WELCOME TO THE FIRST KERRY NICHOLLS DANCE NEWSLETTER!
The company launched at the end of last month at the ever-popular Hospital Club, situated in one of London’s coolest districts, Covent Garden.Thanks to all who came to show their support or have since sent encouragement and good wishes.
EXPERIENCE KND
The first open event for dancers to get
KND-involved in launches on December 10th at Sadler's Wells. Offering a professional developmental initiative for a week only - which encompasses
technique master classes,
creative workshops and
personal portfolio surgeries – this aims to be an energised and stand-out five day experience. Not to be missed!
Visit kerrynicholls.com/workshops.html for more class detail and course booking procedures – as this is a pre-book only event with limited capacity.
LAUNCH WRITE-UP
Sanjoy Roy, dance writer – wrote this account of the launch event....
“The
website has been launched – and so has the company! The official launch event took place on 27th September at the Hospital Club in Covent Garden, just a stone’s throw from the Royal Opera House and bang in the centre of a hip-and-happening London neighbourhood. The cold, wet Thursday evening was no dampener for the event: you go inside the Club, up the stairs to a warm and welcoming room with a fab view, and a big “
Kerry Nicholls Dance” logo jauntily angled down one window. It was the launch of what I came to think of as Kerry’s Next Step.
Those of you who have taken dance classes with Kerry will know that a Kerry Nicholls “next step” is not going to be a small, mean-minded little move, it’s going to be thought-through, expansive, instructive and enjoyable. Those of you who haven’t, take it from me (by the way, “me” is Sanjoy Roy, dance writer for the Guardian and elsewhere) as I used to do Kerry’s dance classes ( a very long time ago) and I still remember them with great fondness.
I clearly wasn’t the only one there who thinks of Kerry’s work not just with respect but with affection. There was a lot of goodwill in that room, from a wide range of different people: Paul Reeve - Director of Education at the Royal Opera House; Kenneth Tharp - Chief Executive of The Place; Gill Graham from Chester Music publishers; choreographer Richard Alston; Deborah Bull - former dancer and currently director of the King’s Cultural Institute – plus some ballet dancers, contemporary dancers, community dancers, policy-makers, funders, photographers and film-makers... people from different walks of life that all intersected, in one way or another, with dance.
Those walks of life are all the paths that Kerry has crossed in her work which encompasses teaching, mentoring, training, choreographing, consulting, collaborating... and that range, is the real reason for this new company, she explained as she stepped up to the podium - in a stylish black dress and shocking purple shoes that were impressively pointed at both heel and toe – was so that she could bring together all the different strands of her varied career in one place:
Kerry Nicholls Dance. So it’s not a “dance company” solely for making and performing work, it’s a Kerry Nicholls company for doing all the things that Kerry does for dance. It’s a simple idea. And I think it’s got legs. Long, stretchy legs...
As I left, buzzy not just from the bubbly but from the scintillating company that Kerry keeps, I took a look at the logo. It’s an open, understandable logo, spacious and nicely balanced. But look also at the lean on the letter A, tilting out of line like it’s got a mind of its own and wants to move onwards, to take the next step. It’s
Kerry Nicholls Dance all over.”
Hope to see you in December to share the next step.....
