News

Dance artists Elise Phillips, Daisy Farris, Kate Brown, and Aline Derderian will present work at the third Bite Size Pieces sharing

Bite Size Pieces is our performance platform for dance alumni supporting creative practice. It offers the opportunity to showcase new work with professional tech support and receive peer feedback.

The scheme, which launched in March 2019, continues with a quartet of alumni sharing work in the Laban Building’s Studio Theatre on Saturday 22 February 2020.

The programme features:

• Kate Brown’s What’s up Buttercup? – an experiment in film, choice and chance including projected video footage and live dancing

• Aline Derderian’s The Prophetess (A tribute) – a reimagining of revolutionary dance maker Anna Halprin’s first solo (1947), influenced by the ritualistic whirling of Sufi Dervishes

• Daisy Farris’ Whitehall 9400 – a short excerpt of the choreographer’s first solo work inspired by her grandparents’ long-distance relationship during World War 2, using physical theatre to reimagine the life of an ordinary woman in an extraordinary situation

• Elise Phillips’ Waterbodies – an aesthetic and non-narrative work of dance and film highlighting the patterns, detail and grandeur of nature that invites people to notice and connect to their local environment in new ways

As part of the evening the artists will receive feedback from Lizzi Kew Ross (Artistic Director of Lizzi Kew Ross & Co and Lecturer in Choreography at Trinity Laban) and Charles Linehan (previously Choreographer in Residence at The Place, now Reader in Choreography at Trinity Laban).

The evening’s performance will be followed by a free drinks reception, giving both the audience and the artists a chance to socialise and engage in further discussions about the works.

On taking part, Kate Brown comments –

“Bite Size Pieces offers me a perfect opportunity to use film with choreographed live performance and to work with other dancers.”

Fellow Alum Aline Derderian adds –

“Coming back to perform at Trinity Laban represents an exciting opportunity for me to share with current students, staff members and other audiences the impact my training continues to have on my creative process and career.”

On presenting her first solo work, Daisy Farris explains –

“I am excited and terrified all at once, as this is a new challenge for me. It is a pleasure to be bringing the first draft of this work to Trinity Laban, as this is where it all started. This platform is the perfect place for myself, and my fellow artists, to share our work in progress. It is a unique opportunity for audiences to see work in its early stages and give feedback on how it might develop.”

Elise comments –

“Since graduating I’ve been mainly producing so am more used to presenting other people’s work. It feels entirely different to share my own creation – like I’m baring a piece of my soul – especially when it was such an exploratory process. I’m really looking forward to hearing what other people see in the film, there’s plenty of space for people to read their own meanings into it.”

Bite Size Pieces
18.30| SAT 22 FEB | Studio Theatre, Laban Building, SE8 3DZ
Admission Free, RSVP to alumni@trinitylaban.ac.uk

Future alumni performance opportunities are anticipated in the next academic year. To register interest or apply, please email Lucy Nicholson (Communications and Alumni Relations Manager) at alumni@trinitylaban.ac.uk

Trinity Laban is London’s Creative Conservatoire: an internationally celebrated centre of excellence, transforming those with potential into resourceful, enterprising and adaptable artistic leaders.

To find out more, visit our study pages.

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Image L-R: Kate Brown, Daisy Farris, Aline Derderian

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Kate Brown

London-based choreographer, dancer and improviser Kate has worked independently for over 30 years, making over 30 dance pieces and dancing for numerous other choreographers and companies including Dog Kennel Hill Project 2018. She has been a member of several improvisation performance collectives including Group 5 and The Friday Club, and she set up and ran London Improvisation in Performance (LIP) with Rebecca Skelton from 2001 to 2008. An experience teacher, Kate currently works with London Contact Improvisation, Independent Dance and Morley College. She completed her MA in Creative Practice with Trinity Laban, Independent Dance and Siobhan Davies Dance in 2018. Since graduating she has continued to experiment with making short films inspired in part by the module “Dance and the Moving Image”.

Aline Derderian

Aline studied her BA (hons) Performance Design & Practice at Central Saint Martins College of Arts and Design before becoming a Leverhume scholar for the Arts in 2016, which enabled her to complete her MFA in Choreography at Trinity Laban.  She is a visiting associate lecturer and design tutor on the Design for Dance and Central Saint Martins, uniting designers with choreography and performance students from Rambert School, Central School of Ballet and London Studio Centre. Currently undertaking a PhD thesis at Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, Aline is exploring innovative ways to envision a feminist historiography of dance, inherited from American postmodern choreographers and seventies activist performers.

Daisy Farris

London-based dancer, choreographer and teacher Daisy danced with Trinity Laban’s professional company Transitions from 2012-13, gaining her MA in Dance Performance and is the Artistic Director of Daisy Farris Dance Collective. She works in a range of different settings and is passionate about making work that is accessible for a wide range of audiences, both in terms of its content and settings. As a choreographer, she frequently collaborates with musicians, visual artists, cinematographers, photographers and technicians and has worked in partnerships with museums, galleries, schools, youth centres to bring contemporary dance work to new audiences. Her most recent work, The Great Thames Disaster (2017-18), toured the Thames from London to the Isle Of Sheppey, performed in site-specific locations in each town, including on board a light vessel ship moored in Gravesend. As a dancer, Daisy has worked with companies such as Loop Dance Company, The Urban Playground Team and Clarisse Roud Works. She is a lecturer in Contemporary Technique at Bird College and teaches across the Learning and Participation programmes at Trinity Laban.

Elise Phillips

Producer and Dance Artist Elise creates opportunities for people to experience the joy and challenge of dancing and making dance. With over 10 years experience as a dance artist and community arts facilitator, and over 15 as a producer and manager in a range of industries, Elise is a champion for female-led projects and work that has a strong social agenda. Elise is interested in applying contemporary choreographic frameworks to folk dance forms and experimenting with fusing dance vocabularies. She has danced for Rosemary Lee, Hiccup Project & Tony Thatcher and has worked for companies including Vincent Dance Theatre, Stopgap Dance Company, South East Dance & Tilted Productions. She completed her Postgraduate Diploma Community Dance at Trinity Laban in 2012.