Yorkshire Dance’s Encounters, a two-day festival of dance, is back with a double bill exploring gender, community and identity. Featuring two new dance works by Yorkshire Dance’s Company of People and City of Women Festival in Ljubljana, Slovenia.

EPIC STORIES OF OUR EVERYDAY
By TC Howard and Company of People (featuring with dance artists Kate Cox, Izzy Brittain and Bakani Pick-Up)

‘We are guided by the invisible bonds that connect us. Bonds born out of curiosity and play and freedom to be ‘other’. We are an unlikely and beautiful mixed community of ages, cultures and identities finding the humour, pride and ownership of who we are and how we live.’ Following in the footsteps of Company of People’s previous work, epic stories of everyday lives are at the heart of this new performance which exposes intimate details and elevates ‘everyday’ culture, literature and history to the grandeur of high art.

Company of People is an intergenerational group rooted in the communities of Chapeltown and Harehills in Leeds. The group worked collaboratively with choreographer TC Howard to create Epic Stories of Our Everyday.

NOBODY WHISTLES ANYMORE
By City of Women

Exploring the role of gender in modern society, Nobody Whistles Anymore examines the power relations, archetypes and stereotypes that often spontaneously find their way into artistic processes as well as everyday life. Nobody Whistles Anymore was created by City of Women Festival’s newly formed Company. The Company, aged 27-74, were all new to dance and theatre and join us from Ljubljana, Slovenia to share work devised through a series of workshops led by theatre director Brina Klampfer and choreographer Vita Osojnik.