NSCD is delighted to reveal the artists set to join the 2024 cohort of OUTBOUND.
OUTBOUND is an artist development programme empowering creatives to expand their networks, foster new relationships, grow audiences and seize opportunities beyond their hometown/city. It also addresses the unique challenges and opportunities encountered by independent artists when beginning to tour.
OUTBOUND is delivered by partners Northern School of Contemporary Dance (NSCD), The Place, Yorkshire Dance, FABRIC, Dance City, DanceEast and South East Dance.
The 2024 artist cohort of artists, each with a new work in progress, were nominated by one of the partner organisations with whom they have an existing relationship.
NSCD’s CEO and Principal Sharon Watson MBE DL said:
“We are thrilled to be a partner on OUTBOUND which aims to help artists connect with fellow artists, dance organisations and event hosts from various locations. It’s about building new connections, having valuable conversations and creating fresh opportunities for each other and for dance. We are excited to learn more about each of the 2024 works and see them come to life.”
The 2024 artists are: Bakani Pick-up, Chess Dillon-Reams, Ashley Jordan, Chisato Minamimura, Glass House Dance (Laura McGill and Sarah Lewis) and Jesse Salaman and Toi Guy. Read on below for more about each of them.
Nominated by Yorkshire Dance and Northern School of Contemporary Dance, Bakani Pick-up is a choreographer, movement artist, improvisation practitioner and Artistic Lead for Bakani Pick-up Company. In addition to creating their own work, they have performed nationally and internationally with works by Theo Clinkard, Anthea Hamilton and Fevered Sleep. With practice as research at the core of their work, they explore themes of decolonisation through dance practice, haptic visuality and choreographic composition.
NSCD alumna Chess Dillon-Reams, who graduated from our BA (Hons) course in 2013, was nominated by South East Dance. Chess has toured nationally with works by Christine Gouzelis & Paul Blackman, David Lloyd and Jasmin Vardimon. Chess co-founded the multi-award winning, comedic dance-theatre company The Hiccup Project. Driven by human, social themes and real-life experience, Chess has been developing a new work about different & personal relationships to mothering; delving into questions of how we are mothered by and mother others, ultimately examining our relationships to how we mother ourselves.
Nominated by FABRIC, Ashley Jordan is a Black British dancer / choreographer and Company Director of Ascension Dance Company. As a choreographer, he has produced work with the BBC and Sky Arts, and the Birmingham Commonwealth Games 2022. Chosen for the City of Culture Leadership programme and selected as a Vital Spark 2022/23 with Spark Arts, he is currently finishing a Developing Your Creative Practice funding grant supported by Art Council England.
Chisato Minamimura, nominated by The Place, is a deaf performance artist, choreographer and British Sign Language art guide. By using dance and technology, Chisato aims to share her experiences of sensory perception and human encounters, approaching choreography and performance making from her unique perspective as a deaf artist, experimenting with and exploring the visualisation of sound and music.
Nominated by DanceEast, Glass House Dance (Sarah Lewis and Laura Anderson) has made its mark on the outdoor arts scene, touring nationally for ten years. Their reputation is built on creating uplifting participatory and interactive performances and events for people of all ages. Sarah and Laura are recognised for working collaboratively with both professional and recreational dancers by hosting a positive, playful space for people to express their unique creativity to make human, touching dance experiences with wide appeal.
Nominated by Dance City, Jesse Salaman is a queer movement artist based in Newcastle Upon Tyne, who creates durational improvisations involving live sound making and experimental dance performances that explore gaze, liveness and agency. Working together with Toi Guy, a queer Geordie-Colombian artist who works with movement, video and fibres to create performances, screen-dance and wearable items, they have been developing a joint practice exploring queerness through movement and sound, creating fantasy landscapes through costume, choreography and live electronic sound scores.
