SERIES TWO (2025)

Series Trailer: (1m 45s)

Episode 1: Ruth Zaporah (33m 52s)

Photo: Kate Russell

Ruth Zaporah (she/her) is a US based performer and teacher. She has dedicated over five decades to creating, refining, and teaching the art of improvisation. She is the founder of a unique improvisational physical theatre method known as “Action Theater,” which is now practiced and taught by students worldwide. From the early days of her experimental classes and performances in Berkeley, California, during the 1970s, to the development of Action Theater as an art form, and through the elegant distillation of the practice in recent decades, Ruth’s career and legacy have established her as one of the foremost practitioners working in the field of improvisation of her generation. Ruth’s initial training was in ballet, but it was in college that she discovered modern dance, drawn to its dramatic possibilities. In the mid-1960s, Ruth was hired by a Maryland college’s Drama Department to teach movement to actors. However, when the students arrived fully dressed and seemingly uninterested in a dance class, she asked them what they actually wanted. They expressed a desire to learn how to embody their characters. At the time, Ruth had no understanding of the concept of “embodying” or “character,” so in response, she simply suggested they “walk.” This moment marked the beginning of her fascination—and, as she describes it, her obsession—with improvisation. Ruth began Zen Buddhist practices at 17, and her years of practice, combined with her college studies in philosophy and her performing and teaching experiences, laid the foundation for her development of Action Theater. In both 1990 and 1994, Ruth, along with a team of performers and organisers, travelled to war zones in Sarajevo and Kosovo. There, she and her colleagues spent their days offering a few hours of respite to refugees in camps, and in the evenings, they performed in small theatres across Sarajevo, Dubrovnik, Belgrade, Pristina, Kosovo, and Zagreb. A published author of several books on Action Theater, Ruth has received two NEA choreography grants and numerous other honours. Her work spans continents, and in 2010, she was named a Cultural Envoy by the U.S. State Department. Ruth continues to live and work in Berkeley, California.

Website: www.actiontheater.com

Episode 2: Andrew Morrish (56m 15s)

In Andrew Morrish’s 45-year career in the arts he has been a performer, teacher, facilitator, mentor and advocate for a range of practices including improvisation, performance, dance education, dance therapy and dance research. He became freelance in 1993 after 20 years of full-time employment as a public servant and teacher. From 1993 to 2001 he combined sessional teaching in tertiary institutions in Melbourne, working in street theatre ensembles, and developing his performing practice as a member of the improvisational duet “Trotman and Morrish”. From 2001 to 2020 he worked exclusively in his Performance Improvisation practice, touring through Europe and Australia  performing, sharing practice, mentoring and teaching. He is now based in East Gippsland, in the south east corner of Australia, and continues his solo practice and individual coaching in Australia and Europe, on-line.

Website: www.andrewmorrish.com

Episode 3: Peter Trotman (42m 0s)

Photo: Namchops

Peter Trotman is a performer known for his unique physicality, heightened by graphic verbal abilities and a wry wit. Based in Naarm/Melbourne, Australia, he was a member of Al Wunder’s Theatre of the Ordinary from 1982 – 88. Following this emerged a fruitful and intensive 13-year period of research and collaboration with Andrew Morrish. Together, they performed in Australia and overseas to considerable acclaim. This period forged many of Peter’s ideas about improvisation, dance, and language. Now predominantly a solo artist, with the occasional collaboration, he continues to explore his curiosity into the potential for both movement and text to emerge with rich vibrant form in the present moment of performance An ongoing aspect of his work has been the progressive evolution of a map of developmental strategies and forms, always searching for what is useful, clarifying, challenging, and generative.

Website: www.peter-trotman.com

Episode 4: Katie Duck (58m 24s)

Photo: Roman Zotter

Katie Duck is a renowned multidisciplinary artist, performer, teacher and pioneer with a career spanning several decades.  Originally from the United States, she has lived in Italy, England and is now based in the Netherlands. Duck is celebrated for her innovative multidisciplinary approach to performance art, blending dance, theater, music, and text in her work. Duck uses a microscopic view of improvisation as both a creative tool and a performance strategy. Her work often blurs the line between composition and spontaneity, challenging traditional notions of performance by incorporating elements of sound, voice, movement, and visual design into her practice. Her performances are often characterised by their spontaneity and interaction with the audience, as well as their exploration of themes such as vulnerability, identity, and the human experience. Duck is also known for her dedication to teaching and mentoring young artists, leading workshops and residencies around the world. As a teacher, she has developed a distinctive teaching style that integrates multi disciplines into a holistic approach. She encourages performers to embrace their individual artistry while exploring the dynamics of collaboration. Her workshops focus on developing a heightened awareness of time, space, and presence in a sound driven performance platform. She has been involved in educational programs worldwide, influencing generations of artists. A key figure in experimental performance, Duck’s contributions have significantly influenced contemporary processes towards real time performances. She has collaborated with musicians, dancers, and visual artists throughout her career, with performances that are often described as dynamic, raw, and deeply engaging.

Website: www.katieduck.com

Episode 5: Julyen Hamilton (57m 16)

Julyen Hamilton is a dancer / choreographer / teacher / musician. He has been making and performing dances for 45 years throughout the world. He has made over 100 solos as well as 25 years of Company pieces and numerous collaborations with dancers and musicians and theatre performers. Born and brought up in England he trained in London in the 1970’s, a time of radical experimentation, he has been an exponent of innovative performance since that time. His work is mostly improvised : he composes dance works instantly as well as the texts which often accompany them. His work with text is unique. It fuses naturally his long-term writing practice with his refined skills in dancing. When working with his company ALLEN’S LINE he directs dancers and lighting designers to make and perform work through this same immediacy. With his company ALLEN’S LINE, he has been performing “GOAT OCEAN” in Rome, Paris, Bruxelles and France during 2023 and their new work “CHILD of DAY” has shown in Paris and Bruxelles during 2024. Since the 80’s he has performed constantly in close collaboration with many of the highest quality musicians from all over Europe. (Barre Phillips, Fred Frith, Tristan Honsinger, Michael Moore…) It is with some of these musicians that he gives readings of his poetry. He is at present performing the solos ‘INTERVIEW’, ‘HELD DEAR’ and “a KOAN for our Times” performing with bass player Barre Phillips, Nuria Andorra and Jordina Millá amongst many others. As a pianist he plays regularly with Hamilton Carroll in Berlin and Brussels. Their first cd ‘POINTER’ was released in 2016. His label ‘BLUEDOG PUBLISHING.net’ produces videos of his performances on DVD, CDs and print. His new poetry album ‘Jack Gets Out of Prison’ with bassist Wilbert de Joode was released in 2018 and ‘The Road to Amarillo’ piano/text/bass with Giorgos Kokkinaris released in 2022.

Website: www.julyenhamilton.com

Episode 6: João Fiadeiro (56m 49s)

Photo: Ana Viotti

João Fiadeiro (1965) is a Portuguese performer, choreographer, researcher, teacher and curator. He belongs to the generation of artists who emerged in the late eighties in Portugal and gave rise to the New Portuguese Dance movement. As an artist, his work is positioned at the intersection of performance, dance, visual arts and theatre. As a researcher, he navigates the intersections between practice and theory, art and science, and life and art. In the late 1990s, he began systematizing Real-Time Composition, a theoretical-practical tool supporting creation, decision-making, and collaboration, around which all his activities as an artist and researcher revolve. He was the artistic director of Atelier Real, a venue that played a major role in the development of contemporary dance and trans-disciplinary initiatives in Portugal for almost 30 years (1990-2019). João Fiadeiro tours extensively throughout Europe, North and South America with his solo and group works. He is regularly invited to be a visiting professor at various institutions linked to training and research. He is currently an associated artist-researcher at Forum Dança in Lisbon. His work was recently the subject of a major retrospective at Centro Cultural de Belém in Lisbon. Real Time Composition is a theoretical-practical tool that studies, problematizes and systematizes the experience of collective decision-making using the fields of improvisation and composition in contemporary dance as a privileged territory of its experimentation. Real Time Composition “object of study” is the spatio-temporal gap that arises when the experience we all have with linear time is interrupted and suspended by an accident or an incident. This generates a “glitch” in the “timeline arrow”, creating a void in the sense of continuity. Real Time Composition “takes advantage” of this in-betweenness to transform what could be perceived as an interruption, into an interval. Inside this interval – between the moment we collide with what affects us, and the moment we relate to its possible manifestations – time has this rare quality of being simultaneously “no longer” and “not yet”. Inside this interval, time is not linear (or even circular) but “twisted” (like a “Möbius strip” topological surface), governed by laws that don’t respect conventional notions of before or after, inside or outside, present or absent.  Inside this interval we are able to disappear in the obvious and (re)appear in the absence.

Website: www.joaofiadeiro.pt

SERIES ONE (2024)

Series Trailer: (2m 15s)

Episode 1: Seke Chimutengwende (52m 51s)

Photo: Hugo Glendinning

Seke (he/him) is a choreographer, performer, movement director and teacher. He is currently working as a performer with Forced Entertainment and teaching improvisation and choreography at London Contemporary Dance School. His recent group choreography It begins in darkness exploring haunting and colonial legacies premiered in 2022 and will be touring again in 2023/24. Seke has been practicing completely improvised performance, using movement and text, since 2006. He has performed over 70 solo improvisations internationally and has performed ensemble improvisation with numerous dancers, actors and musicians. He is currently exploring long solo improvisation performances of 50 to 60 minutes.

Website: www.sekechimutengwende.com

Episode 2: Eleanor Sikorski – (50m 28s)

Photo: Hugo Glendinning

Eleanor (she/her) (b. London 1988) is a dancer, choreographer and filmmaker based in Leeds, UK. Her choreographic work explores moving bodies in relation to objects, language and sound. With her partner, dancer Lewys Holt, she co-hosts Roadhouse, a bi-monthly evening of improvised dance in Leeds, cultivating the local improvisation scene with regular performances and open practice sessions. They also tour nationwide, combining dance and voice in unique, improvised performances. Eleanor has worked as a dancer for artists including Eva Recacha, Seke Chimutengwende and Igor & Moreno, and since 2015 she has been part of the dancer-led project Nora, inviting choreographers to make new work for them to perform, most recently Eleanor Bauer and Deborah Hay. As a filmmaker she has worked with artists Frances Morgan, Kyra Norman and Sue MacLaine. Other activities include working as rehearsal director for dance company perfectly serviceable, lecturing part time at Northern School of Contemporary Dance and self-publishing mini comics.

Website: www.eleanorsikorski.com

Episode 3: Théïa Maldoom – (39m 57s)

Théïa (she/her) is a dance artist and improviser. Currently, she is interested in asking; What does it mean to be a dancer? What is improvisation? Gravitating towards multidisciplinary practices that center the body with a sensitivity to the senses, imagination, memory and desire. Important threads in Théïa’s thinking are; care, collectivity and expansive understanding of who we are and can be. Théïa is British Armenian and lives in London. She started dancing young and then studied at The BRIT School and graduated from London Contemporary Dance School in 2020.

Website: www.theiamaldoom.co.uk

Episode 4: Lewys Holt – (49m 20s)

Photo: Liam Keown

Lewys (they/them) is an interdisciplinary dance artist based in Leeds. They work as a dancer, choreographer and curates Roadhouse with Eleanor Sikorski. Born in Mold in North Wales and raised in Scarborough, North Yorkshire, Lewys studied dance at De Montfort University (2010-14). Their practice, while focusing on dance, spans comedy and devised theatre. They make work that centres the performer as an empowered individual, showcasing their personality and vulnerabilities. They make score based choreographies, which combine improvisation with subtle wit and formal experimentation that push the boundaries of disciplines to make innovative performances. They have worked as a dancer with New Art Club, Simone Mousset, Tino Sehgal, Rosemary Lee and Christopher Owen among others.

Website: www.lewysholt.com

Episode 5: Bethany Edwards – (47m 57s)

Photo: Gaby Conn

Bethany (she/her) is a dance artist whose work spans performance, devising, improvisation and creative facilitation. She is a founding member of The Band That Dances (fka The Yonis), a non-hierarchical pop-punk band working as a collective. Their debut album ‘Headliner’, a comedic riot grrrl witchy extravaganza, toured the UK and Europe in 2022. Bethany has worked with choreographers including Becky Namgauds, Tim Casson, Tess Letham and Hannes Langolf. She regularly performs improvisation both solo and ensemble with groups Collective Endeavours and Something Smashing. She has performed across the UK and Europe in contexts such as night clubs, galleries, stately homes, and theatres. She teaches floorwork and improvisation with diverse groups of professional and community dancers.

Episode 6: Amaara Raheem – (41m 42s)

Amaara’s (she/her) practice of choreography and performance is deeply shaped by her history of migration and multiple belongings to place. Her work also crosses disciplinary borders and occurs in multiple modes: choreography, performance, improvisation, text, video, sound, documentation and collaboration. In 2022 Amaara was selected for ABC Top 5 – a media residency with Radio National – to voice her ongoing research on artists in-residence, to wider audiences. In 2023 Amaara was awarded the Frank Van Straten Fellowship to work with the performing arts archives held at the Arts Centre Melbourne.

Website: www.amaararaheem.net

Credits

Hosted and Produced by Robert Vesty

Music by Astro Jose

Series 1 produced with support from Middlesex University