Rural Retreat at home with DanceEast

DanceEast’s fifth Rural Retreat last weekend was the first to take place in the new Jerwood DanceHouse which opened recently on the waterfront in Ipswich. The Rural Retreats, established by DanceEast in 2003, are biennial think tanks looking at the future of ballet and dance.

Over the years they have introduced guest speakers from the worlds of business, sport and the arts to existing and future dance leaders to share experiences and allow opportunities to reflect on the place of dance in today's society and the development of dance leadership. This was a smaller gathering than usual, for seven individuals who have completed placements shadowing artistic leaders in dance organisations around the globe, with funding support from the Cultural Leadership Programme. They are Royal Ballet Principal Dancer Tamara Rojo and dancer Ernst Meisner; performer choreographer and teacher Marc Brew, freelance choreographer André Gingras, Michael Trent - Artistic Director and Resident Choreographer at the Toronto Dancemakers & the Centre for Creation, Jeff Edwards -Associate Artistic Director& Ballet Master, Morphoses/The Wheeldon Company and Karol Urbański, Founder of The Centre for Contemporary Dance, Warsaw.

They were joined by placement hosts, The Royal Ballet’s Jeanetta Laurence and Place Theatre Director Eddie Nixon. Guest speakers included broadcaster and writer Charles Handy talking about time management, values and self reflection and Battersea Arts Centre Co-Artistic Director David Micklem on New Models for Artistic Leadership and Partnership based on his own experiences as a Producer and his work at Battersea with David Jubb. TV chef and cookery writer Valentina Harris led the participants through a 4 hour preparation of a gourmet Italian meal and fed back on leadership styles in the kitchen.

DanceEast Artistic Director and Chief Executive Assis Carreiro said: ‘The Rural Retreats have allowed DanceEast to reach out internationally and fill a much needed gap in professional development at the highest levels of dance and provided existing and future leaders an opportunity to come together and opening and honestly share experiences and look at the place of dance in the wider community and encourage a stronger voice for dance and develop the next generation of dance champions.’

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