Climate, dance and new writing

Check out our upcoming discussions and talks  that we’ll be hosting with partners Dance City.

VOXED are super pleased to announce a series of discussions and talks that we’ll be hosting throughout October.

These talks and discussions are for anyone interest in the creative arts, climate, new writing or choreography. This series will be led by some fabulous and specialist people who are experts in their fields. We are hoping they are a place to learn, share, connect and discuss with likeminded people.

The best bit – It’s all free to attend.

Check out the list of online and in person events coming up over the next few weeks.

Title of talk: The Climate Crisis: where we are at and where we go from here.

Length: Invite is for 1 hr – invitation is open to stay beyond if discussion continues

Date: 25th October 

Time: 18.30 PM

Platform: Zoom 

Lead on discussion: Facilitated by VOXED, and led by Marla King. Marla is a dance artist, climate and social justice activist, exploring ways to embed these values, along with connection and curiosity for nature, and more human approaches to climate conversations. 

Content: This discussion will cover an overview on the climate crisis and how we got to where we are today; looking back at some key moments in history that have led to where we are at now. It will also touch on what action is being taken and what action is needed, including local activists and community groups within the North East, nationally and internationally. 

Discussion rooms will leave space for knowledge, insight and idea sharing on what meaningful action can look like, taking into account individual limitations and  as well as connecting with like minded thinkers to explore more widely the climate emergency and the role we can play in combating it.

Title of talk: The role of Arts and Culture in the climate crisis.

 Length: Invite is for 1 hr – invitation is open to stay beyond if discussion continues

Date: 1st November

Time:  18.30

Platform: Zoom 

Lead on discussion: Facilitated by VOXED, and led by Marla King. Marla is a dance artist, climate and social justice activist, exploring ways to embed these values, along with connection and curiosity for nature, and more human approaches to climate conversations. 

Content: This session will be an opportunity for people working within the arts sector to learn and explore the powerful influence the arts can have in climate action, and why it is so crucial we take action in a way that encompasses values of climate and social justice.

This session aims to support you in feeling more empowered to take climate action; on how to reduce carbon footprint in a practical sense, but also understanding the importance of climate action beyond carbon counting – connecting the crucial need for social justice in climate action, restoration and protection of biodiversity, reduced consumption and waste among other things.

We’ll highlight the crucial role the arts and cultural sector has in response to the climate emergency, as well as be an open and supportive space that encourages questioning and promotes dialogue for collective learning and reflections on how to embed climate justice at the root of the work we do.

Book here

Title of talk: Digital Dance: Questions to ask yourself in the creation of digital work and the distribution of dance online.

Format: 1 hour open studio session. 1 hour discussion. Includes a 20-minute presentation and a 40-minute discussion.

Date: 18 November  

Time: 4-6.15 PM

Platform: In person.

Location: Dance City, Temple St, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 4BR

Facilitators: Facilitated by Wayne Parsons and Ankur Bahl. Wayne is Artistic Director of VOXED and dance artist working across digital and physical spaces and media. Ankur Bahl, Associate Director of VOXED, Digital Advisor for Arts Council England on the Bloomberg Philanthropies Digital Accelerator Programme and former Director of Digital Stage and Studio at Sadler’s Wells.

 Content:

  • 1 hour open studio. Join us in the studio to watch the company rehearse for the last 60 minutes of our day. You are invited to bring a sketch book and pen, a cuppa tea or just yourself. It’s an invite from us to watch our company at work. 
  • A short 15 min break to to change spaces.
  • 10-minute presentation on the top questions to consider when building your digital audiences. These are questions like: who is your digital audience? Who would you like it to be? Where are they and how best do you reach them? What is it they want and engage with online? What might you consider when developing digital projects for them? 
  • 10-minute presentation exploring a case study in VOXED’s digital practice: the interactive dance theatre crime drama Out Late on BBC Taster as part of Dance Passion. We’ll discuss how we adapted a theatrical work for a digital audience and the artistic investigations and experimentation in form in creating a choose-your-own adventure narrative work to be experienced online. 
  • 40 minutes open discussion. Bring your questions about all things digital strategy. From what content, to what platforms, to which audience to adapting existing works. This is your space to share and ask the questions you’ve always wanted to raise. 
Book here

Title of talk: New writing for dance:  Why include text in dance works, and how to approach new writing and choreography so the text and movement are greater than the sum of their parts.

Format: 1 hour open studio session. 1 hour discussion. Includes a 20-minute presentation and a 40-minute discussion.

Date: 24 November  

Time: 4-6.15 PM

Platform: In person.

Location: Dance City, Temple St, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 4BR

Facilitators: Facilitated by Wayne Parsons and Ankur Bahl. Wayne is a choreographer, director, movement director and the Artistic Director of VOXED. Ankur Bahl is a writer and the Associate Director at VOXED. 

Content:

  • 1 hour open studio. Join us in the studio to watch the company rehearse for the last 60 minutes of our day. You are invited to bring a sketch book and pen, a cuppa tea or just yourself. It’s an invite from us to watch our company at work. 
  • A short 15 min break to to change spaces.
  • 20–minute presentation on VOXED’s artistic interest in bringing together movement and text in narrative works. We’ll also share what we consider when developing new writing for dance works and how we go about building scripts for our dance-theatre works. This includes the journey from concept, through script development, to the generation of movement material in the rehearsal room, which then leads to final iterations of the script in response to movement.
  • 40– minute Q&A and discussion in which participants are encouraged to bring questions they are currently working with and share approaches from their own practices.
Book here

Facilitators

Marla King

Marla is a Welsh dance artist, climate and social justice advocate and is currently working with VOXED as their environment officer, guiding the organisation on their climate impact reporting and advising on ways to reduce their carbon footprint.

Since graduating from Northern School of Contemporary Dance, Marla became an apprentice with National Dance Company Wales, and has since worked on projects with Rhiannon Faith Company, Elisabeth Schilling, Sweetshop Revolution, Rendez-Vous Dance, Eleesha Drennan, Jack Philp and Jones the Dance.

Marla is deepening explorations of her choreographic craft through a recent commission from Artscape involving engaging community in climate conversations and meaningful action through collaborative art projects, and receiving a choreographic commission as part of the Supporting Acts Programme developed by Richard Chappell Dance. Alongside performance and choreographic work, she has shared movement workshops with young people, adult community classes and teaching company class during projects.

Marla also works on a freelance basis for SAIL, an arts organisation based in Leeds, who are supporting the creative and cultural sector to feel empowered to take climate action. This work involves delivering workshops around climate awareness and ways to take action in meaningful, justice centred and sustainable capacities. These experiences have also led into environmental consultancy work with artists and organisations within the sector, as well as facilitating sessions for young people around themes of climate anxiety, climate action and collective wellbeing.

Ankur Bahl

Ankur Bahl is a writer, performer and culture-sector change maker. 

Ankur is Associate Director at VOXED, and has written Vestige, #GOGGLEDANCE , Out Late and It’s not me… for VOXED. His other writing for dance has included The Art of Defining Me for Seeta Patel & Kamala Devam and contributing to the research, interviews and editing of verbatim scripts for DV8 Physical Theatre’s To Be Straight With You, Can We Talk About This? and John.

Ankur has performed on stage and screen in works for DV8 Physical Theatre, HBO, National Theatre, Rifco, RSC, Shakespeare’s Globe, Shobana Jeyasingh Dance, and Tara Arts.

Ankur is a Digital Advisor for Arts Council England on the Bloomberg Philanthropies Digital Accelerator Programme. Until Recently, Ankur was Director of Digital Stage & Studio at Sadler’s Wells, where he led on commissioning, producing and distribution for Digital Stage, which in the pandemic shared 50+ titles and reached 5M global views. Ankur also co-hosted the podcast Arts Work, aimed at helping underrepresented groups navigate careers into the arts.

Ankur is an alum of NYU Stern School of Business, London Contemporary Dance School, and Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. He was the recipient of the Fulbright and Marshall Scholarships and proudly serves on the Board of Trustees of Paines Plough.

Wayne Parsons

Wayne Parsons is a director, choreographer, movement director and facilitator with over 20 years of experience working in the dance and theatre.

VOXED creates compelling genre-led dance-theatre works for physical, digital and outdoor spaces. What drives us is a passion for storytelling, a belief that everyone is creative, and a desire to represent the diverse world we live in through the stories we tell and the people we connect with along the way.

Established in 2013, and led by artistic director Wayne Parsons, alongside associate director Ankur Bahl, VOXED creates experiences that seek to bring people together through creative exchanges that inspire; igniting creativity in the artists, communities and audiences we connect with.

Since establishing VOXED Wayne has guided the company through multiple indoor and outdoor creations through his collaborative and inclusive approach. VOXED has been the recipient of multiple grants and commissions. He has secured partnerships with organisations across the UK including The Place, East London Dance, Swindon Dance, Stephen Joseph Theatre and Pavilion Dance South West. Wayne has secured commissions for VOXED’s work from organisations like BBC Arts, One Dance UK and Arts Council England.

His time as a performer included five years of domestic and international touring with National Dance Company of Wales (NDCWales), three years with Richard Alston Dance Company and Wayne moved to Australia on an invitation by Artistic Director Rafael Bonachela to join Sydney Dance Company. He has also worked with Motionhouse, Mark Bruce Company, Shobana Jeyasingh Dance Company, Alexander Whitley Dance Company, Yorke Dance Project, SmallPetitKlein, Joe Moran Dance, Oguike Dance and performed works by the likes of Jacopo Godani, Itzik Galili, Stephen Shropshire and Stephen Petronio amongst others.

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