NSCD alumnus Sean Moss (BPA 2018) and current third-year student Isla Hurst have been awarded commissions by 2Faced Dance to create new work on the company's professional dancers.
The call-out was announced as part of Multi Story Festival and over 100 young artists applied; Sean and Isla were chosen after an anonymous shortlisting process by a panel of young people, independent artists and the company. They'll begin to make their new work in Spring 2021 and each receive:
The commissions are supported using funding from Arts Council England and The Elmley Foundation.
Sean’s new work will bridge the gap between theatrical performance and the world of live music and pub culture. Exploring the anger and resentment of disparate groups through raw and visceral movement language, G.R.E.A.T. will tour beer gardens and pubs to generate new audiences for dance.
Sean graduated from Northern School of Contemporary Dance in 2018 and joined 2Faced Dance Company as a full-time dance artist, performing works by Tamsin Fitzgerald and Lenka Vagnerova. Sean then joined Joss Arnott Dance in 2019 for their outdoor work PULSE! before touring Aakash Odedra’s #Je Suis across Germany and Italy and creating a new work with Caitlin Barnett Company. In February 2020 Sean joined James Wilton Dance Company for the tour of The Storm.
Isla’s new work Bert the Turtle’s D.O.A will draw on 50’s American Cold War propaganda to deliver an experience that contrasts innocence with apathy, conformity with anarchy. This satirical physical theatre piece will be brought to life in film.
A choreographer and writer based in Leeds, currently in her third and final year at NSCD, Isla began making her own work in 2018 when she founded the three-piece company Yoodaloo Dance Theatre. She works regularly with Instant Dissidence and took part in the 2020 tour of The Rebellion, a piece that educated the public on the dangers of climate change. Isla is a climate activist and regularly addresses political issues in her work.
