RISE 2020 Programme

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BATH SPA

PRODUCTIONS

RIsE 2020 Programme 1

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Semper Versa We are Semper Versa Dance Collective which stands for ‘Ever Changing, Always Creating.’

Over the past few months we have grown together as a collective to build this ethos and wish to take it further.

We want to invite you to join us in the sharing of our work for Rise 2020.

We have worked with James Wilton Dance, Impermanence, Untold Dance Theatre and 4 student choreographers to bring you 5 new dance works.

Through the ups and downs of current times we have adapted to every challenge and have only grown through this experience.

We cannot wait to share our hard work with you through this live streamed event, and couldn’t be prouder of what we have achieved in such a time.

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FB: BSU_rise2020 IG: @semperversa

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Contents Vacation Choreographed by James Wilton (James Wilton Dance) 6 - 7 Enigmatic Choreographed by Ella Amalfitano Swannell & Evie Frost (Semper Versa) 8 - 9 Isadora, and Isadora Choreographed by Roseanna Anderson & Peter Clements (Impermanence) 10 - 11 Out Flew the Moon Choreographed by Celeste Thesiger - Meacham & Erin Urquhart (Semper Versa) 12 - 13 Underworld Choreographed by Vicki Hearne (Untold Dance Theatre) 14 - 15 Special Thanks to our amazing Lecturer Jess McCormack for making this project possible, pushing us to perform at our best and supporting us all the way!

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Meet the Company 16 - 19 Meet the Choreographers 20 - 21 Rehearsal Photos 22 - 23 Semper Versa would like to say a huge thank you to

Robb Gosset and the technical team at Bath Spa University. Without Robb’s hard work we would not have been able to share this work with a wider audience.

Thank you Robb!

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vacation

Choreographed by James Wilton (James Wilton Dance) Music: Cloud of Forgetting - Swans

The piece was supposed to be purely about movement and freedom, however much like 2020 it became weirder and darker as time went on, finally arriving at a place that feels like a mirror of the year - angry, unsettling and disturbing.

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Performers: Beth Ackerley Ella Amalfitano Swannell Jessica Barker Holly Bartlett Gloriana Davies Evie Frost Cerys Keating

Despoina Kouri Emily Lander Anna Malina Ruby Mc Alister Celeste Thesiger - Meacham James Vallance Emily Wright

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enigmaTIC

Choreographed by Ella Amalfitano Swannell & Evie Frost (Semper Versa) Music: The Alien - Ben Salisbury, Geoff burrows/ Intro.Destitute - Ghostemane/ Flower pot - Adam Daly/ Chaos - Louisahhh/ Office visit - Ian Hultquist

An unearthing of the unknown, unanswered and uncertain.

The gut instinct of fight or flight.

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Performers:

Beth Ackerley Cerys Keating Ruby Mc Alister Elana Parsons Tsipora St. Clair Knights Emily Wright

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isadora, and isadora Choreographed by Roseanna Anderson & Peter Clements (Impermanence) Music - Moment Musical, D. 780, No. 3 Schubert, played by Alfred Brendel/ Venus in Furs Velvet Underground

The piece is a prismatic look at Isadora Duncan, peering through the poetry of Gertrude Stein Isadora’s manifesto “The dancer of the future,” and a description of her encore dance to Schubert.

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Through collecting these artistic reflections, musical backdrops and physical notes, the creation of the work strives to connect to, and elucidate something of, Isadora’s incredible energy and dedication.

The piece was created in collaboration with actor Peter Clements, who has developed the live text element.

Performers: Beth Ackerley Ella Amalfitano Swannell Natalie Austin Jessica Barker Holly Bartlett Gloriana Davies Evie Frost Cerys Keating Despoina Kouri

Emily Lander Anna Malina Ruby Mc Alister Elana Parsons Tsipora St. Clair Knights Celeste Thesiger - Meacham James Vallance Emily Wright Erin Urquhart

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out flew the moon Choreographed by Celeste Thesiger - Meacham & Erin Urquhart (Semper Versa) Music - Beach house - Space Song/ Kikagaku moyo Smoke and Mirrors/ Ambient dance - Ross Cantrell

A dystopian experience, Out Flew the Moon explores notions of waiting for something that will always be. With influences from Kay Nielsen’s illustrations for the Norweigen fairytale, East of the Sun and West of the Moon.

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Performers:

Jessica Barker Gloriana Davies Despoina Kouri Emily Lander Anna Malina James Vallance

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underworld

Choreographed by Vicki Hearne (Untold Dance Theatre) Music - Rainy Night in Tallinn & 747 composed by Ludwig Goransson

Underworld explores the utopian ideology of an underworld. The earth is forever cast in darkness and life has stilled. However, dwelling in the depths are signs of human existence resisting, growing and expanding upwards towards the surface.

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Performers: Beth Ackerley Ella Amalfitano Swannell Jessica Barker Holly Bartlett Gloriana Davies Evie Frost Cerys Keating Despoina Kouri

Emily Lander Anna Malina Ruby Mc Alister Elana Parsons Tsipora St. Clair Knights Celeste Thesiger - Meacham James Vallance Emily Wright

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meet the company

Company Managers - Natalie Austin & Emily Wright

Communicated efficiently with the company and department and overseen the entire process. They have kept us going and continued to motivate us everyday!

Choreographers - Ella, Evie, Celeste & Erin

They have worked in collaboration with each other and all of the company members, creating a positive working environment and continuing to inspire us.

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Rehearsal Director - Beth Ackerley

Responsible for organising extra rehearsals and ensuring that we retained the choreography!

Marketing Manager/ Social Media Cerys Keating

Marketing: Content Jessica Barker

Marketing: Content Anna Malina

Marketing: Print Tsipora St. Clair Knights

The Marketing Team have been busy from the start! As well as ensuring we all met deadlines, Cerys has kept our audience engaged with the company throughout the process via socia media. Both Jess & Anna have been photographers/videographers throughout the process as well as created the amazing trailers for each piece. Tsipora has designed the logo, poster, flyer & programme as well as designed the company t-shirts.

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Education/Participation Holly, Despoina & Ruby

This team have worked hard to plan and deliver online and in person workshops to the 1st & 2nd Years. Workshops included creative tasks, learning rep from James Wilton’s piece & giving our student choreographers the opportunity to lead a workshop.

Finance Manager - Emily Lander

Emily has overseen all of the transactions that have taken place across the process. She has liased with all of the choreographers as well as the Production/Costume Manager to ensure that all of our costume/props were ordered and arrived on time.

Additional Roles: Cinematography & Live Stream Contact - Ruby Mc Alister

Ruby has organised the camera team to help film our live-stream performance and ensured that they were familiar with the pieces beforehand.

Camera Team - Edwina Pereira/ Imogen Bennett/ David Ros/ Stephanie Conder Photographer for Photoshoot - Chris Wakefield LX and Sound/ Livestream Mixer - Robb Gosset (Technician) Thank you to Finlay Mills for taking some amazing last minute photographs of our final rehearsals!

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Production Manager/ Costume Elana Parsons

Elana has been the main point of contact between the choreographers and the Tech team, ensuring all the ideas for staging were put into motion.

Tech - Lighting + Sound Gloriana Davies

Keeping in regular contact with Elana & James, Gloriana has liaised with each choreographer to discuss the sound for each piece and ensure this was passed on to our in house Technician Robb. She has also worked with James on LX, with particular focus on the consptual side of lighting design.

Tech - Lighting + Props/Set James Vallance

James has also kept in contact with Elana and Gloriana to ensure that the required set/props were sorted. He has done an amazing job on drawing up the LX plans for each piece as well as organising the storage space needed to keep everything safe.

As well as being dancers we have all undertaken additional roles within the company and have worked exceptionally hard to put this show together.

We hope you have enjoyed it as much as we have enjoyed creating it!

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meet the choreographers

James Wilton (James Wilton Dance)

IG: @jwiltondance FB: @jameswiltondance

James Wilton Dance are a UK based, multi award winning dance company touring super physical, athletically inspiring work nationally and internationally

Roseanna Anderson (Impermanence) IG: @impermanence_dance FB: @ImpermanenceDT

Roseanna is a Bristol-based Director, Dancer, Choreographer and Producer.

Roseanna Co-Directs Impermanence with Josh BenTovim. The company was set up in 2011 with Alessandro Marzotto Levy and other graduates from the Rambert School.

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IG: @untolddancetheatre FB: @untolddancetheatre

Vicki Hearne (Untold Dance Theatre)

Vicki Hearne is the artistic director of Bristol based company Untold Dance Theatre. Untold Dance Theatre is an intergenerational all female company who create socio-political driven dance theatre work from a gendered perspective.

Ella Amalfitano Swannell & Evie Frost/ Celeste Thesiger - Meacham & Erin Urquhart (Semper Versa) Our student choreographers have worked really hard to produce 2 exciting new dance works. This has been an excellent opportunity to undertake a role which has given them an insight into what their future careers might be like.

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Rehearsal Process

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24 RIsE 2020 Programme Designed by Tsipora St. Clair Knights