2020
April
HANG ON!
CCD creative reaction to those crazy first weeks of lockdown during the pandemic…
Watch the video here!
2018
27 October 2018:
UNDER THE SKIN
How comfortable are we in our own skin? Cambridge Contemporary Dance, Homerton’s dance company in residence, took a magnified look at the contours and textures of skin, mapping a journey to explore self-image and body sensations.
The performance (30′) was followed by a workshop (30′) in which participants gained insight into the choreographic process. The event was part of Homerton 250 Festival: https://homerton250.org/events/festival/
CCD dancers: Hannah Laeverenz Schlogelhofer, Luce Moelans, Katie O’Brien, Laura Ortu, Hannah Spencer, Lorenza Toffolon.
Watch a video of Under The Skin on our YouTube channel – by Eva Laeverenz.
Feb-October 2018:
CONNECTING WAVES
Cambridge Contemporary Dance organised a global dance film collaboration inspired by Homeward Bound’s growing global community of female scientists, working together for the sustainability of our planet. Our wave travelled the globe from the UK to Antarctica and back. It was performed by more than 100 people and filmed in 16 countries. Massive thanks to everyone who contributed to this project. Here is the end result!
2017
December 2017:
MAKING WAVES
We organised a dance expedition through Cambridge on Saturday 16th December to explore how the themes of ice, water and waves can encourage us to consider leadership as a fluid and flexible quality. We performed several times during the day in different outdoor locations across Cambridge city centre.
Short video (longer version available on our YouTube channel too) – by Eva Laeverenz:
July 2017:
CROSSED PURPOSES – performance & workshop
A revised version of ‘Crossed Purposes’, a project presented for the first time in February 2017 together with musicians The First Responders, specially created for the Cambridge Big Weekend.
May 2017:
WE ALL DISAPPEAR
A dance response to the current exhibition When the Heavens meet the Earth, at The Heong Gallery, Downing College, Cambridge. Especially choreographed for CCD by Hilary Goodall.
Video by Eva Laeverenz (teaser also available on our YouTube channel):
Photos by Ernst Schlogelhofer:
Further images can be found on Trevor Lee’s website: http://www.trevorleephotography.co.uk/Performing-Arts/CambridgeContemporaryDance/We-All-Disappear/
February 2017:
CROSSED PURPOSES
‘Crossed Purposes’ is a project exploring the concepts of dialogue and the issues surrounding different ways of communication. Dancers and musicians aim to question the ways in which live sound and movement can be put into dialogue, and be open to multiple interpretations. Through both structured improvisations and an established dance-music framework, the dancers explore different relationships with the musicians by embodying the sound or interpreting the sound to develop a narrative. During the performance, dancers and musicians constantly switch between agreement, adjustments and proposing new ideas to each other. Being an open-ended conversation that can be lead by either side, we coax each other into creating a live dialogue and living a unique experience that is always in danger of falling into alienation. Possible miscommunication is considered as a living process that can be overcome.
The First Responders – musicians: Bill Fletcher, Marek Filip Konopka, Giovanni Orlando, Nick Tischler, Remo Widmer.
With the help of: Luciana Ponso (video), Hannah Laeverenz-Schlogelhofer, Simon Lavash, Trevor Lee. Thanks to the support of Homerton College.
Watch the Video (by Luciana Ponso):
Further images can be found on Trevor Lee’s website: http://www.trevorleephotography.co.uk/Performing-Arts/Cambridge-Contemporary-Dance/
January 2017:
LOVE LETTER TO THE FUTURE
Cambridge Contemporary Dance & The First Responders performed during the event Love Letter to the Future (Disrupt J20), organised at Clare College.
Watch the Video.
2016
October 2016:
THEIR DISTANCE APART
Hannah, Lorenza and Camila worked with choreographer Hilary Goodall, dancer Hannah Laeverenz- Schlogelhofer, Gloria association and Downing College’s Heong Gallery to create a piece in response to Ai Weiwei’s ‘Cubes and Trees’ exhibition.
Watch the video (by Eva Laeverenz):
Ph Wesley Freeman-Smith
June 2016:
CCD at FUSION THEATRE FESTIVAL – Cambridge
Cambridge Contemporary Dance presented a trio of musical and visual collaborations at this year Fusion Festival. Two short dance films – Searching for the Melody and Artificial Photosynthesiswith music by Jacob Abbott and Reuben Abbott, both filmed and edited by Anastasia Elizarova. Plus a live duet by Company Dancer Hannah Spencer and Saxophonist Giovanni Orlando.
Hannah talking about this project: https://www.facebook.com/FUSIONtheatrefestival/videos/1373437926019205/
May 2016:
ARTIFICIAL PHOTOSYNTHESIS
Also this year we were one of the 50 artists taking part in Pint of Science – Creative Reactions, with a video inspired by Dr Erwin Reisner’s research on artificial photosynthesis.
Lorenza talking about this project at Cambridge TV: http://www.cambridge-tv.co.uk/science/
January & April 2016:
DANCING IN CODE
Our latest venture with SHINDIG and Musician Jacob and Reuben Kyriakides.
Dancing in Code – a working title, is an interdisciplinary work displaying the live outcome of a number of exercises that we have created in order to explore coded messages passing between performers. We combine sections where the musicians manipulate the dancers, whilst in others the dancers lead the musicians through an improvised sound scape. Our stimulus surrounds ideas of concealment, paranoia and distorted perception, and how we can convey these themes into a live performance.
We performed the piece in January 2016 at the English Faculty Theatre and in April 2016 at the Junction, during the event ‘Bridge’.
Performed by:
Camila Miranda, Laura Ortu, Hannah Spencer, Lorenza Toffolon, Jacob Kyriakides, Reuben Kyriakides, Wesley Freeman-Smith and Abigal Palmer.
Watch the video.
More pictures: http://www.shindiggig.com/photography
2015
October 2015:
‘I’m Laughing at Clouds’
July 2015:
Blue Mersey Music Collective
We have been busy filming around Cambridge for a music video in collaboration with Blue Mersey Music Collective
The song entitled ‘Searching for the Melody’ plays with ideas surrounding the ways of modern life and the impact it has on our human interaction. In particular the way we seem to live our lives through the eyes of Social Media, and how this platform has become part of the way we expose our identities. Whether it be a true representation of ourselves, fabricated or edited. The interesting lyrics gave us lots of inspiration for movement and settings for the video. See below for the film and some pictures!
May & June 2015:
RECONCILE
In May 2015 we finished our collaboration with social scientist Ashley Brooks for the Pint of Science event Creative Reactions. From this collaboration came our first Dance work for film Reconcile. We had the premier showing of this at the Pint of Science speakers evening, and then performed live the following night at the Creative Reactions event, where all art works created for the project were displayed in a one-day exhibition.
Reconcile explores the emotions surrounding the reactions people have when they receive the information of someone coming out as lesbian/gay/bisexual, and plays with ideas surrounding the marginalisation of LGBT people in society. Watch the film below – we would love to know your thoughts!
We would also like to say a huge thank you to Anastasia Elizarova for filming and editing our work.
Reconcile was also restaged for a Live performance at Fusion Theatre Festival at the end of June and would love to thank the guys behind Fusion for inviting us to be a part of what was a wonderful day of Theatre, Dance, Music and Comedy.
March 2015:
MORPHE
We performed at Kettle’s Yard on Saturday 28th March 2015 as a part of MURMURATION, a free event full of improvised live music, dance and spoken work inspired by the works of Henri Gaudier-Brzeska. Take a look at the gallery below for film and performance pictures.
Founded in 2007, Cambridge Contemporary Dance was one of the first professional dance companies in Cambridge and was established to provide a platform for launching new choreographers, dancers and quality work both in Cambridge and further afield. In January 2014, the company was passed on to a new board of directors who have been working on the development of the company and seeking a new direction.
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Below some of the previous Company’s works:
LIGHT MATTER
Cambridge University Senate House Gala
In 2009, in conjunction with the University of Cambridge’s 800th Anniversary Celebration, Light Matter: Celebrating 800 Years of Science Through Art, combined contemporary dance, live music, and stunning visual effects in a celebration of Isaac Newton and his epoch-making quest to understand the nature of light. The venue was in the historic Senate House which hosted a dance performance for the first time ever.
This event represented a remarkable collaboration between professional and emerging artists. The programme featured world premieres of work by renowned artists such as Vanessa Fenton of the Royal Ballet, artist Issam Kourbaj and composer David Earl. There was a full slate of new work by Cambridge Contemporary Dance; choral singing and a haunting performance on the Theremin by inventor Leon Theremin’s own grand-niece, virtuoso player Lydia Kavina. Set and lighting designers took Senate House itself as their canvas, creating site-specific artwork of scope and daring.
Supporters: Cambridge University 800th Events 2009 Fund, Investec Specialist Bank, Cambridge University Press, Cultural and Arts Management Fund, Judge Business School, Lone Pine Capital, Eashwar Krishnan and Tzo Tze Ang, Meera Arumugam, Sherry Coutu, Kleinwort Benson, Sir Charles Maisefield, Lord Dennis Stevenson / The Surrey Square Charitable Trust, Trinity College Cambridge, Philip Baddeley, Hotel Chocolat and Lucy Cavendish College Cambridge.
Cambridge Contemporary Dance 