Following the sell out success of Slammin’ 2001, 2FaCeD DaNcE SCompany will once again be putting on a performance of contemporary break and street dance at the Courtyard, Hereford’s Centre for the Arts. This will take place in July 2002 on Thursday 25 and Friday 26. As before, the show will be an exhibition of the best of 2FaCeD DaNcE Company’s performance and youth work, with the use of D.J.’s, graffiti artists and one or two surprises! The show will contain work by all of 2FaCeD’s youth groups including a piece especially commissioned by DanceXchange for our J.U.I.C.E. group as part of their BLGS festival (see news update)

FAREWELL 2 MIRANDA

In August 2001 Miranda Wells sadly left 2FaCeD DaNcE Company. Joint Artistic Director, Miranda made an important contribution to the development and early success of the company .Miranda has gained a place on a PGCE course in Brighton, training to teach GCSE and A level dance. Early indication from Miranda is that the course is exhausting but enjoyable. We wish her well.

2FaCeD DaNcE Company will also be performing two exciting new works. One piece will be in collaboration with Hereford music agency, The Music Pool. Working alongside live musicians 2FaCeD will fuse different dance styles with music styles. 2FaCeD will once again collaborate with Helen Parlour from Motionhouse Dance Company to produce another spectacular piece of break and street dance. Hereford photographic organisation, Exposure, is also working in conjunction with 2FaCeD and their youth groups for Slammin’ 02 producing a series of visual images.

Following the success of Slammin’ 2001, 2FaCeD were asked to perform its current repertoire in Birmingham as part of DanceXchange’s Raising the Roof road show. 2FaCeD performed alongside other artists, including Capoeria legend, Marcos Dos Santos and Hip-Hop dancer Robert Hylton. 2FaCeD’s performance went down very well with the young audience, who craved for more!!

EDUCATION UPDATE

MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM - 2FaCeD have been leading workshops at the Bishop Challoner School in Birmingham, as part of the Young, Gifted and Talented scheme. 2FaCeD are working with the pupils to help produce a multi-media production of A Midsummer Night's Dream. This will be performed in March 2002. The style of dance is aimed at encouraging boys into dance and uses a mixture of break and street styles. These will be some funky fairies!!

THE ACONBURY CENTRE - 2FaCeD have been teaching weekly break and street dance classes to pupils from The Aconbury Centre, Hereford’s pupil referral unit. The classes have proved very popular and more sessions have been booked for the spring and summer terms.

HUNDERTON PRIMARY -2FaCeD DaNcE Company worked alongside the Music Pool to manage a dance and music project with a hundred year 6 pupils from Hunderton Primary School, in Hereford. The project gave the children new experiences in both dance and music as part of the National Curriculum syllabus. The workshops culminated in a performance shown to pupils, staff and parents.

DEAF DIRECT - 2FaCeD DaNcE Company recently linked up with local charity 'Deaf Direct' for a day of dance as part of a weekend camp for children who are partially or profoundly deaf. The ages of these children ranged from 4 to 18. The dance classes were highly successful with good feedback from both the children and the helpers.

MITCHLEDEAN - 2FaCeD DaNcE Company has started weekly break and street dancing classes at Mitchledean School in Gloucestershire. Pupils can choose from a wide variety of sports such as climbing or skiing. Starting with 30, 40 pupils have now chosen to work with 2FaCeD on Friday afternoons!

BREAK DANCING

Break dancing classes have continued into 2002. 2FaCeD DaNcE Company have three classes running every Wednesday evening. Two classes cater for children between 9-12 and 13-25. The other class is for advanced students. The standard of the advanced group is now very high indeed.

“BIG LEAPS, GIANT STEPS”

The DanceXchange, a national dance agency, based in Birmingham, have invited our advanced break dancing class to participate in the BLGS event. They will be working alongside the highly renowned dance company Jazz Exchange and will receive their own composer, musician, costume designer and technician. They will work towards creating a piece of work which will be performed twice in Birmingham City centre and at the recently refurbished Hippodrome! (Dates and times to be announced). The piece can also be seen at SLAMMIN’ 2002 at the Courtyard, Hereford’s Centre for the Arts in July.

TOUR UPDATE

2FaCeD DaNcE Company have finally agreed the date of their tour as Spring 2003. Although this is later than planned, the good news is that a third of the funding has been secured already.

COMMITTEE

2FaCeD are currently looking for new committee members. If anyone is interested please contact Tamsin Fitzgerald

Tatum takes the floor