Popular choreography company celebrates 20 years
Tuesday, 05 August 2008
The Regency period splendour of Leamington Spa is the last place you would expect to find one of the most popular choreography companies in the UK. For 20 years it has been home to Motionhouse Dance Theatre, a company that has developed a distinct identity and a reputation for intense and physical choreography. Artistic Director Kevin Finnan, who graduated from Dartington with a degree in Theatre in 1985, is known for incorporating the striking use of imagery, bold sets and great theatricality along with co-founder Louise Richards.
The choreography company
celebrated its 20th Anniversary at Spencer Yard in Leamington Spa this past
July. Motionhouse staff were joined by supporters reflecting the history of the
company: individual collaborators, past and present Motionhouse dancers and
staff, representatives of ACE, local and regional politicians including the
Mayor of Royal Leamington Spa, venue directors from around the country and many
more.
Voted the UK's favourite dance company in The National Dance Awards in 2006, Mationhouse is a company you might see almost anywhere: a theatre, a shopping mall, a stately home, a street fair...or even on a beach. As Kevin has created, either alone or in collaboration with Louise, each of the company's major touring productions: numbering seventeen full-length works to date as well as his smaller festival works which have taken street festivals by storm for the last two summers.
Two performances took place
during the July celebration event: Chaser
and Underground are Motionhouse dance
pieces created for performance in the public arena and which are both currently
touring to street arts festivals in the UK
and Europe.
Kevin is committed to
exploring and exploding traditional use of space in performance. Motionhouse's
work is undeniably popular, something recognised in 2005 when they won the Audience Award at the Critics Circle National Dance Awards,
which Richards describes as being "fantastic" and "a real moment of arrival."
Key to that popularity, says Finnan, is balancing a commitment to artistic adventure
and remaining true to the work being exciting and appealing to the broadest
audience.
For more information about Motionhouse, please visit www.motionhouse.co.uk
For further information about BA(Hons) Theatre at University College Falmouth, visit www.falmouth.ac.uk/theatre, email admissions@falmouth.ac.uk or telephone Admissions on 01803 862224.
For further information about this story, please contact: Julia Burdett, Communications Manager, University College Falmouth, Dartington Campus, Dartington Hall Estate, Totnes, Devon TQ9 6EJ
Telephone: 01803 862224 or Email: j.burdett@dartington.ac.uk
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