Ever wondered how a dance performance is created? Step inside the mind of a choreographer as three leading artists give an in-depth commentary one of their works. Filmed as part of Dance Umbrella Festival 2021, go behind the scenes with nora chipaumire (Zimbabwe/USA), Claire Cunningham (Scotland) and Eddie Ladd (Wales) as they discuss their creative process with Dance Umbrella’s Artistic Director and Chief Executive Freddie Opoku-Addaie.

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Eddie Ladd on Cof y corff/muscle memory

nora chipaumire on portrait of myself as my father

Claire Cunningham on Thank You Very Much

“Invaluable insights into the complex creative processes of choreographers”

Pictured: Claire Cunningham, Thank You Very Much, photo Hugo Glendinning; Eddie Ladd, Cof y corff/muscle memory, photo Keith Morris; nora chipaumire, portrait of myself as my father, photo Gennadi Novash

Digital Event

  • Access: Subtitles available

Dance Umbrella Festival 2021 Across London & Online
8-24 October

Artist Biographies +

Claire Cunningham

Photo A.R.

Claire Cunningham is a performer and creator of multi-disciplinary performance based in Glasgow, Scotland. A recent Factory Artist with Tanzhaus NRW Düsseldorf, Germany she is also an Affiliate Artist with The Place, London.

One of the UK’s most acclaimed and internationally renowned disabled artists, Cunningham’s work is often rooted in the study and use/misuse of her crutches and the exploration of the potential of her own specific physicality with a conscious rejection of traditional dance techniques (developed for non-disabled bodies).  This runs alongside a deep interest in the lived experience of disability and its implications not only as a choreographer but also in terms of societal notions of knowledge, value, connection and interdependence.

Eddie Ladd

Eddie Ladd has spent thirty-five golden years in showbusiness.

She started making shows in 1989 and these theatre and site-specific pieces have toured internationally. Using new technologies from the very beginning, she received a NESTA fellowship in 2002 to develop this element in her work.

She has collaborated with Theatr Genedlaethol Cymru, Frân Wen and Arad Goch as a performer and movement director, teaches in schools and colleges and is a Creative Fellow at Aberystwyth University. Brought up on a farm, her aim now is to work in her square mile to combine performance and agriculture.

Nora Chipaumire

Photo Ari Marcopoulos

nora chipaumire was born in 1965 in what was then known as Umtali, Rhodesia (now Mutare, Zimbabwe). She is a product of colonial education for black native Africans – known as group B schooling – and has pursued other studies at the University of Zimbabwe (law) and at Mills College in Oakland, CA (dance).

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