Press Release, London: 10 July 2012
Wayne McGregor’s Big Dance Trafalgar Square 2012 spectacular finale for Big Dance
Wayne McGregor’s spectacular new dance piece, BIG DANCE TRAFALGAR SQUARE 2012, involving 1,000 performers from 30 London groups will take place on Saturday 14 July in Trafalgar Square, as the finale of Big Dance 2012.
The performance will be part of a whole afternoon of Big Dance on Trafalgar Square, from 3 pm – 5.15 pm, starting with big screen broadcasts of commissioned films from Big Dance Beijing and Big Dance Rio. The day is part of Big Street Dance Day with events taking place across the UK.
Big Dance Trafalgar Square 2012 has been developed in a unique creative collaboration between Wayne McGregor|Random Dance and the London hub partners of Big Dance: East London Dance, English National Ballet, Greenwich Dance, Sadler’s Wells and Siobhan Davies Dance, with emerging and professional dancers and choreographers from a range of backgrounds across London. The groups involved represent a huge range of dance styles including Bollywood, Hip Hop, Street, Contemporary, Ballet and Latin American. The piece will include film footage by Ravi Deepres with a specially commissioned score by Scanner and Joel Cadbury and costumes by Studio XO, famed for their stage costumes for JLS and Black Eyed Peas.
Big Dance, founded in 2006 by the Mayor of London in partnership with Arts Council England, is the world’s biggest and most influential dance initiative. More than a major biennial dance festival, Big Dance is a vibrant, high profile campaign to get everyone taking part – wherever they are, whatever their age, experience or ability. Over 2 million people have taken part in Big Dance since it began, with events taking place in unusual locations including shopping centres, parks, bridges, sports centres, beaches, bandstands, bunkers, swimming pools, schools, in streets and public squares and travelling events on the Big Dance Bus as well as in performance spaces all over London.
Big Dance London, which is supported by Legacy Trust UK, Mayor of London and Arts Council England, includes major events and is co-ordinated through a partnership between the five Big Dance Hubs: East London Dance, English National Ballet, Greenwich Dance, Sadler’s Wells, Siobhan Davies Dance.
In 2012, the programme for Big Dance has expanded to reach out beyond London to communities all over the UK through a network of leading national dance organisations co-ordinated by the Foundation for Community Dance. These hub leads include: South East Dance, Dance South West/Pavilion Dance, Dance 4, Merseyside Dance Initiative, Yorkshire Dance, DanceEast, Dance City, Creative Scotland and Arts Council Wales
Wayne McGregor, Artistic Director of Wayne McGregor|Random Dance, and Resident Choreographer of The Royal Ballet has set the vision and choreographic framework for Big Dance Trafalgar Square 2012, as well as choreographing the Big Dance Schools Pledge, involving children from all over the world in taking part in the largest ever multi-location dance.
Big Dance 2012 is one of the biggest mass participation events being presented as part of the London 2012 Festival, the spectacular 12-week nationwide celebration running from 21 June until 9 September 2012 bringing together leading artists from across the world with the very best from the UK.
Big Dance is delivered by the Mayor of London, Arts Council England and the Foundation for Community Dance with a network of Big Dance Hubs, leading dance organisations around the UK. In London Big Dance has been funded by Legacy Trust UK, creating a lasting impact from the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games by funding ideas and local talent to inspire creativity across the UK, with additional support from the Foundation for Sport and the Arts.
For full details of Big Dance 2012 national programme, go to www.bigdance2012.com
Dance Groups involved in Big Dance Trafalgar Square 2012:
Turbelle’s Performing Arts
Get Up and Groove & Murlow Youth
East London Dance Adults
Bolivian Heritage
Robert Clack School
NrgDance
Greenwich Dance Agency Adults
Montage Theatre Arts
Laban Adults
Laban Youth
Iconics
English National Ballet School
Physical Ballet
Sapnay School of Dance
SA Dance
English National Ballet Adults
English National Ballet Youth Company
Combination Dance
Amici Dance Theatre
Bounce Theatre
Sadler’s Wells Over 60’s
Sadler’s Wells Adults
WAC
Arts Depot Ignite
Chicken Shed
Apsara Arts
Bubblegum Dance
Maloca
Ravenstone Primary School
Roehampton Dance
Notes to editors:
Wayne McGregor is a multi-award-winning British choreographer and director, internationally renowned for his physically testing choreography and groundbreaking collaborations across dance, film, music, visual art, technology and science. He is Artistic Director of Wayne McGregor | Random Dance, Resident Company at Sadler?s Wells Theatre in London and Resident Choreographer of The Royal Ballet (appointed 2006).
McGregor has created new works for La Scala, Paris Opera Ballet, New York City Ballet, Nederlands Dans Theatre, San Francisco Ballet, Australian Ballet and Stuttgart Ballet among others. He has also directed movement for theatre and film, and in 2011 he choreographed the Grammy-nominated Lotus Flower video for Radiohead. McGregor’s new work Metamorphosis: Titian 2012 is just about to premiere at The Royal Ballet, and upcoming productions for 2013 include commissions for San Francisco Ballet and Bolshoi Ballet, as well as a new work for his company Wayne McGregor | Random Dance.
McGregor’s work has earned him three Critics’ Circle Awards, two Time Out Awards, a South Bank Show Award and two Olivier Awards. In January 2011 McGregor was awarded a CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) for Services to Dance.
Wayne McGregor | Random Dance was founded in 1992 and became the instrument upon which McGregor evolved his drastically fast and articulate choreographic style. The company became a byword for its radical approach to new technology – incorporating animation, digital film, 3D architecture, electronic sound and virtual dancers into the live choreography. In Nemesis (2002), dancers duelled with prosthetic steel arm extensions to a soundtrack incorporating mobile phone conversations; in AtaXia (2004), McGregor’s fellowship with the Experimental Psychology department of Cambridge University fuelled the choreography; in Entity (2008), choreographic agents were imagined to a soundscape created by Coldplay collaborator Jon Hopkins and Joby Talbot; in FAR (2010), cutting edge design (rAndom International) fused with choreography mined from a radical cognitive research process; and in UNDANCE (2011), Eadward Muybridge’s pursuits of movement were brought to life on the stage.
Wayne McGregor | Random Dance is Resident Company of Sadler’s Wells Theatre, London.
‘Big Dance is London’s Legacy Trust UK programme delivered by the Mayor of London and Arts Council England. A national programme is co-ordinated by Foundation for Community Dance and is supported by major organisations including: Creative Scotland, Sport England, NHS London, London Councils, Youth Dance England, Council for Dance Education and Training, Dance Champions, Sport and Recreation Alliance and the British Council. Big Dance is one of the world’s biggest and most influential dance initiative delivered through a network of the UK’s leading dance organisations: Citymoves, Dance City, Dance Cymru/Wales Millennium Centre, Dance South West, Dance4, Dance Base, DanceEast, Dancehouse, DanceXchange, Dundee Dance Partnership, Dylan Quinn Dance Theatre, East London Dance, Eden Court Theatre, English National Ballet, Greenwich Dance, Macrobert Arts Centre, Merseyside Dance Initiative, Sadler’s Wells, Siobhan Davies Dance, South East Dance and Yorkshire Dance. www.bigdance2012.com
Legacy Trust UK is an independent charity whose mission is to support a wide range of innovative cultural and sporting activities which celebrate the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games and which will leave a lasting legacy in communities throughout the UK. Legacy Trust UK is funded by a £40 million endowment from the Big Lottery Fund (£29m), Department for Culture Media and Sport (£6m) and Arts Council England (£5m), and is a Principal Funder of the Cultural Olympiad and London 2012 Festival. For more information go to: www.legacytrustuk.org.
The Mayor of London is supporting a huge programme of free events and cultural activities to add to the excitement of 2012. Working with outstanding international artists and world class cultural organisations this unprecedented Mayor of London Presents programme is taking place in every corner of the capital to add to and complement the London 2012 Festival. It includes Secrets: Hidden London, with artists and performers transforming hidden and lesser known locations; Showtime, the largest outdoor arts festival ever seen in the capital, with dozens of electrifying artists from the UK and abroad coming to every borough, in high streets, parks and town centres; BT London Live, bringing live action from the Games, as well as sporting activities and entertainment to Hyde Park, Victoria Park and Trafalgar Square; and Surprises bringing pop-up performances and once in a lifetime experiences to locations familiar and unusual, above your heads and atop landmark buildings. To be the first to know what’s happening in this Summer Like No Other, sign up or follow us at www.molpresents.com / www.facebook.com/mayoroflondonpresents / www.twitter.com/molpresents
Arts Council England is proud to work in partnership with London 2012, and is a principal funder of the Cultural Olympiad and London 2012 Festival. The Arts Council champions, develops and invests in artistic and cultural experiences that enrich people’s lives. It supports a range of activities across the arts, museums and libraries – from theatre to digital art, reading to dance, music to literature, and crafts to collections. Great art and culture inspires us, brings us together and teaches us about ourselves and the world around us. In short, it makes life better. Between 2011 and 2015, it will invest £1.4 billion of public money from government and an estimated £1 billion from the National Lottery to help create these experiences for as many people as possible across the country. www.artscouncil.org.uk
Foundation for Community Dance (FCD) is the strategic development organisation for community dance in the UK and internationally, and leads the delivery of the Big Dance national programme – wrapping around activities in London. FCD believes that dance can transform the lives of individuals and communities. Their vision is for a world where dance is part of everyone’s life, and mission to make engagement with dance important to individuals, communities and society. FCD works with, and on behalf of artists, organisations and teachers who lead, deliver or support community and participatory dance. For more visit www.communitydance.org.uk
The London 2012 Cultural Olympiad is the largest cultural celebration in the history of the modern Olympic and Paralympic Movements. Spread over four years, it is designed to give everyone in the UK a chance to be part of London 2012 and inspire creativity across all forms of culture, especially among young people. The London 2012 Cultural Olympiad is the largest cultural celebration in the history of the modern Olympic and Paralympic Movements. Spread over four years, it is designed to give everyone in the UK a chance to be part of London 2012 and inspire creativity across all forms of culture, especially among young people. The culmination of the Cultural Olympiad is the London 2012 Festival, a spectacular 12-week nationwide celebration bringing together leading artists from across the world with the very best from the UK, from Midsummers Day on 21 June and running until the final day of the Paralympic Games on 9 September 2012.The London 2012 Festival celebrates the huge range, quality and accessibility of the UK’s world-class culture including dance, music, theatre, the visual arts, fashion, film and digital innovation, giving the opportunity for people across the UK to celebrate the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Principal funders of the Cultural Olympiad and London 2012 Festival are Arts Council England, Legacy Trust UK and the Olympic Lottery Distributor. BP and BT are Premier Partners of the Cultural Olympiad and the London 2012 Festival. For more details on the programme, to download the London 2012 Festival official guide and to sign up for information visit www.london2012.com/festival
The British Council is the UK’s international organisation for educational opportunities and cultural relations. We work in over 100 countries worldwide to build opportunity and trust for the UK through the exchange of knowledge and ideas between people. For more information visit www.britishcouncil.org
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