Aspiring directors for Rural Retreats

Posted on June 15, 2011

DanceEast has announced the names of 26 aspiring artistic directors who will attend its latest retreat.

“There is no training or preparation for the biggest job in dance,” points out DanceEast director, Assis Carreiro. “More often than not, former dancers and choreographers are handed the top job with no qualifications or previous directorial experience. Not even football managers get away with this. DanceEast’s visionary retreats are a first step to meeting a massive gap in international support for artistic leadership and in providing professional development at the highest levels of dance.”

The 2012 retreat, to be held at Ufford Park Hotel, Suffolk, next January, will include Nova Bhattacharya of Ipsita Nova Dance, Amanda Britton of Rambert School of Ballet and Contemporary Dance, Mathias Bruehlmann of Staatsoper Hannover, choreographer and former Dutch National Ballet dancer Daniela Cardim, choreographer Claire Cunningham, Robert Curran of the Australian Ballet, Joce Giles of Rambert Dance Company, Emma Gladstone, artistic programmer at Sadler’s Wells, choreographer Christopher Hampson, Carolina Ballet’s Gabor Kapin, The Royal Ballet’s Steven McRae, Dutch theatre production manager Bastian Manders, Canadian choreographers Jorden Morris and Matjash Mrozewski, Etta Murfitt of Matthew Bourne’s New Adventures, Birmingham Royal Ballet’s Robert Parker, Emily Molnar of Ballet BC, Dutch National Ballet’s Tamas Nagy, Greek cultural project manager Christina Polychroniadou, former ABT dancer Keith Roberts, former Royal Ballet dancer Viacheslav Samodurov, choreographer and former Rambert dancer Clara Barbéra Tomas, choreographer Beate Vollack, Jessica Ward of Elmhurst School for Dance and Alexander Whitley of Wayne McGregor | Random Dance. The guest speakers for the Rural Retreat will be announced later this year.

Zoe Anderson

Zoë was born in Edinburgh, and saw her first dance performances at the Festival there. She is the dance critic of The Independent, and has also written for The Independent on Sunday, The Scotsman and Dancing Times. In 2002, she received her doctorate from the University of York for a thesis on “Nationhood and epic romance: Ariosto, Sidney, Spenser”. She is the author of The Royal Ballet: 75 Years and The Ballet Lover’s Companion.