EX-STUDENT DAN MARTIN WORKS WITH PROTEIN DANCE & YAMI
Dan Martin, ex-student on the Swindon Urban Programme will be starting his second year of full-time training a the London Contemporary Dance School (LCDS) in September. During the Summer break Dan gained experience working on two very different professional opportunities in the dance world.
The first was working with Luca Silvestrini, Director of Protein Dance in the company's out-door production (in)visible Dancing which took over the city centres of Bath, Cardiff and Canterbury.
Each project began with a small event and increased in size every time it appeared, growing in the number of performers and choreographic complexity. It gradually emerged over several days from what looked like random incidental behaviour on the streets to a fully-fledged dance performance with live music that engaged with the location and behaviour of passers-by.
Here is what Dan said:
“Working with Protein was just amazing. Luca really has such a great energy about himself and what he brings to his company. It was super beneficial for me as I got to spend the week with the company and go out with them in evenings as Protein Dance got me a hotel with them for the week..! I had the best time performing with them, and love to work in that company one day..!!”
Newspaper review:
The second experience was working with hip-hop choreographer Yami ‘Rowdy’ Lofvenberg who presented her new work S.T.U.P.I.D. - Passion and Purpose which was performed on 22nd and 23rd July at the Chelsea Theatre, London. The performance used dance, narrative, spoken word and expression to show the real truth behind the beats, living with learning disorders.
Dan reviewed his experience:
“Unfortunately, I only had a week to learn a one hour show which added a lot of stress to the rehearsals for me. … It was definitely a great learning curve for me for sure … I did enjoy the experience, the last performance was great - Jonzi D came to watch and loved it! So did Tommy Franzen (The dancer in Russell Maliphant’s piece and Zoonations lead dancer) and he shook my hand..! Pretty crazy :)”
Dan also added:
“I’m very lucky to be offered many jobs to keep me very busy through August, so I’m preparing for what’s coming up next, and will be living with Deepraj [another YDA dancer training at LCDS] in September when I start at The Place! [LCDS]. I’ve been very, very lucky lately and very, very blessed”.