Certainly not the year we expected… was it for anyone?
In Winter we created The Current - a film created by the dancers in lockdown. It captured our stories of isolation and frustration and the boxed in existence of dancers finding ways to stress relieve bodies that were not living out their purpose onstage as we faced our cancelled Spring tour.
We created ANIMALIA with our dancer Natalie while she pregnant resulting in a film that featured in Northern Stage’s Beyond the Ordinary season online. The soundscore was composed by Murray Gold and featured animal vocals by Natalie herself, and we launched the film on International Women’s Day.
In Spring we performed Parade as a live performance in Cheeseburn Sculpture Gardens and created a film which will be released next year. With spectacular designs in colours of the LGBTQ+ flag by Nasir Mazhar we celebrated the dancers’ individuality and promoted our values of equality and diversity.
A summer school led by Gavin Coward launched our balletLORENT youth group. A vibrant and Neurodiverse friendly performance to the childrens’ families became a highlight experience foe everyone who was witness to their energy and creativity.
By Autumn we were back in the theatre celebrating our return to The Stage with The Lost Happy Endings at The Festival Theatre in Edinburgh.
We loved performing in Hull New Theatre, The Lowry and His Majesty’s in Aberdeen. We are profoundly grateful to all the audiences who came to see us, and that the cast and crew were able to do all the performances. Like every other company the threat of COVID infections always felt a possibility, and we feel fortunate to have completed our autumn tour.
We look forward to out final tour dates at Newcastle Theatre Royal and Sadler's Wells next year.
We made our first short film, Breaking Grey, for International Men’s Day, with Gavin and Toby. It was created by Albie Crompton and we will invite more young creative people from our Youth Group to make digital content with
December we opened our doors at the John Marley studio. We piloted an informal sharing of a compact pop up Lost Happy Endings to a few local schools and communities to explore building a local audience and new partnerships in the Benwell , Elswick and Scotswood area.
It has been a year of discovering how we could pivot our plans to continue to be creative and how we could keep artists working. It has been a year to discover how much we could cope with changing plans and taking on unexpected changes. It’s been a year of dashed expectations and grateful rebuilding of what is left to us.
We have hit some real lows, and been elevated by some rewarding experiences we never expected. We have had to be brave, confident and creative while sometimes riddled with doubt and fear.
Thank you to all the company, the board of Directors, the Trusts and Foundations, Newcastle City Council, ACE and Creative Scotland. Thank you for your support and belief in us that helps fuel our tenacity in these challenging and changing times.
