Preview: Alternative Routes 2016 (National Dance Company Wales)

Every year the next generation of young Welsh choreographers and designers are given an invaluable helping hand in their journey to becoming tomorrow’s innovators.

The annual Alternative Routes platform from National Dance Company Wales and the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama is an important and admired for young dancers who have an eye on their own choreographic futures. It’s been going for more than a decade, and has helped dancers and choreographers at NDCWales develop, explore and improve their artistic ideas, together with design students from the RWCMD.

For an entire month these stars in the making work together on forming new work which is then presented to the public as part of a full evening of dance at NDCWales’s home at the Dance House, part of the Wales Millennium Centre in Cardiff Bay.

In the weeks leading up to the performance, the company has held open rehearsals for audiences to share in the creative process. These let the public chart the progress of both the artists and their work, and allowed the dancers and choreographers to take questions from the audience, who also gave constructive feedback.

This transparency in the creative process allows artists the freedom to create, and audiences the opportunity to witness ‘behind the scenes’ of the finished products they usually see.

This year’s Alternative Routes, which forms part of the wider Festival of Voice season across the city, gives three emerging choreographers the chance to work on their fresh ideas based upon the given theme of ‘voices’. The featured choreographers, who are all professional dancers with NDCWales, will collaborate with industry partners including set, costume and lighting design students from the RWCMD.

Matteo Marfoglia contributes for the fourth time to Alternative Routes, this year creating a quartet called Cross Words.

‘It explores how the body can move on top of different dialogues,’ said Italian Matteo, who has been with NDCWales since 2012. ‘I also want to see the dancers’ emotional response to the soundtrack, which is a choir of male voices played in at the end.’

Joe Perou’s piece is called Sometimes Silence is a Really Good Answer, and it is his first contribution to Alternative Routes in the five years he’s been with the company. So why has it taken Joe so long to get involved?

‘I’ve always said I’ve had nothing to say and that idea has germinated over the last few years. This piece has been in the back of my mind for a while now,’ explained Joe, originally from Sussex.

‘It’s about not speaking, or choosing not to speak, or being unable to speak, so I thought it tied in quite well this year with the Festival of Voice. It’s an exploration of those situations where you want to say something and you choose not to for whatever reason, or if you’re physically unable, or if you feel overpowered, or, as the title suggests, sometimes the best answer is silence because the other person’s going to realise what the answer is.’

The third choreographer is Camille Giraudeau whose piece Welcome to My Dreams focuses on relationships and the voices we have in our heads.

‘What inspired me to make the piece was simply the fact we had the freedom, the space and the time to see what came out, and so it’s a discovery, an exploration,’ said Oxford-born Camille, who joined the company as an apprentice in 2011, and began dancing professionally for them the year after. This is also her first work for Alternative Routes.

‘Welcome to My Dreams is a really simple story of a girl who meets a boy and the interaction that happens between them, but there’s also a subconscious layer of the dialogue that’s happening in your head as that interaction is happening. I’m inviting the audience to take a look into my mind, I’m sharing a piece of my mind with them!’

Caroline Finn, NDCWales’s Artistic Director, said: ‘I’m incredibly passionate about giving dancers an opportunity to develop their own choreographic voices and a project such as this is very close to my heart.

‘If it weren’t for opportunities such as Alternative Routes, then I wouldn’t have had the chance to grow as a choreographer and would likely not be where I am today. Finding your own language is extremely exciting and, as a dancer, enables you to be even more generous, inspiring and challenging for other choreographers.

‘Alternative Routes is a really exciting partnership with the RWCMD, which has helped develop the skills of many dancers, choreographers and designers over the years.’

Sean Crowley, Director of Drama at the RWCMD, added: ‘Alternative Routes has been a part of the postgraduate design course for over 10 years and has been the starting point for many of the design industry’s leading young practitioners.’

As well as seeing three exciting new works, this year the programme will also include two pieces created for similar choreographic platforms elsewhere.

Former NDCWales member Eleesha Drennan’s Whiskers was originally created through Alternative Routes and toured with NDCWales several years ago, and this year will be performed by Camille Giraudeau.

Caroline Finn will also present her solo performance Bernadette for the first time in the UK. This was created in 2009 as part of Ballet Preljocaj’s choreographic platform for dancers.

Alternative Routes 2016 is part of the Festival of Voice programme at the Dance House, Wales Millennium Centre, with performances from June 9-11. Find out more at www.ndcwales.co.uk