New Waves Scratch Night

We welcome back New Waves!

Scratch Nights are a chance for professional artists to show works in progress and gain audience feedback. It’s a useful tool when making live performance work because audiences have been part of the making process.

Expect a variety of short works presented from artists based within our region.

You don’t need any specialist dance knowledge to give feedback, just a curiosity about how dance works are made. There will be an hour of performance followed by a friendly feedback session in small groups.

Confirmed line up

Esme Lovell – ‘Wish for Bold Wisdom’

Exploring the threads between generations of women. Wish For Bold Wisdom asks, How can elder and younger women evolve to live in homage to each other? A movement theatre performance layering spoken word, dance, and physical theatre with live cello and recorded music. An energetic journey that enlightens the preconceptions of women. Confronting ageism, sexism, and the unseen struggles women face.

Ellen Oliver – ‘Afters’

A live dance work that explores the idea of unpaid aesthetic labour within club spaces, the expectation to look good, move well, and help create atmosphere simply by being present. Drawing from the riot grrrl movement and club culture, the piece examines how bodies, particularly feminine bodies, are invited into nightlife spaces to be seen, celebrated, and consumed.

Elina Saryazdi – ‘To Welcome the Universe’

What does it mean to be led by the internal, and what happens when we find trust in the universe to guide us?  This solo examines the relationship between self-direction and a broader awareness, where resistance softens into acceptance. Inspired by the image of an astronaut in space, the piece reflects the vastness of life and the impossibility of full control. It searches for an equilibrium, where inner intention and external forces coexist. This research is influenced by teachings from Arran Green and John Chan at London Contemporary Dance School.

Ruby De Ville Morel – ‘My Sister the Eel’

My Sister The Eel is a dance theatre piece exploring themes and images related to metamorphosis, body dysmorphia, womanhood and grief. Inspired by the relationships between human, animal and landscape the piece reflects a growing concern around the intensification of farming and loss of biodiversity and wildlife habits across the UK. Set in a dreamscape somewhere in the fenlands, a girl becomes an eel. The abstracted narrative plays out through writhing gestural motifs, explosive floorwork and raw theatricality. The dancer and musician conjure striking imagery taking the audience on a journey through a twisting tale of femininity and folklore.