premier dance theatre
Stasiland began as a solo in January of 2023 created for Unfiltered, a scratch night hosted at the Point, Eastleigh. It took a year for me to return to the idea, hosting a week of Research and Development at the University of Chichester with students and alumni from the BA and MA programmes along with local artists.
Following this I secured a small pot funding through Arts Council England, Thrive (Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance) and crowd funding for a period of further R&D hosted at Laban’s Creekside Studio in July 2024. This grant gave me a sense of legitimacy and confidence as an emerging artist. I was able to pay my cast of beautiful dancers for the artistry that they’ve developed over years of training and dedication. In addition, this funding allowed us to invite videographer, Georgia Aiken and Photographer, Grace Richardson, into the studio, capturing our work in their own individual styles and allowing me to begin marketing my work as an emerging choreographer.
BEHIND THE SCENES - STASILAND’S STORY
Video by Georgia Aiken from our Research & Development at Laban Creekside Studio in July 2024.
Photos by Grace Richardson from our Research & Development at Laban Creekside Studio in July 2024.
Our period of Research & Development at Laban Creekside Studio, allowed us to create what would become the basis of Stasiland as it exists today, we had the opportunity to show extracts of what we had created at Tailwind Physical Theatre’s Scratch Night at VFDalston in September 2024. Here, I reconnected with Synne Lundesgaard who would become Stasiland’s costume designer.
In March 2025 we had the opportunity to showcase Stasiland at Chisenhale Dance Space as part of Common Threads, a mixed bill of works from artists based in London and New York City. In preparation for this performance we held rehearsals at Ugly Duck, London and began to work with Bailey Dowler, our Dramaturg, developing Stasiland further over a few days. We presented this new version of Stasiland over 2 nights and had incredible feedback from audiences. This led me to apply for further Arts Council Funding and a visiting artist residency at Pavilion Dance South West.
Photos by RomiFolder from our Performance at Chisenhale Dance Space in Common Threads.
In Summer of 2025 we were lucky enough to be awarded a Visiting Artist Residency at Pavilion Dance South West and have a successful Arts Council England bid with support from MAST Mayflower Studios, Lila Dance, Luke Brown Company, ZoieLogicDance Theatre, Alan Duffield and Hampshire Cultural Trust.
During our residency at PDSW we were very successful in collaborating with our dramaturg, Bailey Dowler, and the dancers, Jonah, Kai & Melody, to create a work that provided multiple points of entry through multiple artforms. We addressed previous audience feedback with Bailey to clarifying storytelling and gained new insight into the work as we received choreographic and dramaturgical feedback from Luke Brown, Alan Duffield and Carrie Whitaker, throughout and post this residency.
Included in our Arts Council bid was a rehearsal at MAST Mayflower Studio, where we had in-person visits at this rehearsal from Zoie Golding MBE (ZoieLogic), Ollie Webb (ZoieLogic) and Carrie Whitaker (Lila Dance) who further provided choreographic and dramaturgical feedback. Additionally, at this rehearsal we received the bespoke costumes that Synne Lundegaard had been creating with funding from this bid. These costumes imbedded us into Stasiland’s world.
At both PDSW and MAST we were joined by RomiFolder, a photographer and videographer, who captured stunning images and footage. Romi also joined us at our test performance at Basingstoke Discovery Centre, where we showcased this newly developed specifically designed for Libraries version of Stasiland. A week later we travelled to Gosport Discovery Centre to share our work there too. The feedback we received at these performances was really encouraging, suggesting audiences are connecting with the work in meaningful ways, that ‘Stasiland’ has emotional impact and is inviting people to find ‘connection with the characters throughout’.
This period of funding was incredibly transformative for me as an artist, giving me the opportunity to collaborate with an incredible team, including working with a dramaturg & a costume designer for the first time and bring my work to communities in Bournemouth, Southampton, Basingstoke & Gosport, which has contributed to the dance ecology in these areas & resulted in vital feedback.
Photos by Martina Tartarini during our Residency at Pavilion Dance South West.
Photos by RomiFolder during our Rehearsal at MAST Mayflower Studios.
Photos & Footage by RomiFolder during our Performance at Basingstoke Discovery Centre.