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History
Established in 1997, DanceAV was the result of a nine month
project. Male dancers were selected from diverse dance backgrounds
to collaborate in exploring the links between styles in this exhilarating
field of dance, with the overall aim of promoting percussive dance
to a general audience. In addition, six musicians were also recruited
from a variety of backgrounds including classical, folk and jazz.
Pieces of music were arranged to accompany the dance, drawing upon
a variety of traditional pieces with some especially composed numbers.
Ground-breaking experimentation led to the development of a full
90-minute show called 'Ten Feet Around the World' which was performed
at the Footloose Percussive Dance Festival, The Milton Keynes International
Festival, The Glastonbury Festival of Dance and the Sidmouth International
Festival of Folk Arts–delighting both audiences and organisers
alike! The project officially ended in August '97, but DanceAV were
having too much fun and so decided to continue developing and extending
the work. Since then they have performed around the country with
many repeat appearances ranging from small-scale workshops to hosting
Somerset Dance Connections' community Dance Day Footfest. What's
for the future? Well, they say they're always scheming, developing
and hunting for new talent - no two DanceAV performances are ever
the same, and long may it stay that way!
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Philosophy
DanceAV are a collective of performers who come together
in order to entertain and teach percussive dance. The original
project grew out of the founders' love for dance, music and rhythm
and a desire to both celebrate the traditional aspects of the
dance forms and have some fun by exploring the potential for combining
these with music and song in order to create new works.
Developing new talent
DanceAV have always had a stated aim to support, encourage
and develop talented young percussive dancers. Following the
decision to continue after the initial project finished DanceAV
set about finding and approaching suitable candidates.
The opportunity to debut with these new dancers arose at 'Bucks
Fizz', part of Ballroom Blitz 1998 at the Southbank Centre in
London. Dancers rose to the challenge of learning a new style
of percussive dance, and worked hard on general performance and
improvisational skills - all made possible with the kind support
of the MKAA who provided us with our first development funding.
Since then the new dancers have continued to develop by both
learning and contributing new material and are all now full cast
members.
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