Julyen Hamilton, choreographer and improviser – and a key figure in the development of New Dance – in conversation with Jacky Lansley, herself central to the development of independent and experimental dance in the UK, on the development of New Dance in Europe and the UK. This conversation explores some of the practices and evolution within Julyen’s work and thinking (in 2012) as a choreographer and teacher.
Julyen Hamilton is a dancer, choreographer, poet and teacher and he has been making dances for over 35 years performing dance work throughout the world. Julyen trained at the London School of Contemporary Dance and was briefly a member of the London Contemporary Dance Theatre. His work is mostly improvised: he composes dance pieces instantly as well as the texts which often accompany them. When choreographing with his company, Allen’s Line, he directs dancers and lighting designers to make and perform work through this same immediacy. He is at present presenting the solo The Immaterial World, performing duos with bass players Barre Phillips and Jean-Claude Jones (France and Israel), Ritsche Koch – live painting, dance and music (Berlin), and Local Talk with his company Allen’s Line. His label Blue Dog DVDs produces videos of his performances on DVD. A CD of his music and poetry The Edge of Letters was released in January 2012 on the Sybil Sings label in Holland.
Jacky Lansley is an interdisciplinary choreographer, performance artist and writer who has been a leading exponent of new and independent dance practice within the UK for four decades. She was a founder of UK’s seminal independent dance studios – X6 Dance Space and Chisenhale Dance Space – and in 2002 she founded the Dance Research Studio, which has supported the making of her recent works and a professional development programme: The Speaking Dancer: Interdisciplinary Performance Training (SDIPT) for dancers and actors. The artist’s work combines visual and theatrical disciplines and is concerned with space and the site specific; several of her works have been inspired by the Cornish landscape with which she has a long term special relationship. Her most recent project Guest Suites (2012) developed in dialogue with Bach’s Cello Suites, premiered in The Clore Studio at the Royal Opera House, London and toured to diverse sites with outstanding reviews. Lansley guest lectures at a variety of institutions and is an Associate Lecturer at Plymouth University. She is the author of numerous articles on dance and performance practice and is on the editorial advisory board of Choreographic Practices, published by Intellect Journals. She is co-author (with Fergus Early) of The Wise Body: Conversations with Experienced Dancers published by Intellect Books in 2011 and is currently working on a new book – Holding Space – about her own choreographic practice.
As published in 2012.
