It’s day seven on the job and I think I’m perhaps overdue in introducing myself as a new face here at Greenwich Dance….
I start officially in September but some will have seen me putting in an appearance over the last few weeks as there has been lots to do! We’ve recruited a coordinator, Chenube-Ruth Bailey, who comes directly from an internship at Laban where she has been learning all about community and participatory dance from some of the very best. (You’ll hear from her, I’m sure, very soon.) You’ll also hear in due course from Raghnild Olsen who makes up the third person of our little team.
Over the course of the last few weeks we have found a new home which will provide us with an inspirational base (more of that in a future post) and we have started formulating embryonic new ideas which we hope will grow into exciting new programmes of work. Plus we have been benefitting from the experience and knowledge of two familiar faces to you all, Caron Loudy and Constance Gibbs, who are helping us finding our feet as a new incarnation of Greenwich Dance is born.
I move to Greenwich Dance from Protein, (a Resident Company of Greenwich Dance whilst based at the Borough Hall) where I have been their Producer for the last three years. It’s a company I adore and much of the ethos I come with, the belief that community and professional work is of equal importance and can be so successfully intertwined, has been developed through my close working relationship with Luca Silvestrini and the team at Protein. I have much to thank them for and I very much look forward to working closely with Protein as fellow neighbours and Partners of Greenwich Dance.
It is common knowledge that Greenwich Dance has been through a hard time. It has lost people, a building and programmes you loved but I want to reassure you that the mission for Greenwich Dance is not lost. We exist to create more opportunities to make, participate in and watch dance…. and whilst the methods with which we deliver this have to be different, our commitment to that purpose stays very much intact. Already new and exciting ideas are emerging and I feel very strongly that this is going to be a time of immense creativity as we plan together to make Greenwich an even richer place for dance.
So if you are an organisation within the Borough do get in touch if you think we can work in partnership. If you an artist, living in or outside the Borough, and have ideas for performance work or projects that can benefit the residents and visitors of Greenwich, let me know. And if you are someone who feels like dancing….(why wouldn’t you?)…and wants to know where to do it, please just ask and we will endeavour to help.
Call me anytime. Send me an email. Pop in (when I reveal where we are!) and say hi. I’d love to hear from you.
And don’t forget to follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and sign up to our website and we will keep you updated as the programme grows. And grow Greenwich Dance certainly will.
