Scottish Arts Council - Archive

Scottish Opera is working with Indepen-dance - a Glasgow-based company which develops dance projects for adults and young people with learning disabilities - to present four innovative performances produced by Tramway.

The performances will showcase two pieces of music, both performed by The Orchestra of Scottish Opera and conducted by Scottish Opera’s former Music Director, Sir Richard Armstrong.

The first, Richard Strauss’ Four Last Songs will be sung by soprano Rebecca Nash. The second will highlight Gustav Mahler’s Adagietto from Symphony No.5 (well known as the theme from the film Death In Venice). In a unique partnership, Indepen-dance will use this tender work to create a dance performance piece in collaboration with members of AMICI Dance Theatre Company, Irky Pirky, Orbit Dance, traveller dance and other guest performers from across the UK.

Royston Maldoom - who was awarded The Schiller Prize of the City of Mannheim 2005 with Sir Simon Rattle - created the original choreography for the performance. It will be re-worked by Janice Parker who recently received a Scottish Arts Council Creative Scotland Award.

As part of the artistic collaboration between Scottish Opera and Indepen-dance, the two companies have also developed an education and outreach programme, which will involve 400 young people from schools across Glasgow.

Using Gustav Mahler’s Adagietto as the creative stimulus, a team of three animateurs will work with mixed ability groups to develop a creative response through music, drama and dance. As a bridge linking the work in the classroom to the live stage production, the pupils will attend a dress rehearsal of the performance at Tramway. Two weeks prior to the performance there will also be a free, expressive arts residential course open to children aged between 11 and 13 years old with mixed abilities throughout Glasgow.

This is the second collaborative partnership between Indepen-dance and Scottish Opera, following the success of the acclaimed project based on Giacomo Puccini’s Madama Butterfly in November 2000.

Have you heard about Potential?

Potential is the Foundation for Community Dance’s programme of work that focuses on dance and disabled people. One of their aims within this programme is to provide information and support to artists, arts organisations and venues nationally. They hope that an effective way to do this regularly is via email updates. These Email Updates are intended to keep you up to date and connected to opportunities, events, activities and strategic developments relating to dance and disabled people and will act as a regular mechanism for information exchange. They aim to produce updates monthly and will do their best to include information submitted, which from time to time may need to be edited for reasons of style, content or space.

This is a free service. If you know of anyone else who may like to receive these updates then please ask them to register their interest by emailing potential@communitydance.org.uk. This information is available in alternative formats on request.

If you have information to submit to the Updates then Email: potential@communitydance.org.uk or Tel: 0116 251 0516.