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TALENT
As the artistic director of the Liverpool-based dance organisation Merseyside Dance Initiative (MDI), Karen Gallagher has long been championing the art form as a means for the city to express itself. Having inspired and worked with both professional dancers and local people from all walks of life, as well as helping to make dance a focus of the Liverpool’s cultural scene, Karen has already received royal recognition with an MBE and is also set to become an honorary fellow of Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU) next month. We caught up with Karen to find out more about her passion for dance and plans for the city.
INTERVIEW BY NATASHA YOUNG
How did your career in dance begin? It really began during secondary school at Notre Dame High School in Woolton, now St Julie’s, as they took dance quite seriously as part of the PE curriculum. Our teacher set up a whole GCSE programme in the school, and was a really good choreographer. She went on to head up the dance department at Liverpool Community College and from there I started to do other classes at the IM Marsh campus at LJMU with a woman called Irene Dilkes, who trained with the Martha Graham Contemporary Dance Company in America and was instrumental in the London Contemporary Dance Company in the early 70s. Another guy - Elroy Josephs - was one of the first black dancers to be in West Side Story in the West End, and he also taught at IM Marsh so it was quite a special introduction to dance. From there I went to the Laban Centre in London and then came back to Liverpool. What made you want to inspire others through dance as opposed to just being a dancer yourself? At Laban I was considering what it meant to be involved in community dance. There was a whole movement called the ‘dance animateur’, which was all about animating where you live through dance. As part of my course I did a lot of community dance work and was able to set up youth dance companies in London, so when I came back to Liverpool I had that drive to do a bit of performing but also teaching and choreographing with community groups. I worked with what is now known as DaDa, going to hospitals and day care centres and seeing the difference dance made. I then trained people on a Youth Training Scheme and they were involved in theatre training and theatre dance. They didn’t necessarily go into that industry, but it gave them an ability to articulate themselves so they felt confident to go for interviews and get jobs. When I started at MDI I wanted to look at the art form in its own right and support artists to be
in our region to make, present and export work. I also wanted to look at the community side and the difference dance can make to young and older people. MDI is said to be one of the UK’s leading agencies of dance. Did you expect it to have such an impact? We’re one of the more regional agencies, so we’re a smaller organisation in that we don’t really have a building like others and work in partnership with venues and organisations to make sure we’re getting the work out there. We’ve been developing a reputation for really good, interesting and innovative work, both in terms of our festivals but also large scale community dance participation projects. That reputation has been growing nationally, so we do get some national as well as local recognition for the work we do. Does Liverpool’s cultural scene provide many opportunities to broaden awareness of dance? Liverpool has a real opportunity to be one of the greatest dance destinations outside of London. A turning point for MDI specifically was the Capital of Culture year, when we were able to bring some of the best projects to the city. We hosted the British Dance Edition - a big business to business dance affair creating opportunities for 500 national and international delegates to come and see the best dance that was happening. We also did our Leap Festival and supported the work that the city did as part of Dance on the Waterfront. In 2010 we were able to establish the Year of Dance. It was our 18th anniversary at the time and we were able to invite artists that we wouldn’t normally have been able to bring to the city, like Joel Hall from Chicago. It was a real opportunity for us to try new ways of presenting work. You’re about to be named an honorary fellow of LJMU and you’ve already got an MBE. How does it feel to get that kind of recognition? It’s just amazing. I’m born and bred in Liverpool to a very working class family, and when I said to my mum I was going to dance she was like ‘what would you want to be doing that for?’. It wasn’t what the family did so to suddenly be honoured in such a way, both by the Queen with the MBE and then to get the honorary fellow, which was nominated by the dance department of LJMU, is
fantastic. It really means a lot and I feel very privileged. It’s about how I can use it to gain even more recognition, not just for the work of MDI but the work of dance at large in the city. What are you most proud of so far? Personally the MBE was magnificent and getting the fellowship is going to be fabulous, but in terms of the organisation it had to have been in 2010 when we got the Year of Dance off the ground and were having so much going on in the city. With getting the BeMOBO from the MOBO Awards too and appearing on national television, there were so many highlights rolled into one. Where does your inspiration for new dance projects come from? I go to see work around the world in places such as Italy, Holland, Canada and Uganda. You get inspiration from those artists’ work and want to make sure Liverpool gets to see those artists. Then you want to find ways to work with the artists that are in this city to develop their practice. Sometimes an idea will come from me or sometimes it will come from another member of the team. I quite like spontaneity too, where you might just be walking down the street and suddenly there’s a dancer in the window performing or on the street itself like a busker. Those kinds of things interest me when I’m considering a dance programme, but then sometimes it’s just about giving the artist the artistic opportunity. One big project you’ve got coming up is the ‘We Are the City’ event in Anfield. Can you tell us a bit about it? The idea is that the parade will have different groups presenting choreographic formations along the street. They’ll be made up by what participants do, so we’ve got street cleaners, bikers, the ambulance, fire service, people who knit and bee keepers. It’ll be like watching a moving installation of Liverpool life down the road of the city and then they enter into the park, where there’ll be a final short choreographed performance with live music. It’s going to be fantastic, it’s very challenging and we’re all out of our comfort zones a little. These are people who wouldn’t normally dream of being involved in a project so you’ve got to get them enthused, then get them to commit and work with you on the project. The proof will be in the pudding when they perform.
‘WE ARE THE CITY’ WILL TAKE PLACE IN ANFIELD ON 13 JULY. FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE EVENT, AND THE WORK OF MDI, VISIT WWW.MDI.ORG.UK Your Move 85