2024 round-up with National Dance Company Wales

We began 2024 with PULSE, our double bill of Waltz by Marcos Morau and Say Something by Sarah Golding & Yukiko Masui (SAY). We presented the work in Offenburg and Fürth before a sell-out run at schrit_tmacher Festival in Aachen. The festival is one of the most prestigious in the world, and it was an honour for the company to be invited for the first time.

We toured Say Something in an interactive format for primary schools (Discover Dance), inviting them to learn material from the performance and ask questions about what we do and who we are. This tour took us to the communities of Caernarfon, Pwllheli, Newport, and Ystradgynlais.

We embarked on a new project in dialogue with ‘Of Curious Nature’ a repertory dance company from Bremen Germany. In each other's company enabled representatives of each company and independent practitioners, to learn about their respective artistic, participatory and community-led practice.

Next, we performed Lea Anderson’s Zoetrope, our first work made especially for young people. In Cardiff we performed to over 1,000 school children at the Dance House before taking this work on tour in the Autumn. Our exceptional engagement team organised workshops and resources for schools in support of the new expressive arts curriculum.

We received a huge number of applications for our Young Associates Programme this spring. It was great to be part of the audition process and witness the passion and potential in this next generation. Our Dance for Parkinsons programme continued across Wales, and I was delighted to visit our participants in Cardiff and see the work they had created inspired by my latest creation. And in November we hosted our annual Launch|Lansio youth dance event, welcoming youth groups to the Dance House to perform together.

I was thrilled to welcome Jo Fong for our first Artist Research Commission. A new format for the company through which we invite artists to practice within our specific context, bringing their distinctive approach into dialogue with the whole company. We also engaged in development weeks with artists Leo Lerus and with Faye Tan & Cecile Johnson Soliz, looking to the future.

Over the summer we created two new works, AUGUST and Skinners to form our new double bill Frontiers|Gorwelion. We welcomed Melanie Lane to Cardiff to create Skinners, alongside an international team of collaborators from Wales and beyond. For AUGUST I also collaborated with a brilliant team, and was honoured to work with our exceptional dancers one more time. This Autumn we toured Frontiers across Wales and to select venues in England, finishing our tour in beautiful Aberystwyth.

Most days we open our company class to guest dancers, and this year we have welcomed 325 dancers to train with us. We also facilitated just over 3 months of in-kind studio space, enabling independent artistic projects to grow through Standby Studios and creative residencies.

Finally, to end the year we premiered our wintry co-production with Theatr Cymru, Dawns y Ceirw. Three years in the planning, this show is the result of a precious artistic relationship between myself and Theatr Cymru Artistic Director Steffan Donnelly. The show is our first fully Welsh language production, and is made especially for children.

People make our work happen, and it has been another year of collaboration on and off stage.

Thank you to all of the NDCWales team and to all the freelance individuals who contributed their time and energy to our work. Thank you to our audiences in Wales and all around the world, and thank you to every participant who decided to dance with us.

Matthew William Robinson – Artistic Director National Dance Company Wales