Oxford’s spring dance festival provided an exciting range of opportunities for early career artists to showcase their work.
Dancin’ Oxford’s Spring Festival took place between March 3 and March 12 and is now in its 17th year.
At the start weeklong event, Dancin’ Oxford and the Pegasus Theatre commission early career artists to perform at the festival.
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The Moving With The Times initiative is one of the very few commissions awarded in the UK to early career artists to create new work.
The commissions have been awarded since 2015 and since then artists that have taken part have gone on to become leading dancers in the UK.
This year four artists were commissioned to perform at the festival.
These were Divija Melally, Lucy Clark of the fuse collective, Vita Peach and Christopher Tendai of CTC Dance Company.
Divija Melally is a graduate of Bath Spa University and is trained in contemporary and Bharatnatyam dance.
For her Moving With The Times Commission, Divija created a dance work based around her own experiences of intergenerational trauma.
Lucy Clark is a disabled dance artist.
For her piece at the festival, she performed an interactive piece fusing dance, art and light to communicate what it is like to live with a hidden disability.
Vita Peach is from Oxford but a graduate of Middlesex University.
Vita is an actor, a burlesque dancer and a drag king.
Christopher Tendai has performed in many West End musicals including Hamilton, West Side Story and Cabaret.
For the Moving With The Times commission, CTC Dance Company will create a piece exploring the relationship between a cis man and a trans woman.
Claire Thompson, Director of Dancin’ Oxford said: “These artists represent the cream of this country’s early career dance artists.
“Their presentations were all extremely different but all outstanding.
“We are thrilled to have commissioned these exciting artists to create such innovative new work especially for our community in Oxford.
“We’ve chosen dance artists and companies who we think our community here in Oxford will love.
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“There are so many beautiful, fun, glamorous, and thought provoking shows – so come along and celebrate the arrival of Spring with us.”
The Spring Dance Festival kicked off with a launch event on March 4 Westgate Oxford’s Leiden Square.
The event featured a wide variety of different kinds of dance including hip-hop, breakdance and contemporary dance.
Brendan Hattam, centre director at Westgate Oxford, commented: “We are thrilled to be hosting Dancin’ Oxford at Westgate once again after previous successes.
“The dance festival is a great way to showcase both local and international talent who will be performing a range of dance genres.
“We are excited to see Leiden Square filled with fantastic dance performances this spring.”
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