The Monacle, the first Made in the North East dance commission from Dance City and eight other venues—Alnwick Playhouse, The Queens Hall (Hexham), Middlesbrough Town Hall, The Witham (Barnard Castle), The Fire Station (Sunderland), Darlington Hippodrome, Hartlepool Borough Hall Theatre and Gosforth Civic Theatre (Newcastle)—will tour throughout the region this month.
This new piece by Rendez-Vous dance was inspired by the secretly notorious 1930s Parisian lesbian club Le Monocle. Conceived as a fun night out, The Monocle aims to reshape the traditional theatre into a club where audiences can participate in an evening which mixes dance and live music.
The nine venues are working together on a three-year strategic dance audience development project led by Dance City and made possible with funding from The Esmée Fairbairn Foundation and the commission opportunity was offered exclusively to dance and physical theatre artists and companies based in the North East, who were able to commit to building the long-term dance ecology of the region.
Rendez-Vous dance is a NE based contemporary dance company led by choreographer Mathieu Geffré who established the company after a fifteen-year career as a performer.
“I would like to extend my thanks to the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, Arts Council, and all the partner-venues for trusting me and Rendez-Vous dance in championing their idea for the development of dance in the region,” said Geffré. “This project aims to bring people together and involve them whilst we constantly try to challenge perceptions of engagement with dance, who it is for and who it is made by.”
“We are thrilled that The Monocle, our first Made in The North East commission, is about to embark on a tour of our region, culminating in a much-anticipated performance here at Dance City on 26 February,” added Director of Artistic Programmes & Artist Development. “The past couple of years have been very difficult for the sector and it's great to be able to support the development of dance and cultural venues in the region with a touring show.
“We want the North East to be a place where great dance is made and happens in a variety of contexts and the consortium's collective ambition is to make a world-class piece of work with national significance, made in the North East. We are looking for to audiences enjoying just that in The Monocle.”
The production tours to:
- Gosforth Civic Theatre, Newcastle (5 February)
- Darlington Hippodrome (10 February)
- Alnwick Playhouse (11 February)
- Hartlepool Borough Hall (12 February)
- Middlesbrough Town Borough Hall (16 February)
- Queen's Hall, Hexham (17 February)
- The Fire Station, Sunderland (19 February)
- The Witham, Barnard Castle (24 February)
- Dance City, Newcastle (26 February)