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Tough Boys Dance Collective named as Sadler’s Wells Young Associates

Fri 24 February 2023

We are delighted that Tough Boys Dance Collective (TBDC), a queer led dance theatre collective composed of TL alumni, have been made one of Sadler’s Wells Young Associates 2023/24.

As part of Sadler’s Well Learning & Engagement work, the Young Associates programme nurtures early career choreographers aged between 18 and 26 years to deepen their understanding of their own artistic practice and gain valuable insight into dance production. Along with Maiya Leeke, Elisabeth Mulenga and BLUE MAKWANA, TBDC are part of the third intake of dance makers who will receive this support from Sadler’s Wells over the next two years.

Established in 2021 during their training at TL, Tough Boys Dance Collective co-founders Sula Castle, Roseann Dendy and Daze Hingorani create interdisciplinary works using phenomenological research to explore ideas of community and its intersections with gender, sexuality, religion and class.

The piece they created for the selection process, Dog Meat, was presented at the Lilian Baylis Theatre and featured TL dance alumni Donna Smith, Andrea Callaghan, Charlotte Bennett, Yu-Chien Cheng and dance artist Naissa Bjørn, accompanied live by TL Faculty of Dance musician Steve Ashmore.

Dog Meat dissects a shared feeling of dread about the future of the Earth and how this seeps into basic human experiences of care, conflict, obsession, resilience, sex and community. Focusing on how we feel this dread collectively, the piece witnesses the human devolving into the dog, the slug and the corpse. Watch a clip from the rehearsal footage here.

We’re excited to see how Tough Boys Dance Collective grows and develops over the next two years.

Image credit: Jack Thomson

Interested in studying dance at TL? Find out about our Dance programmes here.

Trinity Laban is one of only two dance schools that have been recognised as ‘world-leading’ by the Office for Students. In all, 20 specialist providers received allocated funds following a review of 44 submissions. Read more about our OfS funding here.