Applications to be part of VERVE 23 are now open. Create brand new work with international choreographers and their collaborators. Tour across the UK, grow your artistry with VERVE Curriculum Lead Matteo Marfoglia and a variety of guest artists, develop teaching skills and participate in exchanges with peers.
Next year (2022/23) the company will present work by:
KOR'SIA - NEW WORK
JAMAAL BURKMAR - NEW WORK
FAYE TAN - NEW WORK
There will also be an opportunity to partner with LEEDS 2023 to create and present a site-responsive commission in diverse spaces across Leeds in Spring 2023.
Our search for a diverse company of dancers from all backgrounds begins now.
Statement from VERVE Curriculum Lead, Matteo Marfoglia:
“In 2022/23 we welcome three artists, each with a special or new connection to the city of Leeds, to create three brand new commissions with the company. Alongside this, I am excited to look at how VERVE will find a unique connection with Leeds 2023 – Year of Culture.
Jamaal Burkmar returns to VERVE after graduating from NSCD and being the first and only undergraduate commissioned for VERVE in 2014. Jamaal cares deeply about the relationship that his work has with audiences especially in relation to digital media.
We also have a second return to Leeds in choreographer Faye Tan, originally from Singapore and now based in Wales. Faye is an alumni of VERVE and brings joy, pleasure and self-expression combined with exquisite physicality.
Finally, I am excited to introduce the acclaimed Spanish collective KOR’SIA to UK audiences for the first time. KOR’SIA is a collective of artists (Mattia Russo and Antonio de Rosa) creating strikingly visual experiences driven by a complex physicality and a cinematic feel.
We recognise each dancer has their unique skills and experiences to offer, and support them in exploring their unique potential rigorously. Alongside working with choreographers, VERVE works with exceptional practitioners across many movement practices in the development of their artistry.
I am delighted by the success of our VERVE alumni, witnessing their growth and forging themselves as dance artists of the future. I am also excited to lead a programme that celebrates Leeds as a creative city and a welcoming place for new artists to develop their practice. I look forward to welcoming applicants here in Leeds as well as our online auditionees from all over the world.”
VERVE is the postgraduate company of Northern School of Contemporary Dance and all dancers are enrolled on the School’s MA in Contemporary Dance Performance.
Course info How to applyKOR’SIA is the collective brainchild of multi-award-winning choreographers Mattia Russo and Antonio de Rosa. Established in 2015, the company was selected in 2019 as one of the most promising emerging European artists for Aerowaves, touring to multiple festivals across the region.
KOR’SIA believe dance is unique in its ability to communicate our lived experiences, connecting people to their most intimate and spiritual selves. Their work seeks to create new ways of being in the world through both individual and collective spaces, subverting traditions and canonical structures along the way.
Mattia and Antonio trained together at National Academy, Rome, then in Milan at Teatro alla Scala Ballet School. Over the years they have each worked with numerous choreographers including Ohad Naharin, William Forsythe, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Ivan Perez, Marcos Morau, Johan Inger, Robert Battle and Didy Veldman.
As KOR’SIA they have created works for Victor Ullate Ballet in Madrid, Teatro Massimo in Palermo, Konzert Theater Bern and Ballet of the Opéra National du Rhin, and staged work at Suzanne Dellal Center in Tel Aviv, Mercat de les Flors in Barcelona and Theatre Nacional de la dance Chaillot.
This will be the first time the duo have created work for a UK company.
Watch: Previous WorkJamaal Burkmar is a graduate of NSCD. His work explores the close relationship between music and movement.
Jamaal’s first full work Ocean was created during his second year of study. The piece gained critical acclaim, was performed around the North of England and reworked for VERVE. This marked the first time in the school’s history of an undergraduate being commissioned whilst still in training.
On graduating, Jamaal created a number of works for other professional companies as well as a piece titled Sonder for his own company. The success of this piece led to Jamaal being awarded the highly prestigious ‘New Adventures Choreographer Award’ by Sir Matthew Bourne.
In 2018 , Jamaal’s company began operating under the name Extended Play, and was awarded a commission from the Birmingham Dance Hub to research new ways of engaging audiences online. Recently The Place made Jamaal one of their Workplace artists, which includes 5 years of ongoing support, including commissioning his latest project Donuts to tour around the UK.
instagram.com/extendedplaydance
Watch: previous workFaye is a dancer and choreographer, and currently a full-time dancer with National Dance Company Wales. Recently, she choreographed Moving is everywhere, forever for the company, collaborating with electronic music duo Larch.
Her choreographic practice is influenced by a wide range of movement techniques and genres and seeks to embody the complex, personal beauty of catharsis.
Prior to joining NDCWales, Faye was a dance artist with Frontier Danceland, working with international guest choreographers including Shahar Binyamini, Edouard Hue and Thomas Lebrun. She has also collaborated with Richard Chappell Dance for The colour of there seen from here (2018) and Silence Between Waves’(2019). She has previously created works for Frontier Danceland and as a guest choreographer for School of The Arts Singapore.
Faye is an alumni of NSCD (VERVE), Rambert School and School of The Arts, Singapore.
Watch: previous work
*All information subject to change
