In November 2022, Dance Base present our very first Scratch Night – an evening of work-in-progress performances showcasing bold new work from an array of Scotland-based dance artists.

The evening was hosted by Artistic Director Tony Mills and provided a safe space for artists to gain valuable feedback from the audience on their work through conversation, both in the theatre and over a free drink in the bar after.

The evening featured performances by artists including Eoin McKenzie, David Ronan, Sam Vaherlehto, Alexandra Tsiapi and Carmen Berbel Lapaz showcasing some of the fantastic breadth of work being made in Scotland today.

People Dancing by Eoin Mckenzie

People Dancing is a new collaborative dance work between Eoin McKenzie and an intergenerational group of non-professional performers from Easterhouse.

The work expands notions of the kinds of bodies that can dance and, by extension, celebrates the beauty that exists across a multiplicity of moving bodies. People Dancing hopes to be a joyous and playful contemporary dance work that utilises collective movement practices, somatic practices, and structured improvisation to showcase and cherish the unique movement vocabularies that exist across the group. One day it hopes to become a riotous contemporary return to the communal and social history of dance.

Julian written by Julia Fisher, choreography by David Ronan

Equal parts drag / pop concert / comedy / stand up / theatrical / contemporary performance / dance.

A display of bad boy attitude, sincerity, tenderness and machismo, and cute pop choreographies. Written by Julia Fisher, choreography by David Ronan, featuring the moves of Kirstin Halliday, and the music of Carly Rae Jepsen.

I'm afraid to lose me by Sam Vaherlehto

What happens when our self-worth is put in jeopardy? When our existence isn’t acknowledged, and we crave simple recognition?

This work explores the inner demons that seek to come out when our self-trust is weak, when we doubt, and when we find ourselves decoupled from our spirit and our compassion.  We are constantly striving to find balance, within ourselves, with our community, and in our societies. We need to maintain connections without losing our values. This work is inspired by Francis Fukuyama’s ‘Identity’ and B.F. Skinner’s ‘Beyond Freedom and Dignity’.

Mychorizza Within by Alexandra Tsiapi & Carmen Berbel Lapaz

Mycorrhiza refers to the fungal association between plant roots and beneficial fungi, a symbiotic association, that plays an important role in our ecosystem. “Mychorizza Within” is the continuation of my exploration of the intricate world of fungi and their relationship with their environment. Through improvisational scores and building blocks of movement inspired by Scottish forest environment, the two bodies bring a bit of the outdoor in the space to look at, as if looking through a microscope.

Hidden in plain sight and underground, the kingdom of fungi is their guide, as they find strength and support in each other. “Mychorizza Within” is also the continuation of my ongoing research on the relationships developed between moving/dancing bodies and the space around them.

Meet The Artists

People Dancing by Eoin McKenzie

Eoin McKenzie is a performance maker and participatory artist who works across contemporary theatre, dance, live art, research, and multi-artform collaborations. He is interested in interrogating the complexity of the everyday experience and in positioning the communal and co-operative as radical alternatives to the way things are – his work often emerges from these two interests. He is an associate artist with Platform in Easterhouse (where he grew up) and is currently an Imaginate Accelerator Artist for 2022/23 with his new work The Show For Young Men.

***Julian*, written by Julia Fisher, choreography by David Ronan**

Julia Fisher is a writer and performer based in Glasgow. Alternatively put, sometimes people pay her to play pretend. She enjoys sharing a room with other people and making them laugh. Julia tries to create work that challenges you to get out of your seat or at least question why you’re in it. When not on playing dress up for attention she spends the most of her time at home with her cat Newman and being very boring.

David Ronan is a dancer and performer living in Glasgow who usually works in the field of queer performance. David trained in somatics and dance with Deirdre Grant, in acting and contemporary theatre with Tony McCleane-Fay, and went on to study (both formally and informally) at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, Fly Dance Studio Dublin, and at Dance Inc Studio Centre. For ‘Julian’, David expresses his passion for idol performance, commercial dance, and pop music entertainment.

Kirstin Halliday is a dance artist and performer who lives in Glasgow. Their movement practice emerged from a research background in Human Geography, with a particular focus on embodied social geographies, gender and geographies of dance. Their dance practice is motivated by the co-generative relation between moving bodies, social space and personal experience. Kirstin is excited by the radical potentials of this relation. Their current research interests reptile embodiment, back-up dancing, postmodern movement scores and erotic performance.

I’m afraid to lose me by Sam Vaherlehto

Sam Vaherlehto is a dancer, performance artist/maker, choreographer and movement director, originally from Finland but now based in Glasgow. He is ballet trained, but after working for a few years in a ballet company realised that contemporary dance is his passion. He has collaborated with multidisciplinary artists around Scotland, Finland and China. His latest works are with Imaginate, Lyra and The Work Room. His work explores cultural identities, social structures and limits and possibilities of the body and mind.

Margot Conde Arenas is a Venezuelan/British multidisciplinary artist, performer and facilitator based in Glasgow and Amsterdam. Her art practice explores humanness, memory, traumatised bodies, decolonising identities and sharing unheard stories; questioning what it means to be human in an ever-changing world. Her work is driven by movement, video and collaboration.

Khalil Johnson is a cellist from Baltimore, Maryland, but now based in Glasgow, studying with professor Alison Wells at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland (RCS). Khalil is an avid chamber musician and he now plays with his piano and cello duo, duo Mneme. He also plays in a piano trio at the RCS. This will be accompanied by numerous other projects throughout the year. Outside of classical music, he enjoys exploring just about any and all other forms he can get his hands on, especially collaborative projects!

Julienne Restall is a 22-year old artist from Malta currently studying Contemporary Performance Practice at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. Her interest lies largely in performing in, directing and writing multidisciplinary theatre, along with film and television. At the centre of her creative process is play and joy: this allows for the most authentic content to be generated, she finds.

Mychorizza Within by Alexandra Tsiapi and Carmen Berbel Lapaz

Alexandra Tsiapi is a freelance Dance and Movement Artist specialising in performance and choreography. She is part of “Vaiven Movement Collective” where she explores her practice through film, outdoor work and site specific work. Alexandra has performed and choreographed work for festivals such as Wonderland 2022 with Aberdeen Performing Arts, Dance International Glasgow 2021, Destination Unknown 2021 @ St. Peters Seminary, Moving Out 2021, Unfix Festival 2021, Dance Live 2021, Neverthere Festival @ Surge 2020, Lacuna Festival 2020-2021.

Alexandra works with movement improvisation, characterisation and voice in order to bring to life lively stories and narratives. Through her work, Alexandra looks at dance and ecology aiming to promote environmental awareness, and shed light to the natural world and its wonders. Alexandra also uses folklore, myths and stories to talk about social and cultural issues of our time.

Carmen Berbel Lapaz is a trained designer and dancer, researcher and facilitator working with creative movement and imagery, drawing from both the natural and the fantastic. Carmen is interested in improvisation, collaboration and breaking away from “the norm”.

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Dance Base is a charity with a mission to encourage and celebrate the potential for dance in everyone. We use the power of dance to improve people’s health and wellbeing, and we support professional dance artists at all stages of their careers. We’re grateful for the generous support of out funders and donors.

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