Dora Frankel
North East Dance Reviewer
Dora Frankel trained at Rambert School of Ballet 1967-71 and later, as choreologist at The Benesh Institute, London. She joined Rambert Company as choreologist, also performing in Cruel Garden among other works. During her 50 year career here and abroad, mainly America and Scandinavia, she has combined choreography and dance and theatre performance with education and outreach work, including most notably, the design and leadership of Angered Gymnasium’s dance programme(s) in Gothenburg. On her return from Sweden she gained an MA Choreography, Middlesex University and located to Newcastle upon Tyne, where she formed Dora Frankel Dance, before re-visioning it as Fertile Ground, the Northeast based touring contemporary dance company, in 2013. She stepped aside in 2018, handing over to Malgorzata Dzierzon and Renaud Wiser and continues an eclectic independent career alongside reviewing.
Notable works.
Images for Two 1977 - Rambert Choreographic and Design collaboration Jeanetta Cochrane Theatre, Holborn London
Angel of the Odd 2010 - dance theatre inspired by four stories by Edgar Allan Poe Gateshead Old Town Hall
Trio 2010 - Gateshead Old Town Hall
On the Darkened Wing 2016 – an investigation into the dark side of fashion, referencing Jewish women working in the ostrich plume industry in South Africa. Music collage Kroke among others The Witham, Barnard Castle
Multi award winning gothic romance screendance Touch the Beast 2019 - inspired by Edgar Allan Poe and, visually, by Aubrey Beardsley
The Turner Trilogy Jan 2022 a retrospective of the three JMW Turner, climate change and colonialism inspired works, created with composer Peter Coyte Dance City, Newcastle
