Review of 2019

Highlights from a year of freelance life

2019 has been quite the year. My first full calendar year as a freelancer has thrown some incredible opportunities my way, so I thought I would take the chance to reflect on a fabulous year and look ahead to some of the exciting things I have lined up for 2020.

Surf The Wave

The year started with a launch party to end all launch parties! My colleagues from PDSW (the organisation behind the pioneering Surf the Wave project) and I launched the UK Dance Showcase in style, announcing the artists performing at the showcase later in the year with a gin and juice fuelled event at the V&A Museum of Childhood. Working with a shoestring budget (it is the arts after all), we pulled off a fun-filled party with gin donated by Sipsmiths, alcohol free gin donated by Caleño, nibbles and a fantastic performance of Imagination Museum, a site specific work by Made by Katie Green. It was a great way to start the year and a wonderful introduction to the UK Dance Showcase.

The showcase itself happened in May. It was an incredible four days of performances, talks, pitching sessions and parties, and was probably one of the best things I’ve ever worked on. You can read more about the event itself here.

Emergence

In early 2019, I worked on the tour marketing for the first ever tour by Emergence, the post graduate MA students from the University of Salford. They toured a double bill of new works by Phoenix Dance Theatre’s Artistic Director Sharon Watson and Emergence’s Artistic Director Joss Arnott. Though this was a small scale tour, there were 10 venues and the company was completely new so it was great to get stuck in to something so exciting. I am delighted to be working on their second tour in early 2020.

Nikki & JD

Contemporary Circus duo Nikki & JD had had limited success with their previous tour and decided to take on a freelance marketing manager to help promote their Spring 2019 performances. That was me! I put some simple things in place included rewriting the copy, creating a killer marketing pack and doing some grassroots promotions contacting circus and dance organisations in each of the tour’s locations. Alongside this, I did a small Facebook advertising campaign to build awareness for the show and the company. It worked well and I’m so pleased that the company have since gone from strength to strength with a hugely successful Edinburgh run. I can’t wait to see what these guys get up to next.

Greenwich Dance

In June 2019, I started a year long contract working two days a month for Greenwich Dance. The organisation had been through some difficult times, but I was excited by their new CEO Melanie Precious’ vision and enthusiasm for the way the she hoped the organisation could make an impact on the local community. So far, we have been on a journey of discovery, learning about their past and current audiences, making decisions about branding and planning for the future. In the summer, they produced Greenwich Dances Moving Eltham, a festival of pop up dance experiences all over Eltham, and in the Autumn we created a fun dance filled film with Roswitha Cheshire:

Next year, we are planning our first brochure and we will have some extraordinary performances happening in community centres all over the borough. I am so looking forward to continuing my work with them into 2020.

Two Peas No Pod Productions

In August, my incredibly talented and inspiring friend Sarah Howard directed a play at this year’s Camden Fringe. Bombshells was a one woman play about four very different women. I was thrilled to be able to help Sarah with the marketing for her two performances at the Cockpit, and very much hope she is planning more productions for next year.

Remarkable Productions

In 2018, I worked on the London Mela as one of my first freelance projects. I was delighted to return to work on the annual festival again for its second year on Southall Park in the heart of one of Europe’s oldest South Asian communities. As well as another hugely successful event, we also scooped the Best Live Event award at the Asian Media Awards for the event in 2018. What an honour! I am looking forward to the event returning in 2019 and hope I will have the privilege of being able to work on for a third time.

Siobhan Davies Dance

I was approached in the Spring to work on the audience development for a new partnership project between Siobhan Davies Dance and Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art in Gateshead. CONTINUOUS is a newly established network of arts institutions who have come together to commission new performance art works for their gallery spaces. The first commission, Spirit Compass: Where there is movement, there is change by Lucy Suggate opened in October 2019. In addition, Siobhan Davies Dance asked me to look after the marketing manager role while they were recruiting. This took my involvement with the organisation right up until November and I had a great time working in their award-winning studios in Elephant and Castle.

Sadler’s Wells

What better way to end the year than with a homecoming. I was thrilled to be approached to help out while Sadler’s Wells were short staffed. I ran the campaign for Acosta Danza and worked on several programmes and freesheets in the run up to Christmas. My work with them will continue into the new year with campaigns for Nico Muhly’s Drawn Lines and more programmes and freesheets as they recruit for a permanent position.

Looking ahead

Next year is already shaping up to be an exciting year. As well as my ongoing work with Emergence, Greenwich Dance and Sadler’s Wells, I am excited to be working on Imagination Museum: Mayflower 400, a performance project by Made by Katie Green to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the sailing on the Mayflower as well as Project XO for New Movement Collective. I’ll also be taking on a new short term contract with Ballet Black and a maternity cover contract with Stuff and Nonsense, a children’s theatre company based in the South West. There really is never a dull moment! Roll on 2020!