News

Call out for dancers

Second Hand Dance are looking for male dancers (regardless of birth assigned gender) to join the company on their 2022 UK tour of We Touch, We Play, We Dance.

The show is for children under 3. With music mixed live by a DJ, four dancers respond to the children, guiding them through a series of exchanges and encounters in a warm hearted and playful performance.

Key Dates:

Rehearsals:                January 25 – February 3rd (exact dates tbc)

Performances:            February 6th / February 9th - 12th / February 18th - 20th

Rehearsals:                May 4th - 5th

Performances:            May 6th - 8th / May 11th - 15th / May 19th - 21st / May 27th - 29th

We are looking for dancers for the February and May dates and are interested in seeing dancers who are available for either or both sets of dates, 

Audition Details:

Date:                           Friday 17 December

Location:                     Colliers Wood (5mins from underground)

Time:                           9am – 12.30pm

The audition will take the shape of two sessions, with the second one attended by children and their grownups. This will be a chance for us to spend a morning together playing and dancing, and for you to get a feel for the work of the project.

Who we’re looking for:

We're interested in working with male (regardless of birth assigned gender) and non-binary dancers, with particular interest in performers who are older and/or of the global majority and marginalised groups. It’s really important to us that children see themselves represented on stage, and as a disabled-led company we are driven to remove barriers for the artists and collaborators we work with.

We’d like to hear from you if you have:

• an interest in exploring touch and relationships through dance and movement.
• a willingness to enter into open play and dancing with young children through performance.
• excellent devising, partner-work and improvisation skills and a willingness to work collaboratively.
• are interested in performing for, and interacting with, children and adult audiences.
• experience and sensitivity when working with diverse group of people.

Second Hand Dance are following industry guidelines relating to Covid-19 and will have measures in place to keep everyone safe. The company have all been double vaccinated and because of the nature of the work, we would require any new dancers to have the same. Please contact us if you would like to discuss this further.

How to apply:

Please send your cv, headshot and showreel to Second Hand Dance’s Producer, Emily Jameson at emily@secondhanddance.co.uk. Please also confirm which dates you are available from those listed above.

If you would like to discuss any access needs to attend the audition, please contact us. If you are travelling to the audition from outside London, we are able to make a contribution towards travel costs.

Closing date for applications: Monday 13^th December 2021 at 12 noon.

We will be in contact with applicants we would like to invite to audition on 14 December. 

We Touch, We Dance, We Play is commissioned by The Place, Pavilion Dance South West and supported by The Egg and Gulbenkian, and using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England.

We are pleased to have been selected by Pavilion Dance South West for their Digital Dance works led by a Disabled Artist / Company Commission. Made possible by our Culture Recovery Fund grant from Arts Council England and DCMS in April 2021, they are supported research into a new work, Hearing Dances. 

Hearing Dances is an experiment in audio description and foley, made for visually impared and non-disabled children ages 5-8. The project will explore the sounds that dance can make with different materials, and tests audio description (written by children for children) as a score for an improvised dance.

Families will see the outcome of this stage of the project in a special Zoom session on Saturday 9th October, as well as being posted a box of materials to explore from home. 

21 artists were proposed for the commission by a cohort of nine national organisations. Each organisation proposed an existing live work they felt would adapt well to the digital realm. 7 artists were shortlisted and paid to submit full proposals

The interview panel consisted of leaders in the fields of dance, broadcasting, screen dance and children and young people’s programming: Eibhlin de Barra Anand Bhatt Kez MargrieOmari Carter

The commissioned artists are:
Anatomical - The Doodle Chalk Dance
Chad Taylor - When I Hear Music
Second Hand Dance – Getting Dressed Films
Each artist has been awarded £15,000 towards the creation costs of the work, and £1,500 towards making the work accessible.

Premiere's of the new pieces planned for January 2022!