Hi all,

Jus here. I realise that it’s February, but as this is my first blog post of 2012 I want to wish you all a Happy New Year – I hope it’s already proving fruitful and happy! It certainly has been so far for me. I spent the first part of the year in Hong Kong seeing close friends and in Australia, visiting more mates and haunts from when I lived out there. I know it sounds like it was all fun and games, but I did actually do some work whilst I was out there (not much I have to say, but some).

Jus enjoyed the sights in Sydney

I spent some of my time in Sydney meeting up with the Legs On The Wall team who we’re collaborating with for our London 2012 Festival spectacle, The Voyage. It was great meeting Sally Ebert the General Manager, seeing Patrick Nolan the Artistic Director again, and hearing all about how the project was going from their point of view. They showed me around the ‘red box’, which is their (amazing!) rehearsal/performance space out in Lilyfield and talked to me about the auditions they were holding to find performers for The Voyage (the following week) and some of their ideas for the project.

Jus visited Legs On The Wall whilst in Sydney

It really made me realise just what a massive event this is going to be and how challenging it’s going to be for both our companies and Birmingham Hippodrome, the producers, what with the many thousands of miles and time difference between us. I’ve no doubt though that with the passion, creativity, vision and commitment all the collaborators are showing that this is going to be a phenomenal show that I just can’t wait to be a part of! We’re officially launching The Voyage next week to partners and press, and I promise to update you with as much behind the scenes information as I can afterwards.

The Voyage will arrive in Victoria Square, Birmingham in June

Whilst I’ve been away the office has been a hotbed of administration, paperwork and auditions as we prepare for the Quest element of The Voyage project. Unfortunately I missed the dancer apprentice auditions at the beginning of the month, but I asked Sophie our new Marketing and Development Assistant to fill us in and here’s what she had to say:

“It had been threatening to snow here in Leamington for the past few weeks; however it decided to finally fall on the day of our Dance Apprentice Auditions – helpful! Despite the snow and cold we were delighted to see the massive numbers of you that turned out in force, eager to spend the day dancing and auditioning for us.

Apprenticeships are extremely important to our company we pride ourselves on developing strong relationships with emerging artists  and we believe strongly in recruiting apprentices to work for Motionhouse to help kick start their dance career. Taking on dance apprentices has certainly worked well for Motionhouse over the years; Junior started with us ten years ago on apprenticeship from Northern School of Contemporary Dance and he’s now our Rehearsal Director!

During the audition day the dancers were split into two groups and taught by Junior and Giorgio. They were taught new routines in which they had to learn new gymnastic techniques and then they were taken through rep from Cascade, one of our internationally touring festival pieces.

As the dancers were whittled down (which was an extremely difficult task for Kevin and Louise) their daring was put to the test as they threw themselves head-first across our studio, taught how to do it safely first by Junior of course! Finally Kev and Louise made the impossible decision and we’re now delighted to be able to announce that: George Adams, Luka Owen, Amy Lovelock and Laura Vanhulle will be joining us in March! Congratulations guys and good work! The competition was extremely tough and you should be proud that you made it through. For all those of you that auditioned but didn’t make it through, thanks for attending and please don’t feel too disheartened, the standard was so high (probably one of the highest we’ve ever seen at Motionhouse and Kev and Louise we’re delighted!) and our intake so small, that you should also be patting yourself on the backs on a job well done, and who knows in the future it could be your turn.

As part of the Quest project we’ll also be welcoming four apprentices from the Northern School of Contemporary Dance. Giorgio auditioned yet another talented group of dancers towards the end of last year and we’re now looking forward to the arrival of Jade Barton, Joshua Houghton, Tess Letham and Kalliopi-Ioanna Chodrakis, (Pollyanna for short), also in March! Exciting times ahead at Motionhouse!

Soph xx”

Motionhouse dancers Junior and Olivia teach during the audition process.

Thanks Soph – and congratulations to our new apprentices, we can’t wait for you to get started and joined our team!

Meanwhile, in addition to organizing the auditions Jo and mezze have been manically busy preparing our other Quest community groups who will be joining us in The Voyage. They’re currently facing an uphill battle as they try to arrange all the licenses for the 140 youngsters and recruit enough chaperones to work with them all! It’s been hard work and definitely a learning curve for everyone as we get to grips with the legislation involved in working with young performers, but I think it’s safe to say we’re definitely getting there.

Jo’s also been out ‘in the field’ meeting the groups, leaders and some of the parents of our Quest participants. Her first trip was to Coventry Performing Arts Service (PAS) Dance Youth Group and she said that she was completely bowled over by their excitement and reaction to being involved in the project. I’m sure this really makes up for some of the more difficult tasks she’s been having to try and solve like: trying to find a rehearsal space big enough for all these groups to meet and practice together with our professional dancers and aerialists from Legs On The Wall; costuming all of the performers in 1940s outfits (not to mention getting all of the performers measurements and hat sizes!); as well as trying to help find old suitcases for their props. Phew! Sounds like a massive task to me, but if any of you out there think you can raid your attics and help with costumes or old suitcases just drop us a line, at info@motionhouse.co.uk it would certainly be a big help.

Do you have any vintage suitcases? We are looking for some for props for The Voyage

Think that’s it for now, it’s about time I got back to catching up on my workload, but Soph and I will bring you more updates on The Voyage soon. We’ll also hoping to be able to bring you some exclusive news about our next theatre production, Broken, so watch this space!

Jus xx