Leeds Beckett University - City Campus,
Woodhouse Lane,
LS1 3HE
Leeds Beckett leading research for the ‘City of Dance’
Leeds Dance Partnership has received the money from the Arts Council Ambition for Excellence Fund.
The partnership is a development of the City of Dance group and Leeds Dance Hub, initiated by Yorkshire Dance, both of which Leeds Beckett’s School of Dance have been involved with for a number of years.
Leeds Dance Partnership has a vision for Leeds to become an international centre for dance – a dancing city that will provide leadership in the north for the development of the art form locally, nationally and internationally.
Senior Lecturer at Leeds Beckett, Rachel Krische, who is leading on the research, said: “The development of a Research Centre for Dance will facilitate a broad range of research opportunities. These span from projects that encompass quantitative analysis of regional dance activity to qualitative study of choreographic methodologies and embodied technologies.
“The key relationship of the Centre with the Leeds Dance Partnership fosters the central core mission of developing projects that unite academic research with professional practice, to facilitate and strengthen closer ties between industry and academia. The various strands of research activity will further evidence, strengthen and consolidate the assertion that Leeds will indeed be at the forefront of international dance practice.”
Alongside Leeds Beckett a number of organisations and independent artists from across the region will work together for the project, including: Northern Ballet; Yorkshire Dance; Phoenix Dance Theatre; Balbir Singh Dance Company; Gary Clarke Company; ProDanceLeeds; DAZL; RJC Dance; Northern School of Contemporary Dance; Leeds City College and West Yorkshire Playhouse.
The partnership is currently recruiting a Partnership Director who will provide strategic leadership and undertake the day-to-day management and delivery of the vision.