News

Trinity Laban is thrilled to announce that H2Dance, Cameron McMillan, and Elisa Pagani have been invited to create a triple-bill of new works in collaboration with Transitions Dance Company 2019/20.

The three creators will work with the 2019/20 company to devise original performance pieces that showcase the next generation of contemporary dance performers.

Award-winning Scandinavian choreographer/performer duo H2DANCE (Hanna Gillgren and Heidi Rustgaard) are known for creating interdisciplinary dance theatre works that often take a humorous approach to serious subject matters. Combining movement, voice, and video, their choreography explores themes of group behaviour, conformity, power balance and manipulation. H2DANCE have taken up residencies at Dance4, METAL, Pavilion Dance, Dance East, DanceDigital, The Place, DansiT, SEANSE, Union Scene, Scenerommet, Nordic House Iceland, Devir CAPa (Centro de Artes Performativas do Algarve) Portugal, Taipei Artist Village Taiwan and Gaara Dance Foundation in Kenya.  The company are currently touring the UK and Europe with their immersive Strange & Others, intergenerational Staging Ages, and award-winning DUET.

Described by The Observer as one of ‘the most compelling and intelligent dancers on the world stage’, New Zealand-born, London-based choreographer, dance artist and movement director Cameron McMillan has an extensive international performance and creative career spanning contemporary dance, ballet, film, and commercial fields. Classically trained at the Australian Ballet School, Cameron has danced as a Soloist for the Royal New Zealand Ballet, English National Ballet, and Rambert, and now primarily creates independent and commissioned work for companies, festivals and leading dance institutions including the Royal Opera House, The Place, Channel 4 Random Acts, and Brisbane Festival. In his choreographic work he is interested in exploring complex and articulate physical architectures in a search for a resonant communication of the human experience. Both drawing from and challenging his formal dance background, he often creates at the intersect of dance forms and is inspired by movement’s potential to shape the way both still and moving image is created.

Italian choreographer and dance educator Elisa Pagani is the founder and Artistic Director of DNA, a contemporary dance company known for its distinctive movement that marries physicality and instinct, sensibility and strength, to explore the complexity of human relationships in their most primal state. From 2012-2015 Elisa was Artistic Director of the contemporary dance department at the Accademia del Teatro dell’Antoniano in Bologna and is now Head of Contemporary Dance and Artistic Director of professional training programmes APP and APPSTAGE at Almadanza Choreographic Arts Academy in Bologna. Her collaborations include working across Europe with Sasha Waltz and Guests at Radialsystem, Napoli Teatro Festival, and Florence Dance Festival. She has also worked as a workshop leader and guest choreographer with professional training programmes across Italy, including Opus Ballet, Opificio, Artemente, and Scenario Pubblico.

The choreographers will share a wealth of knowledge of contemporary dance in practise and experience of collaborative performance art with the Transitions dance artists before the company embarks on an international tour of the triple-bill in spring 2020.

By allowing company members to gain practical experience of life in a touring dance company, whilst simultaneously completing their MA in Dance Performance at Trinity Laban, the programme bridges the gap between training and a professional performance career.

This year’s company is currently touring a dynamic and varied programme by legendary American choreographer Karole Armitage, collaborative British dance artist Marina Collard, andLondon-based performance maker Hetain Patel. Tour dates for the current Transitions Tour 2019 can be found on the Transitions website. 

Applications are open for 2019/20 entry to the MA programme, with first-round UK auditions taking place on 27 and 28 February 2019 in London. Preliminary auditions for overseas applications will take place in London in early March.

For more information on the course and how to join Transitions, please visit trinitylaban.ac.uk/madanceperformance.