Week 8 - In The Dust

Hey guys, this week it's me, Johnny, who is writing a little something about 2Faced Dance's In The Dust autumn tour 2011.

Week 8 marked the last but not least week of this tour but do not fret, this amazing production is far from finished as the company is taking its work to Sofia, Bulgaria at the end of the month and to another UK and international tour in spring 2012. So if you missed us at the Edinburgh Fringe festival or on the road in the last few months, or if you wanna catch us again and watch this powerful triple bill there will be plenty of opportunities for you to do so.

The last week was for me personally very exciting.

We performed in Ludlow, not far from our home (Hereford) and despite the fact that Herefordshire is quite rural, we've had loads of support and great audiences.

We were at the Robin Howard theatre (The Place) in London on the 31st Oct and 1st of Nov, the company was a bit tense as we were performing at a London venue, but we pulled it off together and the show was fantastic. Great reviews and amazing feedback from the audience. The 2nd night at The Place was even better and the show was filmed so I can't wait to watch the footage. All in all the London dates were slightly stressful but so much fun and very emotional especially having friends, family, colleagues and other dance buddies coming to see us!!!

Our last tour date was in the beautiful theatre of Wellinborough at The Castle, I remembered being there and performing Still Breathing ( the company's last full length production) and like so many other venues on this tour it's always really nice to go back to them and perform a new work, show our audiences what 2faced is about. It really is a nice feeling.

Tired and slightly thoughtful, we said goodbye to each other, but I am sure that these past 6 months working on In The Dust will stay with us for a long time.  

So I guess it's a goodbye for now and I might see some of you on the next tour!

Johnny

Week 7 - In The Dust

So we have nearly come to the end of this epic run, which basically started in EDINBURGH on the 1^st of August. It’s been an inspiring and emotional few months, with a great bunch of talented and passionate people.  We have been up and down the UK and round in circles performing this sporadic triple bill, which has received critical acclaim where ever it goes.  Hang on a minute listen to me – i’m talking as if it’s finished, we still have Ludlow, London and Wellingborough to go!  

Week 7 started in Ipswich, at the infamous octagon stage! It’s a beautiful auditorium with a very abstract shaped stage with awkward wings, but in a funny way I quite prefer abnormal stages.  Spacing took longer than usual with a lot of changes to the pieces to make use of every inch of the space.  When we finished spacing we were happy to find out that we had nearly sold out, this was mainly thanks to Luke Jessop bringing the entire population of Colchester to Ipswich to watch the show!  The theatre kitchen prepared 2 vats of pasta for us, which we enjoyed greatly and ate together in the green room whilst playing A – Z blockbuster, after finding the famous quiz book in the book shelf.  The Show went really well, for me Freddie’s piece felt at home with such an intimate audience and small stage. After the show we received some amazing feedback, and generated a lot of interest for the company!

After we had packed up the rest of the company members left to enjoy their weekend at home.  Nathan and I stayed in Ipswich, and prepared for our 2 day residency with Breakin’ Hearts Crew in Ashford.  The next morning we woke up bleary eyed at 6:30am and got on the road.  We arrived at the Royal Grammar School in Ashford, and were greeted by 8 bgirls, who were all ready for action and very keen to create an amazing piece with us ready for Monday’s performance at The Marlowe!  To sum up, both Nathan and I loved teaching this group, they were all very talented in both breakin’ and Contemporary and would literally try anything! The piece was structured and finished with time to spare, all of the group seemed very proud of our creation! 

We arrived at The Marlowe in Canterbury on Monday, and were blown away.  We performed there 2 years ago, since it has been knocked down and re built! We spent some time getting accustomed to the massive stage (12m wide) and sorting out the spacing for all of the pieces.  As well as preparing our lungs for the extra work out they were about to get!

When Breakin’ Hearts arrived at around 5pm to get ready for the spacing they were awe struck by the stage and the auditorium, some of them letting their nerves kick in.  We spaced their explosive fusion piece, and ran it a few times with music.  Which sounded epic on the massive PA.  The piece looked great on the stage and all of the company came into the beautiful auditorium and watched the run through.

We then started warming up and prepping for the show ahead.  I went through some breathing techniques with the girls, to calm their nerves and to focus their minds. 

I went on and introduced Breakin’ Hearts, and quickly realised they had their own fan club in, judging by the screams.  Their piece went really well and made both Nathan and I very proud!

                                                                            

We will definitely be staying in touch with Breakin’ Hearts, very passionate and inspiration group of young adults!  www.breakinhearts.co.uk

We went on and smashed out Tom’s piece.  Freddie’s seemed very hard in comparison to Ipswich, the sheer size of the stage making it aerobically challenging.  This gave me an extra adrenalin boost and Freddies’s piece went down very well, enticing a lot of laughter from the audience!

When the performance was over we retired to the dressing rooms and headed for our luxury accommodation (thanks very much Marlowe Theatre).  Had a cheeky drink at the bar and headed up to our suites.

We then had a travel day to Rhyl, we arrived after a 6 hour drive from Canterbury – Rhyl (two opposite ends of the UK) and looked forward to our beds.  We arrived at The Westminster hotel to be greeted by one of the most migraine inducing carpets i’ve ever seen. 

We went to the local Wetherspoons for steak night and then went back to the classy hotel, full of over 70’s on a sea side break.

When we woke up the next day we had some ‘tasty’ breakfast and went to the theatre to get ready to do

Class and spacing.  Rhyl Theatre is the 1^st stage this tour that is raked and we needed to adjust our balance accordingly.  So when doing class we made sure we did each excersize facing the back as well as the front to get used to the rake.  The show went really well and all of us adjusted to the rake and the space very well!  After the show we went back to the Westminster and prepared for our journey to chesterfield the following morning.

We all left Rhyl at around 10:30am and embarked on our long journey to Chesterfield through Stockport and up north.  We hadn’t been to the Pomegranate theatre since the State Of Matter tour in 2009, so memories came flooding back when we entered the building! Once again the stage was raked, but even more so, but due to the previous day our bodies were already accustomed to the rake.  We had a sizeable audience and the show went really well, recieveing great feedback from the audience!

Now we are on our way back to the Shire looking forward to getting into my memory foam mattress to realign my back, and some home cooked food! Hype!

I will pass you over to Johnny Autin for the next entry! Take care people’s!

Big Love

Dan Lowenstein x

Week 6 - In The Dust

2Faced Dance Company – Blog… Week 6 - By Luke Jessop a.k.a. ‘Lukey Lashes’

Week 6 of the In The Dust tour was a relatively quiet week in terms of performances (there’s never actually a quiet week with 2Faced!), we only had 2 performances that week.  We were still staying in our lovely cottages, Bilton Barns, just outside of Alnwick and we had enjoyed a nice quiet day off on Thursday.  On Friday we had the show in Hexham at the Queens Hall.  This was a lovely theatre in sleepy old Hexham.  When we arrived at the theatre we all went off to find our lunch of choice, Hugh and I chose a nice sandwich bar, I had a wrap called ‘The Big One’…they weren’t lying, t’was huge!  The show in Hexham went well, the stage was a bit smaller but was very intimate and such a nice theatre!

We then had a couple of days off, all heading home in our different directions and with very fond memories of Northumberland and the very lovely and accommodating Geordies!

Our next show was closer to home for some of the guys, Malvern.  We arrived in the lovely little town and setup for the show.  The show went really well and was on a lovely and big stage.  We also had a post-show talk after the show and came across some of the usual questions like: “What’s the pig-mask about?” but we also had a lot of interesting questions that we’d never been asked before so it gave us some refreshing things to think about.

The day after, we had rehearsals back in Hereford for our performance in Bulgaria, some of the cast may not be able to make the show so we all helped teach Lewis and Nath the material for Tam’s piece.  We also bumped into National Dance Company of Wales whilst rehearsing at The Courtyard, they were performing there that night.  We were kindly invited to be able to do class with them in the afternoon and then we watched their show and then had a few drinks with the company after…and they were lovely.  And so concludes Week 6…Next stop Ipswich!!

Luke J

Week 5 - In The Dust

This week we kicked off with our first show in Newcastle at Dance City. It was really nice to perform in a purpose built dance venue, and with friends and 2faced fans present in the audience. It was also brilliant performing on a bigger stage than usual, as all the pieces feel all the more exciting when we don’t have to adapt or limit movement range to accommodate the stage.  The show was well received, with many audience members expressing their praise and awe at the post show talk. 

We performed in Kendal the following day which was another strong show, all be it on a slightly smaller stage with very limited wing space. We sold out as well which was great for such a small town. 

The next day saw us travelling up to Alnwick, where we were staying in two self catering farm cottages for the entire week while performing around Northumberland. We then had two days off to rest and enjoy the peaceful beachside town of Alnmouth, with the exception of Johnny and Hugh who were teaching, It was back to work on Wednesday for a performance in Alnwick, which also featured a curtain raiser debut from Junior Funk, (a local boys dance group), which was choreographed by Hugh and Johnny in their workshop the day before. We finished the week with our show in Berwick, where we were on one of the smallest stages we’ve performed on, though it was still a great show, with a lot of enthusiastic feedback from the crowd in the post show discussion. 

Lewis Wilkins

Week 4 - In The Dust

Hello guys its Matt again. 

So we have arrived in my beautiful home town of Birmingham. (Wohooooooo) its week four and the adrenaline and excitement is buzzing.

Everyone’s super excited to be here for three nights, our apartments are amazing,  and the show is selling very well.

- Today Lewis and I taught at Joseph Chamberlain College. The students were so talented and eager to learn. They all tried everything we threw at them. It’s so refreshing and makes my day  when I know that 2Faced Dance Company can inspire young people to want to take on dancing professionally. Especially now there are a lot more boys wanting to dance.

Now the teaching is over, its time to head to the theatre and warm up for the show. You can just feel the excitement from everyone. Birmingham Hippodrome (Dancexechange) is always so so so lovely to us. It’s such a nice atmosphere to be around,  which helps with the added pressure of being sold out.  There are a lot of important people in the audience so the nerves are kicking in too. 

But I reassure all the guys and just tell them “my friends and family are out there so it better be an amazing show otherwise there will be trouble after hehehe” I say that jokingly but really meaning it too. (Lol) No I’m joking all the shows went amazing and everyone was very happy.

Now we head to Nottingham and then to Spalding we are busy busy busy.Nottingham is always great especially when you have a little spare time to go shopping for Trainers.

Spalding was so friendly to 2Faced we love them there, I just wish there town centre would stay open a little bit later than 4:30 because I did the show that day very hungry. This is never a good idea. If you know Tamsin Fitzgerald’s or 2Faced’s work. (Lol)

Now it gets exciting,  we are all going up to Newcastle whoop whoop boosh nannn to see Robbie Graham and Bad Taste Cru and perform at Dance City.

But guys I have to go so someone else will fill you in on that next week.

Much love as always thank you to everyone who has been to our show this year of In The Dust, the love has been amazing.

Peace x

Matty C

Week 3 - In The Dust

Week 3 was one of the quietest weeks of the tour with only one performance in the beautiful seaside town of Weymouth at the Performing Art College. 3 of the company members headed up the night before and the rest followed up on the train the next morning. The technicians had to build up a stage on the floor in front of the college stage as our show was too explosive for their normal stage. Which helped with giving the best performance we could.

The audience was made up of mainly students from the college who were very inquisitive after the show asking a range of questions to do with our training, company history and info about the triple bill as the students had to write a review on what they saw. After the performance had finished, all of the equipment was packed away and we headed back to our accommodation to eat and chill. I decided to head to the beach to have some chill time and enjoy the nightly sounds of the sea and the waves crashing on the pier before I headed back to rest for the next day. As we were getting ready to leave the next day, one of the company members had a great idea of going to Durdle Door as this was on the way to our next destination. Durdle Door is basically a massive arch created in the middle of the rock with a beautiful beach running alongside it.  We took the time to train some flips on the beach and enjoy the heat of the sun as well as venturing into some of the caves formed from the sea. After some food we all jumped back into the tour van and headed up to Birmingham for our next stop. 

 

Big Love

Nantneen

Week 2 - In The Dust

Week 2 of the tour saw the company returning to our hometown of Hereford.  We had received an email from Tamsin a few days before travelling up, saying that Dan had hurt his knee and be prepared to make changes to the pieces if needed, but although high on very strong antibiotics and pain killers he managed to soldier through. 

There is something special about performing in front of your friends and family but this one was especially important for me as my mum came to watch me dance for the 1^st time in 4 years. It is quite weird performing at The Courtyard Arts Centre though because it’s where the company office is based which made the day feel like a rehearsal day at first, but once the performance started there was an electric atmosphere that really can’t be described. After the show it was nice to catch up with our friends and family and a lot of the Zoo venue staff from Edinburgh as a lot of them live in or around Hereford.

The next day saw us travelling to Loughborough or as Hugh likes to call it Looga-Barooga.  The stage there is quite small which meant spending a lot of time re working the 3 pieces to make them fit into the space, which we then had to perform while trying to remember these changes. Something which I don’t really like doing as you have to concentrate in a different way while still trying to keep you performance head on. After the performance we all went for a Curry because it was the closest day we had together to my birthday.  I was given a nice bottle of whiskey and a really cool dragster car model kit as presents.  So thank you to the guys Tamsin and James for making it a special day.

Jake Nwogu

Week 1 - In The Dust

It Begins…

Our first destination was Petersfield. We departed Hereford on Monday afternoon with a full van minus Lewis who was still in London and was meeting us there the next day. Mr Nathan French had the pleasure of being the 1st to drive our tour bus the length of the country. We were staying in two separate b&b's one of them being an old country manor house. We all ate together at the other guys hotel and straight away after dinner Dan, Nath and Luke spotted some hard board in the corner and immediately started training! I encouraged them from a corner, whilst nursing a full belly and a tasty Glenfiddich!

Day2, Show1:
The venue in Petersfield was Beedale's public school. We greatly accepted two wonderfully cooked (and free) meals, and wished that the rest of the theatres on tour would feed us as well!  Matt and i taught a small group of students studying dance in the afternoon. Matt put them through their paces and pushed them to their limits.  The space in this theatre was much smaller and lacked wings, so there was a lot of re-jigging to be done since the last time we'd performed which was in Edinburgh. The show went really well apart from the fact that half way through Tam's piece I had crippling stomach pain. Which was nice.

Day3, Show2:
My turn to drive the van today, Yeovil here we come! We had a great journey in to Somerset, over the Mendips and past Stone Henge. We even drove through the village where my grand parents ashes are buried, which made me smile.  The stage was massive so we had a real chance to spread the piece out and travel the hell out of every phrase! Fun, but very tiring.    Our b&b was lush! Massive flat screen tv's and a giant bath in the Tower Suite! All in all a good visit to Yeovil.

Day4, Show3:
Johnny drove us back the way we came and then up to Newbury. There were no 'wrong side of the road' drama's, as with the last tour! Tee hee! The show in Newbury went really well, much smaller stage, so everything was a bit contained again, but there was a really great energy in the company through all of the pieces. Unfortunately Dan's knee began to swell just before the show, and continued to afterwards. Hopefully a few days rest will have him back to full fighting energy. All in all, a very strong start to our epic tour of Britain. Next stop The Courtyard Centre for the Arts

Hugh Stanier