We are delighted to announce that NSCD graduates Isla Hurst and Luis Dunn are this year’s selected CATAPULT artists 2022/23.

CATAPULT is our year-long artist development programme for an emerging dance maker, creative partnership or collective based or working in Yorkshire.

As this year’s selected partnership, Isla and Luis receive a £3,000 development fund, access to rehearsal space, bespoke mentoring, tailored business advice from Spin Arts and the chance to stage new work at Riley Theatre.

On receiving the award, Isla and Luis said,

“We are immensely grateful to NSCD and Spin Arts to be awarded CATAPULT, and can’t wait to have the opportunity and support to learn, grow and hone our craft. We aim to use this year to fine-tune our screendance practice, and to pick up vital skills that we can take forward with us in our careers.“

With the CATAPULT award Isla and Luis aim to develop their work in narrative screendance, exploring complex and contradictory characters that reflect social concerns. The project builds on work already undertaken with the support of DanceEast, Yorkshire Dance and Open Source Arts.

Sarah Shead, Director and Creative Producer of Spin Arts, commented:

“We were extremely impressed with the quality of this year’s applications which together presented a broad range of ambition and artistic interests. We felt Isla and Luis demonstrated great maturity and potential. Their ideas were well articulated, relevant, and made a compelling case for support. We’re excited to start working with them over the next 12 months.”

Isla and Luis are the seventh and eighth artists to benefit from this programme; previous recipients include Duja Sinada, Gracefool Collective, Akeim Toussaint Buck and Carlos Pons Guerra.

CATAPULT is delivered in partnership with Spin Arts and made possible using public funding from the National Lottery through Arts Council England.