Niki News 2005
By Robin Chase, Archive Editor
SERIOUS FUN! (Creating & Presenting Dance For Children & Families) --- How can dance engage a family audience? How can artists, promoters and the education sector work together to create and present exciting and inspiring dance for young or mixed-aged audiences? What motivates artists to develop work for children? On Thursday 06 October 2005 from 11:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. (UK Time), Dance South West will present a day of debates and performances exploring the issues of creating and presenting contemporary dance to young audiences and their families. Serious Fun - to be held at Lighthouse Centre For The Arts in Kingland Road, Poole, Dorset - will bring together international artists, venues, promoters and educationalists to discuss emerging trends and models.
Contributors will include Niki McCretton, Dance South West Associate Artist for Somerset County who will give a studio performance of her acclaimed family/children's show: Muttnik: The First Dog In Space. Other contributors:
--- Julia Carruthers, Head of Dance & Performance at the South Bank Centre in London.
--- Helen Donaldson, Education Programmer for the Lighthouse Arts Centre.
--- Karen Draisey, Festival Director of the Children's International Arts Organisation.
--- Yael Flexer, Founder of the Bedlam Dance Company which has gained considerable recognition for producing work that is honest, humorous and human.
--- Emma Gladstone, Co-Director of Crying Out Loud, a London-based company which produces, commissions and programmes dance, music and performance for audiences of all ages.
--- Wies Merkx, Choreographer of Merkx & Dansers from Utrecht in The Netherlands.
--- Paul Reeve, Deputy Director of Education for the Royal Opera House.
--- Tom Roden, Co-Artistic Director of New Art Club, committed to making new works of dance-based art which are intelligent, funny, beautiful and engaging.
The day will conclude with a performance of Silverton (for ages 6+) by Merkx & Dansers in the company of a family audience with post-show discussion. In this show, you will enter the Silverton saloon bar where the heroes of the Wild West always act bigger than they really are. Silverton offers a funny and energetic story of four characters who are friends, joke together, fall out and try to find out who they really are. Merkx en Dansers is one of Holland’s leading companies creating work for children and families. This will be their first visit to South West England.
(Posted 15 September 2005)
MADE IN SOMERSET (A Showcase Of Somerset's Theatre & Dance Companies) --- Niki will perform Muttnik: The First Dog In Space as part of the Children's & Family Shows portion of Made In Somerset - the first annual day-long showcase of Somerset County's dance and theatre performers - to be held Friday 09 September 2005 from 10:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. (UK Time) at The Merlin Theatre on Bath Road in Frome, Somerset. Muttnik will blast off on a 45-minute journey at 11:15 a.m. And Niki's Relative collaborator, multimedia artiste Kathy Hinde, will lend her talents to this special day as well with a screening at 4:15 p.m. of her hypnotic film entitled Missing People during the New Directions portion of the schedule.
Niki and Kathy will be among 17 artists/companies who will perform in a range of indoor and outdoor venues. In addition to seeing their works, there will also be a chance for attendees to meet the artists at regular points throughout the day. Made In Somerset is an opportunity for promoters, venue managers, funders, stakeholders and members of the general public to see some of the best performance work currently being made in Somerset. All the work you will see will be available for booking, and there will be a chance at the Trade Fair (which goes on throughout the day) for you to meet the artists, collect information about the performers (as well as some artists not performing) and perhaps book them for your own venue.
Made In Somerset is being led by Take Art: Theatre which creates new opportunities for writers, performers and theatre-makers. It is supported by ArtLife, Arts Council England, Dance South West, Mendip District Council, Merlin Theatre, Somerset County Council, Take Art: Theatre and Taunton Deane Borough Council.
(Posted 27 August 2005)
BUGGY BALLET PHOTO --- I have found a small photograph on the Morecambe Today website in connection with the Motability Buggy Ballet performed during Relative's special debut extravaganza in Morecambe, Lancashire last April 23. The photo shows Niki and collaborator Kathy Hinde posing with the ballet participants. I have loaded the photo onto the Morecambe Debut webpage. To view it, please Click Here.
(Posted 02 August 2005)
NIKI DISCOVERS BUDDING BOY DANCER (From This Is Somerset - Published 30 June 2005) --- At the tender age of eight, a talented boy has a great future in ballet mapped out for him. And he even has the right name: Elliot, like the film character Billy Elliot. The Coleford schoolboy was talent-spotted at a school dance event by choreographer Niki McCretton, dance teacher-in-residence at Chilcompton's St. Vigor & St. John Primary School. She was so impressed with Elliot Horler that she put him in for lessons at a new dance school in Radstock run by Sue Hill. Now Elliot, who attends St. Vigor, has been snapped up as a Junior Associate of The Royal Ballet.
His mum, Carrie, said: "He was recommended to do a dance course about six months ago. Niki was doing a course at The Merlin Theatre in Frome and did a dance event at St. Vigor. She said there was something about Elliot and phoned Sue Hill, and Sue said she would take him on. Within five weeks, she said she would put him in as a Junior Associate of The Royal Ballet and two weeks ago, he had his audition - and he has got in." Hill, who recently opened up a new studio in Fortescue Road, Radstock, says Elliot could be following in the footsteps of her son, George, who is graduating from The Royal Ballet School. "He has not been coming very long at all and he is doing really, really well," she said. "He's a lovely little lad." Mrs. Horler says that Elliot has a definite spark about him: "He doesn't just hold his arms up. He puts them up in a certain way."
(Posted 12 July 2005)
NIKI SINGLED OUT FOR HER DEDICATION --- Not sure when this event occurred, but I found online an undated transcript of a panel discussion held sometime during the past theatre season at Lancaster University in Lancaster, Lancashire during which Niki was prominently mentioned for her work ethic and dedication to her craft. The university is home to the Nuffield Theatre which commissioned Relative. Entitled "North West Venues & Agencies That Support Emerging Work", the panel discussion was chaired by Alice Booth, the Nuffield's Projects & Artists Support Officer. The comments pertaining to Niki are attributed to Matt Fenton, Director of the Nuffield Theatre. They are as follows:
"There are ways of making work without recourse to institutions or to the Arts Council, a good example being Niki McCretton. She is a South West-based dance artist and choreographer that we are working with at the moment. She is a mid-career artist and has been making work constantly for about 15 years. She makes her own work and also tours kids' shows that self-finance, since she makes enough money on tour to pay for them. Having said this, she only works with a technician and she drives her own van! She has worked in community settings where the money is very much to do with regeneration and so on. But in all those contexts, she has been making very interesting, non-mainstream work. It is only now that she is starting to put in Arts Council applications. Also, she has taught in various places which is a common money-making strategy for artists. It can also be a good way of refreshing yourself creatively, and assessing your own practices and ways of communicating that practice. There are plenty of artists that find that process creative in itself."
(Posted 11 July 2005)
NIKI LAUDED IN GERMANY --- I found a few media websites in Germany which contained very positive remarks concerning Niki's performances of Worm-Hole, Throw Me A Bone and Muttnik: The First Dog In Space held 27-31 May 2005 during the Recklinghausen Fringe Festival. All the websites are in German only, but using Google Translation, I was able to glean some pertinent comments - although the translation was of insufficient quality to quote verbatim. According to the translation, the thread of all the reviews seemed to be that Niki was the only "fresh vegetable" in a line-up of "canned goods". From an article on DieWelt.De dated 01 June 2005 and referring to Niki's performances in general, the writer noted: "Only the Englishwoman Niki McCretton fascinates ..." And from Deutschlandradio Kultur dated 31 May 2005, the reviewer praised Worm-Hole as "the high point of the first weekend ... intensive, affecting and funny body theatre."
(Posted 11 July 2005)
ALL POOPED OUT --- Hey! Putting together a show as complex as Relative's special debut on 23 April 2005 in Morecambe, Lancashire can be tiring work! Niki takes a break while recently scouting locations for the show along the Morecambe Promenade. She is draped over a metal representation of the Lakeland Fells as can be seen from the Promenade across Morecambe Bay. For the benefit of those living outside the U.K., a "fell" is a treeless mountain landscape that has been shaped by glacier ice earlier in history. It is the name used in the North of England for a large hill or small mountain, especially in the beautiful Lake District, made famous by the Victorian-era poet laureate William Wordsworth. (Photo by Kathy Hinde)
(Posted 22 April 2005)
THE SHOW MUST GO ON AS THEATRE WINS GRANT --- Cash worries that have plagued the Merlin Theatre have been lifted with the announcement of Arts Council funding. A total of £37,000 has been pledged for the Frome theatre for 2005-06. The news has been welcomed by Theatre Director Paula Hammond who said that despite the financial worries, the theatre is determined to continue with a promising programme of events. She said: "Despite the funding issue, we are seeing increased activity at the Merlin Theatre. For every £1 Somerset County Council spends on the arts, the arts generate a further £9. More people attend the theatre in Britain than football matches. Still, it is a nervous time for us."
It was thought in February of this year that the Merlin could lose £8,670 due to proposed cuts in funding from Somerset County Council. The grant was not cut, but the Council will freeze the funding for next year. The arts are flourishing in Frome despite the tough financial climate, and on top of the programme of innovative theatre, dance and music, the theatre is running an Associate Artists programme which helps artists develop their work in the local community.
Niki McCretton, a dancer, and Kathy Hinde, a film-maker, are two of eight artists currently affiliated with the Merlin. They are collaborating on Relative, a visual production involving dance, music, theatre and film exploring the extraordinary relationships between grandparents and grandchildren. The production will be worked on and shown at the Merlin later this year.
The Arts Council grant, along with Somerset County Council's cash, still does not cover the Merlin's core costs. With the rise in the cost of living, wages and postage, it could be a time of change for the arts industry in the South West if grants are cut. Nick Capaldi, executive director of Arts Council England-South West, said: "We must redouble our energies on securing a better settlement for the arts in the 2006 Spending Review. We will be working with local authorities and other partners to make a strong case to the government."
(From This Is Somerset - 24 March 2005)
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