Following an open call Maiden Voyage’s artist development programme Resi-Dance is now underway. The Resi-Dance programme has been funded by an Organisational Emergency award from Arts Council of Northern Ireland and Department of Communities.

Seed commissions have been awarded to Clara Kerr, Michael McEvoy, Suzannah McCreight, Eileen McClory and Vasiliki Stasinaki. They will each develop a live, installation or outdoor new work during 2021 working with a total of 14 other artistic collaborators.

Dance Days have been awarded to Helen Hall, Rosie Mullin, Emily McDonagh, Maeve McGreevy and Lizi Watt. They will each undertake two paid days reflection on their practice and selected professional development.

Intensives for NI-based dance artists and free to those out of work due to the pandemic. For those with means the fee per session is £10. A waiting list will apply once spaces are filled. To apply contact nicola@maidenvoyagedance.com

Intensives 1&2

What Moves us and Why with Kirstie Simson

Saturday 6^th and 20^th February 3-530pm

In the two sessions Kirstie will propose a blend of dance improvisation practices & scores relevant to the times we are living through, that have been specifically crafted for virtual learning.  These include movement warms ups; sensory explorations, practices & scores; check ins, discussions & sharing’s; written documentation; duet/trio/quartet teams to explore & create material; time for silence & listening.

Kirstie Simson (UK) has been a continuous explosion in the contemporary dance scene, bringing audiences into contact with the vitality of pure creation in moment after moment of virtuoso improvisation.  Called “a force of nature” by the New York Times, she is an award-winning dancer and teacher who has “immeasurably enriched and expanded the boundaries of New Dance” according to Time Out Magazine, London.  Kirstie is renowned internationally as an excellent teacher, a captivating performer and a leading light in the field of Dance Improvisation.  For the past thirteen years she has been a tenured professor in the Department of Dance at the University of Illinois.  In August 2020 Kirstie returned to her home base in Wales from where she continues to explore and share her work

Intensives 3&4

Two practical workshops for self-producing artists with Gwen Van Spijk.

Tuesday 2 March 2021 and Tuesday 9 March 1-330pm

The first workshop Producing Your Work will look at the key aspects of producing dance work and projects and how self-producing artists can best fulfil being both artist and producer. The second workshop Contracts unpicks the key aspects of contracts and the contracting process with the aim of increasing confidence in reading and signing contracts, negotiating them and issuing them.

Gwen is a Producer, Consultant, Trainer and Mentor with a 30-year career working across the full breadth of the live performance sector. Long based in the UK Gwen relocated her her home and her practice to Ireland in 2018.  Artists and companies that Gwen has worked with include, Russell Maliphant, Carol Brown, Rosemary Butcher and Nigel Charnock. Gwen has ongoing roles as Executive Director of Lone Twin for whom she produced The Boat Project, a highlight of the 2012 Cultural Olympiad in London and produces the work of a portfolio of artists and companies including: Pan Pan, Junk Ensemble, Croi Glan, Luke Murphy’s Attic Projects. Gwen occasionally produces one-off projects, examples being a large-scale dance programme for the Rugby League World Cup 2013 including a performance by a cast of 500 for the Opening Ceremony at Millennium Stadium, Cardiff; and The Alchemy Project – a pioneering Dance and Mental Health intervention. Gwen was Producer in Residence at Dance Ireland across Autumn 2020 and is Chair of the Board of Trustees of The Mill Arts Centre.

Intensive 5

Artist Coaching & Mentoring sessions with Jane Mooney contact nicola@maidenvoyagedance.com for details.

Jane started creative dance classes with Helen Lewis in Belfast and later trained at the Laban Centre and Goldsmith’s College, London. She worked as a choreographer, performer and teacher with London Contemporary Dance Experience, Ludus Dance and co-founded Still Standing, a dance theatre company.  She spent many years taking dance to schools, theatres and community centres across the UK and abroad. In 1990, she became Artistic Director of Ludus Dance and following this, Artistic Director of one of the first UK National Dance Agencies, Suffolk Dance (now DanceEast).  She has been an Education Assessor for the Royal Opera House and the Specialist Schools Trust, London, a Dance Assessor and Adviser to four of England’s Regional Arts Boards and a member of Arts Council England’s Dance Panel.  She has also served on the Boards of Northern Ballet Theatre, V-Tol, People Dancing, Dance Companies Resettlement Fund and from 1999 to 2004 was Chair of Dance UK.

From 2001 to 2006, Jane was a coach/mentor in the arts and health sectors primarily in the North West of England working as an Associate of The Way Ahead Group and independently. Since returning to N. Ireland 8 years ago, she has been involved in dance as a freelance project manager/consultant and from 2017 to 2020 was a Board member of Dance Resource Base.

Maiden Voyage’s Resi-Dance programme has been funded by an Organisational Emergency award from Arts Council of Northern Ireland and Department of Communities.