Generate festival

Photo credit Clare Clee Lee

At the end of November Third Bite Dance took part in the Generate Festival in Nottingham. Organised by the wonderful Karla Jones, Generate celebrates the work of older dance groups, particularly from around the Midlands and South Yorkshire.

We enjoyed an inspirational morning of workshops and talks exploring topics such as approaches to choreography, visibility and the current funding situation. After lunch Gus Watcham gave a moving and insightful keynote speech on her journey from one of the founding older dance groups; Brighton’s Three Score, to becoming a solo performer in her 70’s.

Finally a series of performances from each of our groups bore testimony to the variety and wealth of talent that now exists within this growing community of artists. Third Bite Dance presented a version of The Fallen that Artistic Director Lucy Haighton originally created for The Graves City Art Gallery, but this time incorporating a series of spoken texts evoking the art works we had responded to.

By the end of the day there was a resolution that, as older dancers in this current funding climate, we can look to each other to share expertise and create performance opportunities, as well as a desire to move older dance more into the mainstream.

We’ve come so far from the early pioneering days of groups such as Three Score and Company of Elders, we look forward to being recognised as vital and relevant contributors to todays cultural landscape.