Author name: Liz Pavey

Animator Chloe Rodham joins the creative team Laura and Liz are delighted to have Northumbria University colleague Chloe Rodham join of the creative team for the production. Chloe Rodham is an animator and educator based in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, UK. Her practice is in traditional and digital animation, experimenting with a variety of mediums to tell stories. Chloe is creating animations for The Other Side of Me to be projected on to the theatre floor and back walls. Her moving images will travel across the dancer’s bodies.

Darwin is building up to the Festival On arrival, Liz and Laura were delighted to see the city of Darwin adorned with flags and posters advertising the Darwin Festival.  The publicity for the performances of The Other Side of Me really stand out within the Festival brochure and the information on the Festival website communicates the significance of the production really well.  An information sheet with further details has been prepared to be shared with ticket holders. NT Dance Company Manager Erica McCallum said the information sheet will “pre-inform our audience of the incredible depth of this collaboration and why the story has travelled to Darwin from the UK”. 

February 2020 Arts Council England (ACE) funding secured. Choreographer Gary Lang and dancer Glen Thomas arrived in the UK to begin creating The Other Side of Me with Black British dancer Arran Green. Premiere performances were scheduled to take place at Northern Stage. Rehearsals commenced at Dance City and a sharing of work-in-progress was attended by interim Artistic Director, interim Creative Producer, and invited guests. Gary also taught a workshop for Dance City’s open professional class programme. Gary, Glen, Arran, Laura and Liz spend a day at Aycliffe Secure Centre engaging the young people in dance workshops where they learnt and performed sessions of the choreographic work-in-progress. The start of Covid-19 led to venues, including Northern Stage, closing. Gary and Glen immediately returned to Australia. A workshop for dancer and writers that we were planning to deliver in partnership with Dance City and New Writing North was cancelled. Gary was also due to deliver a talk as part of the Northumbria University Vice Chancellor’s speaker programme.