Timeline

Heni Hale steps down as Co-Director after an inspiring tenure of six years and is succeeded by Nathaniel Parchment. Heni remains Lead Tutor of MA Creative Practice: Dance Professional

ID launches dance it dance it, a year-long programme focus on artistic approaches to access and inclusive leadership

Renée Bellamy joins the team as Digital Communications Assistant

ID and SDS consortium application to remain part of ACE’s national portfolio of organisations is successful, with funding remaining at standstill. SDS is lead partner of the consortium

ID runs a second edition of International Festival of Learning with a fortnight of labs, talks and performances

ID launches its Digital Library and re-releases 20 year archive of talks as an online, open-access resource

ACE Project Grant funding awarded to ID to deepen our work on centering disabled, d/Deaf and neurodivergent artists as leaders

Artist/producer Iris Chan, creative evaluator Mita Pujara and producer/record label manager CJ Mitchell join ID’s Board of Trustees, and Eva Martinez, Efrosini Protopapa and Andy Wansell step down after six years of service

Kimberley Harvey, artist and Director of the Youth Dance Programme for Candoco Dance Company joins ID’s Board

ID ONLINE continues throughout the COVID-19 pandemic with a daily offer of classes and material from the archive attended by participants in 52 countries.

ID launches a pilot edition of the International Festival of Learning

MA/MFA Creative Practice course is revalidated for a further 5 years with commendations for community-building, quality of practice and adaptability to the circumstances of the pandemic

Claud Tonietto steps down as Programme Coordinator and Alison Thomas takes up the role

Our guest-edited issue of Theatre, Dance and Performance Training Journal is published, the first time in its history that the journal has been edited by non-academics

We launch FLOURISH, a new mentoring scheme supporting aritsts to mentor each other across generations

ID joins UK Dance Network (formerly known as National Dance Network)

ID goes online in the Covid-19 pandemic with a daily programme of classes attended by 4000+ artists during the year

Who: ID welcomes producer Nicky Childs and researcher/practitioner Sara Reed as new co-Chairs. Gitta Wigro steps down in February as co-director after 7 successful years. Nikki Tomlinson takes up the role of co-director in March.

ID begins a guest-editorship of a special issue of Theatre, Dance and Performance Training Journal, to be published in 2021

ID starts Intersectional Dance Practices, a multi-stranded programme including an intergenerational peer mentoring scheme, consultation around decolonising the MA/MFA Creative Practice curriculum, commissioned writing around anti-racist practices in HE and research labs led by artists across a range of forms and practices

Gitta Wigro steps down in February as co-director after 7 successful years. Nikki Tomlinson takes up the role of co-director in March.

Fernanda Muñoz-Newsome, an artist and MFA Creative Practice alumnus, joins ID’s Board

ID offers the first opportunity to experience the first 15 classes of Skinner Releasing Technique in London since 2010. The intensive is led by Gaby Agis, Kirsty Alexander and Lizzy LeQuesne

ID joins the 2-year Contemporary Dance and Whiteness project led by Royona Mitra, Arabella Stanger and Simon Ellis

ID’s international programme WinLab, continues with intensives ad talks led by Maria Hassabi (CYP/US), Bojana Cvejić (RS/BE), Miranda Tufnell (UK), Eva Karcag (NL) and Jennifer Lacey (US/FR)

Artist, teacher, performer and co-founder of the collective Dog Kennel Hill Project, Heni Hale takes up the role of co-director in 2018, succeeding Kirsty Alexander and leading on artistic direction

Lisa Nelson, a founding figure in Contact Improvisation and creator of Tuning Scores, leads Pattern Recognitions , an evening of solo dancing, and a participatory game salon with two dancevideogames-in-progress based on Tuning Scores.

ID becomes a registered charity

ID presents the Action Learning project, the first programme specifically for dance artists to work with cycles of action and reflection as a problem solving tool. Delivered in partnership with Dancers’ Career Development and supported by the Bonnie Bird Choreography Fund

Kirsty Alexander steps down as co-director, remaining module leader for  MA/MFA Creative Practice

ID’s advisory group becomes ID’s board of trustees, comprising Andrew Graham, Efrosini Protopapa, Eva Martinez, Andy Wansell, and Susan Davies as Chair.

The Leverhulme Trust awards us a second 3-year round of funding to support Gill Clarke Bursaries for students on MA Creative Practice 2016–19.

ID co-hosts Memory at Work: Rosemary Butcher in the Present Tense, to commemorate her work and legacy following her death earlier that year.

ID runs the 7th and final edition of WHAT Festival first established by Gill Clarke and Fiona Millward and with guest curators over the years including Frank Bock, Martin Hargreaves and Straybird (Becky Edmunds and Lucy Cash) and with partners including SDS, Artsadmin and South East Dance

Fiona Millward departs as co-director after 18 successful years, having steered ID to become a key part of the UK dance field with international reach. Kirsty Alexander takes over as co-director working alongside Gitta Wigro

Routledge publishes Becky Edmunds’ documentary about Deborah Hay’s Solo Performance Commissioning Project, Turn Your F*^king Head, with essays by Susan Foster, Bojana Bauer & Myrto Katsiki, and Deborah Hay

ID and SDD host artists Jan Ritsema, Mårten Spångberg, Bojana Cvejić and Jonathan Burrows to share the philosophies and strategies of Performing Arts Forum (PAF) France with 80 artists based in the UK during a weekend lab

ID runs Re:Imagine India, an artistic exchange project for reciprocal artistic and organisational learning, with Gati Dance Forum (Delhi) supported by ACE/British Council

Independent Dance is awarded an BBC PAF Fellowship to support artist Ay de la Fe

ID-commissioned documentary Turn Your F*^king Head by Deborah Hay premieres at Cinedans Festival in Amsterdam

ID and SDD offer the first round of Gill Clarke Bursaries to three students on MA Creative Practice supported by The Leverhulme Trust

Gitta Wigro becomes co-director of ID alongside Fiona Millward.

ID forms a new advisory group, with Eva Martinez as chair, and Miranda Tufnell, David Burnie, Efrosini Protopapa and Andrew Graham as members, bringing a mix of practicing artists, curators, industry professionals and teachers to help steer the organisation.

The final Solo Performance Commissioning Project led by Deborah Hay takes place in Findhorn, with partner Bodysurf Scotland (now known as Dance North).

ID partners with 11 European organisations on the launch of IDOCDE, an initiative to document and share teaching practice

BBC Performing Arts Fund funds a fellowship hosted by ID for independent dance and visual artist Janine Harrington

Co-director and pioneering dance artist Gill Clarke dies on 15 November 2011 after many years of living with cancer. Fiona Millward continues to lead ID with support from freelance consultant Theresa Beattie

The first year of MA Creative Practice commences, jointly run by ID, Trinity Laban and Siobhan Davies Studios. The programme is groundbreaking in its emphasis on practice-based research, embodied learning, and in establishing strong links between professional and academic spheres

The WHAT series of festivals launches with Gill Clarke curating a weekend of experimental work by a new generation of dance artists entitled What Now 2009.

Crossing Borders talks launch, hosting interdisciplinary conversations and forming the beginnings of ID’s audio archive.

ID leads Deborah Hay London project: A Lecture on the Performance of Beauty presented by Deborah Hay at Siobhan Davies Studios, and a premiere performance of Grope and Find it and Pull it Out at Laban.

A new website includes features for dissemination and debate including film clips and transcripts, forming the first version of ID’s digital library.

ID launches Feedback Forums, which use Liz Lerman’s Critical Response Process in response to new work by professional choreographers. The programme runs through til 2017.

ID and Siobhan Davies Dance formally become a consortium; both had previously been funded as part of Arts Council England’s National Portfolio of Organisations (NPO) as individual organisations. This represents a shift to become an NPO as a consortium with SDD as the lead partner

Siobhan Davies and team open Siobhan Davies Studios, designed by Sarah Wigglesworth Architects and winning a 2006 RIBA National Award.  Siobhan Davies invites Independent Dance to join her company in the building as a resident organisation

ID begins a new partnership with Siobhan Davies Dance and moves into their new home at Siobhan Davies Studios in Elephant & Castle, London.

The first Deborah Hay UK Solo Performance Commissioning Project takes place in Findhorn, Scotland, in partnership with Bodysurf Scotland.

London International Summer School celebrates Judson Church pioneers Yvonne Rainer and Deborah Hay, and expands to include film showings and time for dialogue and discussion

ID Co-Directors Gill Clarke and Fiona Millward receive a joint fellowship from NESTA (the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts); to develop ID, supporting a new website, launch of Winlab, and the partnership with Siobhan Davies Dance.

The longstanding partnership with post-modern dance pioneer Deborah Hay begins.

Winlab, an annual programme inviting international teaching artists to lead intensive workshops, is launched

The longstanding partnership with post-modern dance pioneer Deborah Hay begins.

Winlab (Winter Laboratory) — an annual, intensive creative dance laboratory hosting leading international artists and aimed at working professionals — is launched in December.

The Summer School and London Dance International partnership, which provided advanced level training opportunities for professional dance artist, is developed with Chisenhale Dance Space and Greenwich Dance Agency. Future years will celebrate Judson Church pioneer Yvonne Rainer, and include space for discussions and talks.

Independent Dance moves to a new home at Jerwood Space with the support of Jerwood Director Richard Lee.

ID achieves regularly funded status from Arts Council England.

Morning professional classes move to a studio at the Institute of Social Work in Coram’s Fields, Bloomsbury when the Holborn Centre Closes.

Fiona Millward joins ID as coordinator of the programme, with support from London Arts Board.

The first Thursday Group discussion forum for dance artists is held to debate views and develop a cohesive voice in preparation for an open funder’s meeting.

ID begins the first regular professional contemporary dance classes in the UK at the Holborn Centre in London. From the start, classes embrace an ethos that combines mindful enquiry with technical rigour.

ID is created by a group of individual dance artists as a vehicle for new movement forms and ideas.