Yorkshire Dance is thrilled to be embarking on a new European project alongside five partner organisations from four countries.

Performing Gender – Dance Makes a Difference is a 2-year programme to provide European dance artists and professionals with knowledge, skills and tools to develop a new form of narrative for LGBTQI* identities.

The premise of the project is that differences in gender and sexual orientation are viewed in dramatically varied ways in different societies across Europe, and that dance is the perfect art form to investigate this theme.

One dance artist and one dramaturg represent each country (UK, Italy, Slovenia, The Netherlands and Spain) and, during 2017 – 2018, will attend a training week in each country. During these weeks the artists will be researching and developing new solo work. They will also benefit from stimulating evening programmes, including the Gender Bender festival in Italy and the Festival of Woman in Ljubljana.

The Leeds week will begin on Friday 25 May and there will be a chance to see work-in-progress on Friday 1 June at Yorkshire Dance.

During the second year, each artist will create a new dance work with ten local emerging dancers, who will benefit in turn from the professional development opportunity.

The project will culminate in May 2019 with the entire team and local audiences in Bassano Del Grappa coming together for a final celebration and reflection.

We are very pleased to announce that our own in-house Artist Development Producer Tanya Steinhauser will take up the role of dramaturg, enabling her to transfer her dramaturgical experience in contemporary theatre to a dance context.

Our dance artist will be York-based Sophie Unwin, who will have a chance to develop her practice whilst greatly extending her international network and exposure.

Partners:

Gender Bender / Cassero LGBT Center (Bologna, Italy)
SCS Centro Per La Scena Contemporanea (Bassano del Grappa, Italy)
City of Women (Ljubljana, Slovenia)
Theatre Festival Boulevard (‘s Hertogenbosch, The Netherlands)
Paso a 2 (Madrid, Spain)
Yorkshire Dance (Leeds UK)

Dance Artists:

Roberta Racis (Italy)
Nataša Živković (Slovenia)
Jija Sohn (The Netherlands)
Koldo Arostegui González (Spain)
Sophie Unwin (The UK)

Dance Dramaturgs:

Greta Pieropan (Italy)
Tea Hvala (Slovenia)
Nina Aalders (The Netherlands)
Sergio Martínez Vila (Spain)
Tanya Steinhauser (The UK)