‘Angles In Life’ A dance/film project

Artistic Director – Laura Vanhulle

Choreographers/Dancers – Seifeddine Manai and Laura Vanhulle Director of Photography – Mat Beckett

Composer – Nick Peill

About the project… ‘Angles In Life' is a dance/film project led by emerging choreographer Laura Vanhulle. It is set proudly against the urban landscape of Birmingham, UK, but with a mix of international artistic and cultural influences. The project is funded by Arts Council England, with support from mac birmingham. Thematically the project is an exploration through movement of the subjectivity of the individual's perspective on life. The piece examines universal polarities of human existence, such as experience vs. naivety and wisdom vs. ignorance. The work is about how we see certain situations and objects differently at varying points in our lives, altered through age, maturity, biology, personality and life experiences. Taken from a starting point that every person in society sees the same landscape slightly differently, it uses the medium of film to ask the audience to see through another's eyes. Conceptually, optical illusion plays a large part and has featured heavily in the use of film and camera angles: the illusion the camera creates mirrors and plays upon the illusion our brains create around us in real life. The dance style is a unique fusion of Laura’s technique focused, lyrical movement and Seifeddine’s looser, more urban, narrative approach. It is gripping and very physical, inspired by a parcour based aesthetic. The dance is emotional, gestural and human, at once anxious and playful, beautiful and rough. We are drawn into a battle between two people, set against a foreboding original sound score, which combines music and human sounds such as breath. The film follows the story of two characters and their relationship: their self-realisation and perceptions of each other, the different versions of who they are or could be, or perhaps another’s dream of them. It occupies a space somewhere between a real and dream world and comes from a retrospective viewpoint: looking back on a life, on a lost youth, playing out different versions of the same lived reality.

What’s on offer? Following a highly successful research and development period in Birmingham in March 2013, there are now 3 exciting artistic outcomes: AVAILABLE NOW…

1) A stunning dance film on screen - 10 minutes

2) A combination of moments of dynamic live choreography from the 2 dancers, interplayed with the dance film on screen. Ideal for site – specific performances: animating shopping centres, foyers, festivals, etc – 20 minutes approx

AVAILABLE FROM 2014…

3) A full-scale touring production, which integrates live dance and film projections for studio theatre spaces – 1 hour

Laura is now looking for bookings and expressions of interest for each of the 3 elements of the project and would like to work with venues and promoters to integrate an attached education programme: for example the creation of curtain raiser dance pieces which can be performed by community groups alongside the professional performances.

Please see a link to our ‘Angles In Life’ teaser here: http://vimeo.com/channels/mathewbeckett/64672785

The Artistic Team… Laura Vanhulle Laura is from Belgium and started her training in rhythmic gymnastics at a very young age. She started her dance training at Northern School of Contemporary Dance (NSCD) where she achieved a BA (Hons) in Contemporary Dance. During her training she worked with and performed pieces by Hagit Bar, Kwesi Johnson and Antonia Groove. After graduating in 2009, Laura went on to do an apprenticeship with ACE dance and music. She has been with the company ever since, performing in pieces by Andile Sotiya and Douglas Thorpe ('Switch') and Akiko Kitamura ('ICE'). She is also heavily involved in delivering the company’s ongoing educational programme. Laura also works closely with other West Midlands based companies: Motionhouse Dance Theatre and Sonia Sabri. She regularly teaches Contemporary Dance for DanceXchange. As an independent artist Laura has collaborated with a series of dance artists in her professional career to date, creating work with Peter Grist, Tiia Ourila and Shobana Jeyasingh. Seifeddine Manai Originally from Tunisia but now based in Lyon (France), Seifeddine got his first dance experience from urban culture. With the intention of deepening his dance experience he was selected by the French Government and therefore in 2005 received a grant to join the CNDC d’Angers. Seifeddine has danced with various international choreographers: for example he was invited at Villa Medicis to the African choreographies exchanges with other international artists. Seifeddine has always found a deep source of inspiration in films; he was chosen to play in the full-length film “Maaking Off” directed by Nourri Bouzid. The film received the Golden Tanit prize at Carthage Cinematographic Days in 2004. He directed his first dance movie “Fire-men” in 2006,in collaboration with l’Ecole superieure de l’Art et du Metier d’Image in Paris (FEMIS) and the CNDC d’Angers. He recently decided to create his own dance company, 'Brotha From Another Motha Company', inspired by the 2011 Tunisian revolution. Mat Beckett Mat is a broadcast director filmmaker, DoP, professional musician/sound artist and creative advocate. Based in Birmingham, but having worked around the world as a songwriter/producer, Director of Photography/cameraman/film maker, Mathew has a technically focused and exciting approach to more left-field creative activity. Mathew is a director of the film production company 'River Rea Films', based in U.K./U.S.A. Nick Peill Nick Peill is a musician who has been based in East London since 2006. Previously signed to Atlantic Records as the front man and songwriter for the band Fields, he toured for several years playing at many well-known international venues and music festivals. He currently divides his time between session playing and composing for TV and radio, having worked for EMI, Universal records and the BBC amongst others.

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Feedback from Paul Burns, Director of Programming and Production at DanceXchange… “Having seen a work-in-progress screening and performance of ‘Angles in Life’ I was impressed with the quality of the work produced. Both performed and filmed elements demonstrated a sophisticated and ambitious approach to making dance film, and the result is a captivating work with a strong emotional power. With Birmingham as its backdrop, I hope to be able to show ‘Angles in Life’ as part of International Dance Festival Birmingham in 2014.”

! To discuss the project and find out more about booking any of the 3 options, please contact:

Artistic Director, Laura Vanhulle

lauravanhulle@hotmail.co.uk +447794703592

Producer, Charlotte Gregory

charlottegregory1@hotmail.com +447950151024