Darren Ellis, Artistic Director of Darren Ellis Dance
Darren Ellis, Artistic Director of Darren Ellis Dance, Darren trained at Rambert Dance School (1987-90), at the Laban Centre, and Transitions Dance Company (1990-91).
He has danced with David Massingham Dance, Janet Smith and Dancers, Page Dance Theatre (Freiburg, Germany), Mark Bruce Dance Company, Small Bones Dance Company, Jeremy James Dance Company, Matthew Bourne, Random Dance Company, Snag Project (Jo Fong and Sarah Warsop), Richard Alston Dance Company and Unbroken (a dance theatre piece at the Gate theatre).
Darren has been teaching at Rambert Dance School since 2003 and joined Richard Alston Dance Company as rehearsal director in August 2005 – 2008. Darren began choreographing in 2007 and has made two pieces, Romeo Error (for Evolution at The Place) and Tempt My better Angel.
Furthermore Ellis Dance Theatre has produced Good to Go (2007) and No More Ghosts (2008), which have been performed by the Richard Alston Dance Company.
Following that, Darren has also created a piece on the Centre for Advance Training at The Place for the EXCELLENT Gala which was staged at Sadler’s Wells. In 2008 Darren was part of the international research program Choreoroam at The Place where he created a solo on himself, Sticks and Bones.
Darren is currently commissioned by DanceDigital for his new movement-technology piece After Effects. Following his research and interest about drums and rock music, Darren is using a custom-made interactive drum kit as his choreography partner. You can watch an excerpt of After Effects work in progress.
After Effects
After Effect is a co-commission from Dance Digital and DanceEast. After Effects was created using a drum kit that has been specially modified so that light will shine from inside the drums. A mixture of acoustic and digital drum sounds are triggered using movement and both natural and manmade objects to influence the light and sound from within the drum, thus bringing it to life.
The integral artistic motivation is to explore the effect of rhythm, both on the environment created and on both the performer and the audiences’ emotions. There are effectively two performers within the piece; the dancer and the drum, which acts as a vessel for both light and sound. The digital elements embodied within the drum bring this inanimate object to life. The light and sound are individually in control of their own rhythms whilst being able to determine one another’s. The dancer will have a direct interplay with these elements, creating an experience that heightens the senses for both performer and audience.
Please download the production here
website designed by artstrust
You are viewing the text version of this site.
To view the full version please install the Adobe Flash Player and ensure your web browser has JavaScript enabled.
Need help? check the requirements page.
