24 days to go

One of the most interesting things about developing this new space for dance is the partnerships we are forging with other arts and cultural and educational partners. For example, Arts University College at Bournemouth students are designing a wonderful new reception desk for the foyer, and a recent graduate is designing a logo which intermingles the visual identity of ODIA and ourselves, ODIA being a key partner in DanSCe Dialogues the Interreg funded programme which will be launched in September. The two other partners in this scheme are the Centres Choreographiques National in Caen and le Havre and the programme includes, training, residencies and professional meetings, all in the interests of exchange and cross-channel partnership.
We are developing a project with the Russell-Cotes Museum and the Gloucester-based integrated company, Velcro, and have already brokered a partnership with English Folk Dance and Song Society and So We Boys Dance – the all male regional dance group, resulting in a commission to be performed at the Royal Albert Hall and at our Gala on 7 November.
The centre itself now has its new front entrance added and the retractable seating went in yesterday: the normally good-humoured contactors were understandably irritable as we dodged in and out with our visitors. One of the most intriguing things about the design is how the architect, Andrew Lockwood, has managed to combine both the new and the old, preserving orginal features and plasterwork decoration as crisp and clean as cake-icing, that’s 80 years old, with new features such as the glass and steel lift and entrance. Somehow it all works wonderfully and I know that visitors – either artists or people coming to the classes – will enjoy feeling part of that history – not to mention the views over the Lower Gardens from the aptly-named Garden Studio and the sea air blowing into the Seafront Studio. The theatre is called the Ocean Room and it does feel suitably dark and subterranean, as if awaiting the perfomance mysteries to come.
Washing machine and other equipment for the wardrobe and kitchen.The office here is getting more cramped daily and will continue to be so until we move into the new offices in the dance centre around 26 August. We also have the auditors in today hoping for a spare desk. Strange to think that we will all be exploring and inhabiting all that new space in such a short time.
By the way – we have some clean white walls in the foyer, which would be great for exhibiting dance photos and art but we’ve run out of money: anyone out there want to help with a hanging system?

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