Abi Mortimer
Abi co-founded Lîla Dance in 2005 having received the Hayes award for her contribution to the arts. The company became a creative associate of The Point in 2006, receiving mentorship from Hofesh Shechter and obtaining arts council funding.
Abi has danced for Yael Flexer, Charlie Morrissey and Detta Howe and has established collaborations with artists including Simona Bertozzi, Jon Maya, Blind Summit Puppetry Company and international sound artist Robert Jarvis.
Her choreographic work with Lila Dance is supported by The Point, South East Dance and The Place.
Abi is an associate lecturer at the University of Chichester and is the choreographer for the current AQA GCSE set study.
Carrie Whitaker
Carrie co-founded Lîla Dance on graduating from The University of Chichester and has worked as a freelance practitioner and performer alongside developing the company. She has worked for Clod Ensemble, Gravity and Levity, Mariza Zanotti, Charlie Morrissey, Haptic Dance and South East based artists.
Carrie is an Associate Lecturer at The University of Chichester and is very active in the South East youth dance scene; she is the artistic director of Hampshire Youth Dance Company and delivers the Centre of Advanced Training (CAT) satellite scheme in association with Laban, The Place and The Point.
Dougie Evans
Composer
Dougie Evans is specialised in organic composition and sound design. His work finds ways to acommadate instruments and found sounds with electronic textures. He has worked extensively for comtemporary dance with previous collaborations including Yael Flexer & Nic Sandiland, Ludus Dance, The Ballet Boyz, Lila Dance, Commotion Dance, Bootworks Theatre Collective, The Mayakaras, 3fall, Josh Parson, Liz Richards, Chloe Hunter, Joe Darby, and Kayliegh Turrell, Katie-Joan Lawson, and Jerrel Jackson.
Evans has written substantially for the guitar; regularly recording, performing and improvising. In June 2010 he released his début album Movement a collection of work for guitar and piano, set to found sounds and field recordings.
Becky Butler
Becky trained at Brockhill Park School and was an early member of Lîla Dance’s youth company The MayaKaras, where she undertook three annual projects and received mentorship from Lîla Dance. Becky has been involved in many professional youth projects including the re-working of Lea Anderson’s Flag which was performed at The Royal Festival Hall as well as Hofesh Shechter’s Insight Project. Becky is currently an undergraduate at The University of Chichester and a member of the university’s touring company 3fall. Lîla Dance’s forth coming project will be the second time that Becky has worked with Lîla Dance as their education apprentice in the delivering of youth commissions.
Maddie Scoates
Lîla Dance Administration Apprentice.
Maddie has recently graduated with BA Dance at the University of Chichester attaining a first class honours degree. In her third year she was part of the administration team for the university’s successful undergraduate touring dance company, 3Fall. Maddie is developing her arts administration skills through a programme with Lîla Dance in association with Morton Bates Arts Services, and is also responsible for the company’s education programme in their forth coming project. Maddie also teaches dance to young people and children in her spare time.
about us
Artistic Policy
Fearlessly imaginative, and physically daring, Lîla Dance create worlds that feel real, and yet only exist within the fictional space of each performance. Their work captures the extremes of humanity within physical movement, expressing the balance between primal urgency and intelligent reasoning.
The sound of Lîla Dance has developed over a four year collaboration with Dougie Evans. The use of familiar sounds, often heard in an unfamiliar way, creates a sonic world that feels real and yet exists only within the space.
Our creative methodology places emphasis on the power of the body to give life to a narrative. We take a selection of thoughts and feelings that bare relevance to one another and we work with these connections to create a ‘world’ on the stage that the dancers inhabit. One of the most important elements of the work is ‘play’ and the understanding that the work itself is a game: alive and changeable. ‘Lines of flight’ is a term we use to describe the tiny pockets of improvisation that the work contains in order to empower the dancers with choices in live time. This is a very important element to the work as it gives the performers the opportunity to be expressive in the moment and therefore keeps the work fresh and ‘spontaneous’ with every performance.
about us
education policy
Lila Dance maintains a heartfelt commitment to dance in the community and takes particular pride in being a continued source of inspiration to youth dance in the south. Our ethos centralises around the focus that all participants from every background are able to engage with the content of our workshops and fulfil their potential. In order to facilitate this policy, Lîla Dance has developed its education strands in order to present exciting opportunities for people of all ages, abilities and experience. We have branded this strategy the In-To-Us project. Watch this space to see what opportunities are in your area around our forth coming autumn 2012 tour.
Lîla Dance has had particular involvement in the development of gifted and talented young dancers where we focus on achieving excellence and promoting boldness and aspiration. Lîla Dance is driven by the knowledge that young people are often able to achieve beyond what is expected of them with professionalism beyond their years. This notion drives our creative ambition in all of our youth work, and is the inspiration for every new project. Lîla Dance’s own youth dance company are an excellent example of this ethos in action..
It is Lîla Dance’s practice to recognise individual as well as group differences, to treat people as individuals, and place positive value on diversity in the community and in the professional dance sector. We strive to ensure that everybody’s needs and requirements are understood and responded to without exception.
workshops
Lîla Dance offer workshops for all ages and abilities, providing an opportunity for the participants to experience Lîla Dance’s movement vocabulary and creative practices. Each workshop is designed to be a fun and challenging experience of dance that deliver new skills to the participants. All Workshops are designed to suit client specifications. Fees vary according to requirements and circumstances and are agreed upon prior to the delivery of the workshop.
Interested in booking Lîla Dance for a workshop?
info@liladance.co.uk
classes
Lîla Dance currently deliver a weekly adult technique and creative class at The Point, Eastleigh.
Contact The Point box office 02380 652333 to book your place.
If you would like to know more about how we work with communities and education then please read our community policy here
danceworks
Current Work
Choreography: Abi Mortimer & Carrie Whitaker
Composer: Dougie Evans
Dancers: Abi Mortimer & Carrie Whitaker
Director: Yael Flexer
Choreography: Lila Dance & Yael Flexer
Composer: Dougie Evans
Dancers: Abi Mortimer & Carrie Whitaker
Choreography: Abi Mortimer & Carrie Whitaker
Composer: Dougie Evans
Dancer: Carrie Whitaker
Past Works
Choreography: Simona Bertozzi
Composer: Roberto Passuti
Dancers: Abi Mortimer, Carrie Whitaker, Chay Burrows (Hannah Martin -understudy)
Choreography: Lila Dance
Director: Abi Mortimer
Composer: Dougie Evans
Lighting Design: Vince Field
Costume Design: Holly Murray
Dancers: Chay Burrows, Aya Kobayashi, Abi Mortimer, Carrie Whitaker
blog
Day Four (RnD Photoshoot)
To celebrate the end of our four productive research days at the University of Chichester, developing ideas for lila dance’s re-imagining of ‘Waiting for Godot’, we invited a very talented young photographer called Sam Taylor to come and take some shots.
I’ve carefully selected these photo’s so to not give away any of the great images he will have captured, but hopefully provide a teaser of what might be coming.
Day Three (RnD)
These photographs are not going to convey just how unbelievably funny day three of our research and development week was. Fear not, we will edit together some of the week’s video footage to show you some of the Lila Dance madness.
Day Two (RnD)
Day two of our research week flew past. We explored a lot of material, and our dancer’s have been really fantastic at giving everything honest and courageous try, and the results have been both hilarious and moving.
As the process moves on, characters are starting to emerge, and we are starting to get a real flavour of what this new piece will look like.
Here are some pictures, which I hope might give you a sense of what we have been up to.
Day One (research and development)
It’s day one of Lila Dance’s week in the studio researching and developing ideas for our new piece. We’re looking at Samuel Beckett’s play Waiting for Godot, exploding some ideas from his text across the studio, and re-imagining his timeless world.
It’ll also be a week of getting to know each other, as we welcome Aya, Kai, and Joe, alongside Carrie, into the cast for our piece. Day one has already seen us shouting, screaming, interupting, persuading, and misunderstanding- but all in the name of contemporary dance.
Mayakara Premiere
contact
email:
abi: abi@liladance.co.uk
carrie: carrie@liladance.co.uk
dougie: dougie@liladance.co.uk
admin: maddie@liladance.co.uk
general: info@liladance.co.uk
Address
Lîla Dance
18 Bewick Gardens
Swanfield Drive
Chichester
West Sussex
PO19 6FS
donate
We are dedicated to our Youth Dance Work. Our commitment is strengthened by the positive impact our processes have on young dancers, who remain energised and focused because of their involvement in dance. We have seen some incredible talent, gritty determination and inspiring creativity emerge through our processes and this amplifies the importance of continuing this work.
This year we have worked with over 250 young dancers, we have made 9 fantastic new works and have put 12 youth dance companies on a professional stage.
In the current climate it is becoming increasingly difficult to offer these opportunities to young people, who need to remain committed to something life affirming. We would like to continue this work but need funding to make it possible.
A donation from you can help keep the dream alive.
Thank you,
Lîla Dance
The MayaKaras
Makers of Magic
The Mayakaras are Lîla Dance’s principle youth dance company. They are a unique mixed age, mixed gender company of gifted and talented dancers. The MayaKaras are managed by Instep Dance Company in collaboration with Lîla Dance and work annually for lengthy projects under the direction of Abi, Carrie and Dougie.
Each year the Mayakaras are formed from the core group of dancers from the previous project, with the addition of new members from the ages of 11 to 18. In this way the company are connected to the language and philosophy that underpins Lîla Dance. The more experienced dancers provide role models for the new members who in turn become mentors for generations of dancers to come. This secures a legacy and develops the “family ethos” which underpins the work and the development of the individuals who come together to make up the company. The annual projects we undergo with the Mayakaras has provided us with an action research group.
Our work with the young company has been observed and researched by National organisations, one of which resulted in the collaborative writing of a chapter in “Close Encounters. Dance Partners for Creativity“, edited by Chappell, Rolfe, Craft and Jobbins and published by Trentham Books Ltd , 2011. Many MayaKara members have gone on to achieve brilliant things in the professional world of dance and are fantastic artists in their own right, some are also working for Lîla Dance. Watch The MayaKaras in Action…
photos © tony nandi
