Greenwich Dance has been a home for performance and participation in South East London for thirty years under the leadership of Richard Blanco, Brendan Keaney, Amanda Davey and Kat Bridge, and now Melanie Precious.
To trace its fascinating story, we have sorted through image and print archives, reached out to artists, staff and beneficiaries and asked the photographers, who have documented the story along the way, to help us curate our online retrospective: 30 Years in pictures.
Over the next thirty weeks we will be sharing an image each week which tells the story of Greenwich Dance since its founding in 1993. Behind each image there will be an accompanying story on our Digital Stage which delves a little deeper into the era depicted and the memories it evokes.
We start chronologically in the first decade – listing as many of the performances and artists as we could find by sifting through the comprehensive of marketing materials archived by previous staff (thank you to whoever collated that so efficiently!).
We then deviate from strict chronology a little as we go through our storytelling to share mini-curations by photographers Chris Nash, Alicia Clarke and Roswitha Chesher. From behind the camera these artists have had a unique perspective on the organisation and its work and so we tasked them with recalling memories through photos which we will share with you.
We will then share some projects in a little more depth – such as Big Dance, World Cultural Festival and Compass Commissions before we bump up to our most recent years where, through images and narrative, we chart the twists and turns of a journey which has taken us first to Charlton House and now to Thamesmead (which is not actually in Greenwich at all).
What has been fascinating is seeing the threads coming together, the origins of work (such as the social dancing programme) being traced, office staff shifting to studio and vice versa and artists popping up from one era into another.
Distilling a story this rich into 30 images is no mean feat and we recognise there will be many people and projects we have not included. Please do get in touch with us if there is a story we have missed or a memory you’d like to share.
But for now… let’s start at the beginning…
A brochure advertising professional dance classes and courses
In the beginning…
Richard Blanco’s vision for the Borough Hall as a home for dance in South East London was founded in 1993. The programme featured a diverse range of activities for everyone: from international residencies and intensives for professional dancers (Angelika Oei, Jylyen Hamilton and Lance Gries) to community classes programmed and delivered by Karin Wilkinson and Sarah Kelk amongst others in styles including African Caribbean dance, Egyptian dance, women-only improvisation and ballet as well as Dance Play for under 5’s. From as early as 1993 the organisation had started programming year-round professional class, some with a creche alongside. Karen Chantale is credited with programming professional development activities and artists she booked included:
Duncan Macfarland, Shobana Jeyasingh, Fin Walker, Yolande Snaith, Gill Clarke, Sue Maclennan, Gregory Nash, Sonia Rafferty, Fin Walker, Clare Baker, Christianne Broen, Joanne Leighton, Nigel Charnock, Erica Stanton, Robert Masarachi, Sasha Roubicek, David Steele, Hughie Donehan, Russell Maliphant, Jo Chandler, Lauren Potter, David Waring, Trevor Waldron, Jamie Watton, Wendy Houston, Sarah Warsop, Rosemary Brandt, Joan Hewson, Kate Price, Lindsey Hibbs, Lance Gries, Paul Douglas, Kerry Nicholls and David Steele.
In 1994 Ludus Dance Company presented ‘The Spark’, “placing Romeo and Juliet firmly in the 1990’s, racing our star crossed lovers through the glamorous tv world of advertising, Come Dancing and Blind Date” which was performed alongside work created, in a week-long residency, with pupils from Thomas Tallis school and Wingfield Primary.
meantime 95
Night of Passion
The tradition of a summer festival (which Greenwich Dance has continued to this day) started here also, with Meantime ’95 containing a day of free taster classes (On the House) and an Afternoon Tea Dance with the David Kent Quartet alongside a Flamenco Cabaret by Flamenco Express, a double bill of premieres (Emilyn Claid in Fifi and Lance Gries in RSVP), performances by V-Tol In The Privacy of My Own and the Greenwich Dance lesbian and gay cabaret event Night Of Passion which re-occurred throughout this decade and included artists such as Laka Daisical, Donna McPhail, Carol Grimes, Patience Aggbabi, Paul Adams, Tsarday and Delores.
By 1995 a seasonal programme of performances, Bang, had been established which included companies and activities such as Kokum Dance Company with Spirit of Carnival, Akshaya Dance Theatre with Shanti, Gandini Juggling Project with Caught – “still”/ hanging and Shobana Jeyasingh Dance Company with Maps. The Borough Hall also played host to Elizabeth Streb’s Ringside as part of Dance Umbrella ’95.
There were courses for practitioners such as Teaching Skills for Dancers with Maggie Semple and Marion Gough, Voice for Dancers with Barbara Houseman and An Introduction to Equal Opportunities with Femi Otitoju. A schools and community programme was delivered by Helen Leake and Sarah Kelk with other members of the team including Justine Simons (coordinator and now London’s Deputy Mayor), Caroline Scott (Information Service Researcher), Odina Nzegwu (Administrative Assistant), Keith Noble (caretaker), and Richard Lord (Information Service Set Up).
Photo: Ray McKie
“I taught morning professional class quite a few times in (what was then) GDA’s first year at the Borough Hall. It was such a luxury to have that big beautiful space to work in and to be able to make multi-directional travelling phrases that allowed dancers to really cover ground. I was lucky to have the brilliant Andy Cowton as accompanist. The classes were very popular and drew dancers from across the company spectrum and lots of independents. It was also quite social as small groups would go into Greenwich or up to Blackheath for coffee afterwards. I got to know lots of new people – and their work – through those classes. It was towards the end of my dancing career (I stopped in 1996 and did an MA in Arts Management) and personally I had started to replace class with the gym. My classes became quite aerobic which wasn’t to everyone’s taste and eventually I stopped being invited. I have very happy memories of those times though and Greenwich holds a really important place in the history of independent dance practice in the UK.”
Gregory Nash
