, meeting for the first time. What will they break before dinner is over?

Luna

Performed at Mumford Theatre, Cambridge, 28-29 November 2008
and ADC Theatre, 20-24 January 2009

Music:

Dancers:

Beethoven, "Moonlight Sonata"

Jennifer Hersch, Orris Gordon

My world is secret, you don't know me
I hope, but you fear my love.
And so in dreams I kiss my love
but jerk from sleep each day in pain.
Will you ever turn and find me
guided by the songs I whisper?

- Qazi Nazrul Islam

Such Stuff Revisited

Performed at Trinity College, 18 June 2008

Music:

Dancers:

Live improvisations by Ewan Campbell

Tzo-Zen Ang, Sandy Kwok

A reworking of "Such Stuff as Dreams" for the unique space of Trinity College Cloisters, using live instrumentation and incorporating the musician into the dance. Reviving the piece encouraged me to rethink the specific energy and relationships of the original duet, resulting in new choices and a very different performance.

Barnet Schools Dance Festival 2008

ArtsDepot, Finchley, 2-7 March 2008

Dancers: St James' Catholic High Y11, Moss Hall Y1 and 2, Claremont Primary Y4, St Mary's CofE High Y11 and 12

Fresh, accessible choreography for four of the schools participating in the 18th annual Barnet Schools Dance Festival. Movement themes included serpentine movement, underwater actions, a rainy day, contact work and playful body shaking!

Such Stuff As Dreams

Performed at ADC Theatre, Cambridge, 22-26 Jan 2008

Music:

Dancers:

The Smiths, "Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me"

Sandy Kwok and Jennifer Hersch

Last night I dreamed....what? When we dream, we escape into our imaginations, a world of ideals, wishes, anxieties made real. And when we wake, that fleeting reality evaporates from our memories with every retelling. Was it like this? Or like this? Or like this....?

The Show

Performed at Finchley ArtsDepot, 16 March and 24 April 2007

Music:

Dancers:

Girls Aloud, "The Show"

Martina Angelova, Mahabat Aydin, Talumba Chande, Imren Harman, Iliyana Lulcheva, Linda Oguniana, Sandra Opoku-Anane, Paida Makururu, Joy Matashe, Gwantwa Seeta-Lucas, Jasmin Tompkins, Nancy Khanu, Suko Khumala, Winifred Opoku, Jacinta Namataka, Louwin Nhamoinesu, Nicola Ufomadu, Bhavisha Vakharia

The theme of “The Show” is a celebration of physicality and display. Dancers pose and strut across the stage and wind around one another, competing for attention.

The piece was created using Bob Fosse-style body shapes as an inspiration. The performers then created their own sections using contact work and intertwining shapes.

Away on Your Side

Performed at Laban, London, June 6 2006

Music:

Dancers:

Joy Division , “Love Wil Tear Us Apart”

Catarina Carvallho and Sarah Pagram

As dancers, we often consider movement to be a universal language, and the idea that dance communicates to an audience is usually accepted by both dancemaker and viewer. This duet, structured as a miscommunication, experiments with the idea of movement being assumed as a mode of communication by one party, and not understood by the other.

The movement phrase simultaneously represents itself - an attempt to communicate through movement in the face of incomprehension – and refers to or translates a misfiring conversation between two partners. The duet is a moment in time: resolution is incomplete; this particular discussion has roots in the past and will recur in the future.

Bigmouth Strikes Again

Performed at Queens’ College, March 8-9 2006

Music:

Dancers:

The Smiths, “Bigmouth Strikes Again”

Amy Hall, Anna Lopatinskaya, Akua Gyekye, Cecily Morrison, Angelina Lai, Sandy Kwok, Tzo-Zen Ang, Jennifer Hersch, Beth Tanner

Las Carreteras

Performed at Queens’ College, March 13-14 2005

Music:

Choreographed by:

Dancers:

Buena Vista Social Club, “El Carretero”

Lise Smith and Leah-Marie Seaward

Tzo-Zen Ang, Kai Er Eng,  Lise Smith, Gemma Bridge, Wen-Yi Ding

Coming Through?

Performed at ADC Theatre, 25-29 January 2005

Music:

Dancers:

The Chemical Brothers, “The Test”

Sandy Kwok, Denise Van Der Kamp,  Vaughan Watts

Are you hearing me, like I’m hearing you?

Three dancers try, and fail, to communicate. Phrases are repeated, interrupted, ignored and misunderstood. Can we find a way through the babble to clarity?

Monica

Performed  at Café Afrika, 12 June 2004

Music:

RD Burman: “Piya tu…Ab to aaja” performed by Asha Bhosle

A duet that unites Indian dance with a cabaret sensibility. “Piya tu…” originally appeared in the popular 1971 Hindi film Caravan, performed by the gloriously vampy actress Helen. This interpretation seeks to bring together the different dance styles of the two performers in expressing the song’s feeling of longing for an absent lover.

Beyond the Border

Performed ADC Theatre, 20 - 24 January 2004

Music:

Dancers:

Gustav Holst, "Neptune" from The Planets

Vaughan Watts, Helen Gaw

Falling, catching, coming together, missing….this piece explores what it means to be beyond the border of love.

Jivitakamah

Performed ADC Theatre, 20 - 24 January 2004

Music:

Choreographed and danced by:

Iggy Pop, “Lust for Life”

Vaishali Sharma and Lise Smith

Bharat Natyam, a dance form originating from Tamil Nadu in South India, is among the oldest and the richest of Indian classical dances. The dance includes both nritta (pure dance steps) and abhinaya (expressions conveyed by hand gestures and facial expressions). The lyrical content of the song danced to is expressed to the audience through abhinaya, so the dance becomes a physical translation of music, rhythm and words. The piece also interprets Indian culture into a Western context. This particular dance is known as a Javali, and expresses a mood of love and joy; it is short, fast and light in mood.

Bizarre Love Triangle

Performed ADC Theatre, 21 - 25 January 2003

Music:

Dancers:

JS Bach, ‘Bach Street Prelude’, performed by Vanessa Mae

Lise Smith, Sam Maddrell, Barbara Babei

Exploring the boundaries between people and relationships. Although this dance is not strictly about a love triangle, it is about the ways in which people come together and interact, and about the possible combinations that can be created between three people. It is also about the contrasting and uniting of three different dance styles.

Long Niane

Performed at Emmanuel College, 20-24 February 2001, and at The Garage Citrus Club, Edinburgh, 4-17 August 2002

Music:

Dancers:

Simple Minds, ‘Year of the Dragon’

Barbara Babei, Jean, Jocelyn Phillips, Masami Torii (Cambridge)
Lise Smith, Priya Sahathevan, Esha Dasgupta (Edinburgh)

Undulating pentatonic scales reminiscent of Chinese music, ordered sequences of scales counterpointed by soaring string melodies, are the basis for this music and for the movement based upon it. Movement dissolves, reforms and passes from dancer to dancer. The choreographer is, incidentally, a 1976 Dragon.