20th May – 24th May – University of Chichester Campus
Application closing deadline – 31st March
EncoreEast are thrilled to announce we have been awarded Arts Council England funding for Pushing Boundaries. The project aims to challenge expectations, raise ambitions, and increase motivation for older dancers.
There are 15 places available for this exciting opportunity.
This is the first intensive residency in the UK by world renowned choreographer and teacher Galit Liss. Open to all experienced dancers aged over 50 (professional and non-professional) who wish to explore a deepened somatic practice.
20th – 23rd May 2025: Four-day intensive residency University of Chichester Campus with choreographer Galit Liss.
24th May: What Dance Can Do –The dancers will present a performative work process developed during the residency, through the GiLA practice symposium at University of Chichester. On 25th May 2025 there is an option to also take part in the second day of the symposium, which will include open workshops.
What to expect
Gila’s practice delves into the performative presence of the body within space. Through personal exploration, improvisation, and movement research we will cultivate somatic work, imagery, awareness of the body, its senses, and space.
15 selected dancers will embark on a four-day laboratory, engaging in body research through the ‘GILA’ methodology, a practice developed by choreographer Galit Liss that examines the unique physiological aesthetics of the elderly body. The name Gila, which in Hebrew signifies age, joy, and discovery, embodies the essence of the GiLA methodology, which seeks to honour and celebrate the ageing body in all its grace and wisdom.
Together, we will explore each dancer’s unique movement portrait, moving individually and collectively while engaging in dialogue and examining the body’s presence in the performative space.
Fee
Dancers are asked to contribute £100.
The fee will include a four-day residency with the choreographer Galit Liss and attendance at ‘What Dance Can Do’ symposium.
For dancers who would like to stay, we are offering accommodation. Three dancers will share a three-bedroom caravan, for the duration of this opportunity (please indicate on the form if you need accommodation).
We also offer pay-what-you-can-afford, we do not want people to be excluded because of finances, so please pay what you can afford. Pushing Boundaries is an Arts Council England funded project and EncoreEast are a not-for-profit community company. To continue offering exciting experiences for older dancers we rely on your support and honesty.
To Apply
Please follow the link below to complete the application form
About Galit Liss
Galit Liss is an independent choreographer and teacher, and the founder and artistic director of Gila School of Movement and Stage Art for Mature Women.
As part of her artistic and social agenda, Galit aspires to push the boundaries of contemporary dance beyond the acceptable perceptions and stereotypes in society and rethink the relevance of any – and every – body. She works to create an artistic space for ageing women and promote the idea of life in a society that enables self-realisation and development in the elderly body.
For the past 16 years, Liss has been developing the ‘GiLA‘ practice — a unique methodology for working with the ageing body by exploring its distinctive physiological aesthetics. She continuously creates stage works with mature women, who are non-dancers. Additionally, she has developed the ‘I’M HERE’ format, an international community project that engages local women worldwide.
She has been invited to create and present at international dance and arts festivals such as Hull Dance (UK), South East Dance (UK), Brighton Festival (UK), Israel Festival, Hanover TANZtheater Festival (Germany), TanzBremen (Germany), Saitama Arts Theater (Japan), Shanghai International Dance Center Theater (China), Alterballetto (Italy), Prague Quadrennial, KoresponDance (Czech Republic), Sziget Festival (Hungary), and many others.
Liss lectures at professional conferences and events dedicated to challenging age-related stereotypes, while exploring creative processes and the connection between art and society. She has presented at: Harvard University (US); Oxford University (UK); Haifa University (Israel); Hebrew University (Israel); The Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance (Israel); Moving Borders Program (Munich Germany); Dance Vision Organization, (Czech Republic); Creative Think Tank-Tanz Bremen Festival (Germany) and more
Galit Liss is the recipient of the prestigious Rosenblum Prize for the Performing Arts by the Tel Aviv-Yafo Municipality in the category of Artists with Promising Achievements for 2022 and was chosen as one of the ‘Heroes of the Year’ for 2022 by Keshet (Israeli Channel 12) and Mifal HaPais (The Israeli Lottery). She is a member of the Independent Choreographers’ Association, a graduate of the ‘Artists for Social Change’ program 2008 from Musrara School of Photography, Media and New Music, and holds a M.Mus from the Academy of Music and Dance, Jerusalem.
About What Dance Can Do
What Dance Can Do is a two-day symposium on Intergenerational Dance and Dance and Age(ing). The symposium will share practice and offer provocations on:
The symposium is jam-packed with workshops and talks by renowned artists and academics working in the field of intergenerational, community and over 60s dance. The Saturday includes a community showcase, film, digital installations and outdoor performances and culminates with an informal sharing of work made through an intensive residency with choreographer Galit Liss facilitated by EncoreEast’s ‘Pushing Boundaries’.
Saturday 24th May: https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/universityofchichesterconservatoire/t-xmkkmol
Sunday 25th May: https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/flexer-sandiland-cic/what-dance-can-do-sunday/e-molvqz
About EncoreEast
EncoreEast is a performance company of older dancers. We are ambitious in promoting creative, artistic and performance innovation and excellence. We perform in traditional and site-specific spaces for live and screen audiences. We commission professional artists to teach class and workshops, make new work with us, and generate new understandings about dance and older people. Presenting positive images of age, we blur boundaries between professional and community practice.
EncoreEast co-curate HOST with DanceEast; a bi-annual conference celebrating Dance and Age. We began a national conversation interrogating themes that affect older dancers. The conversation was carried forward at both Ageless Festival, Yorkshire Dance and Elixir, Sadler’s Wells. It revealed a desire by participants to engage in projects that offer rigour, fostering environments that promote extended learning throughout our whole lives. We are curious about how high-quality creativity promotes wellbeing and through practice we are exploring how and why this happens.
https://encoreeastdance.co.uk/
About Yael Flexer / Flexer & Sandiland
Co-artistic director of Flexer & Sandiland Yael has created 14 full-length productions for the company touring in the UK and internationally. Flexer & Sandiland have been commissioned to create live and/or interactive works for, among others: Brighton Festival and Digital Festival, South East Dance, Sadler’s Wells and Barbican Centre, London. Current touring projects include the installations An Elevated Platform (Brighton Festival) and An Obscure Camera (Towner Gallery, Eastbourne, InSpace Gallery, Edinburgh, Creative Crawley) and the live internationally touring dance works Imagining Otherwise and Acting Our Age with choreographer Galit Liss. Yael has been commissioned to make numerous works for other companies, organisations, students, youth and over 60s companies including: DanceEast, London Contemporary Dance School, Motus Festival, Three Score Dance, EncoreEast, National Youth Dance Company Scotland, Trinity-Laban, Maslool, RAS & Stavanger University, Norway. Yael was appointed as Reader in Dance in 2021 and her research focuses on digital dance, intergenerational and over 60s dance practice. She regularly leads workshops, talks and ongoing intergenerational classes online and at South East Dance, where Flexer & Sandiland are a partner company. Flexer & Sandiland will be launching a new intergenerational class at JW3 in June 2025.
https://www.flexerandsandiland.com/
Acknowledgment
Pushing Boundaries is produced by EncoreEast working in partnership with Galit Liss, Yael Flexer, DanceEast and University of Chichester. Supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England
Contact
Pushing Boundaries: info@encoreeastdance.co.uk
Photo credit
Roswitha Chesher
Eli Passi
