Shorts | Byrion

Welcome to Shorts | Byrion

At National Dance Company Wales we love to support emerging talent, and share incredible dance with our audiences and tonight you’ll experience both.

Over the last few years we’ve enjoyed watching each of tonight’s choreographers carve a space for their work across the UK, and are excited to share work that embodies their unique voices.

UN3D by Osian Meilir was created for 4X10 in 2023, a creation and development programme for Welsh choreographic artists as part of our 40th anniversary year. Meilir has been an Artistic Associate of National Dance Company Wales for the last three years, and is at the forefront of the development of our art form in Wales.

Infinity duet by Faye Tan and Cecile Johnson Soliz premiered at In Tandem, earlier this year – an event that blurred the lines between art gallery and performance space, and showcased some of Cecile’s larger artwork alongside the dance. Choreographer Faye Tan has been a dancer with the company since 2019, and has persistently honed her choreographic craft and practice. She is a future leader in our sector.

Finally, Hang In There, Baby by John-William Watson premiered in Sadler’s Wells main house in 2022. Watson is one of the most distinct artists of their generation, with works that form complete worlds from which the absurd and the beautiful emerge, and we’re thrilled to have them here at the Dance House.

Dancers

You can learn more about each dancer by visiting the page below

click here to read the dancers biographies

Rehearsal Director

Victoria Roberts 

Technical Team 

Geraint Chinnock, Harvey Evans, Will Lewis

To meet the rest of the National Dance Company Wales

Infinity Duet

“The sculpture can't help but yield to gravity, and neither can their bodies. Two people deal with time and weight in this brief reverie.”

Two people deal with weight and time in this warm, soulful duet that weaves together drawing, sculpture, dance and sound in a unique collaboration.

Choreographer Faye Tan and artist Cecile Johnson-Soliz created this work together with the dancers. Featuring music composed by Richard McReynolds, costumes printed with Cecile’s drawings and a large swinging sculpture which takes centre stage, this work sweeps you along with it.

Faye Tan: Choreographer 

Faye is a dancer and choreographer from Singapore and is currently a full-time dancer with National Dance Company Wales. Her choreographic practice is nourished by her extensive experiences of working with contemporary dance choreographers from all over the world and her explorations of different dance styles, cultures, methods and techniques. Her works often embrace the sometimes-overwhelming complexities of human emotion, and are often odes to human experiences of the sublime.

Frequently collaborating with musicians and visual artists, she has created works for various settings and contexts with NDCWales, VERVE (UK), Frontier Danceland (Singapore), the Centre for Advanced Training (UK) and School of The Arts Singapore.

https://www.faye-tan.com/

Cecile Johnson Soliz: Artist 

Cecile Johnson Soliz  is a second generation American of Bolivian heritage who grew up in California, Mexico, Bolivia, Brazil, Ghana and Italy before arriving to the U.K. to study fine art at Cardiff College of Art and Goldsmiths. Following 20 years in London, the Henry Moore Fellowship in Sculpture brought her to Cardiff in 1995 where she lives and works. Cecile has exhibited across 35 years in the U.K. and abroad in both solo and group exhibitions, winning the Gold Medal in Fine Art at the National Eisteddfod, Wales in 2017. She is currently collaborating with the National Dance Company of Wales.

For full Bio and C.V. see:

cecilejohnsonsoliz.net

Richard McReynolds

Richard McReynolds is a Northern-Irish composer, multi-media artist and creative producer based in Cardiff. He works in the intersection between media, exploring new connections between performance, sound and visuals.  His work encompasses sound works, performance-art, generative images, hyper instruments and installations.

 richardmcreynolds.com

The Making of Infinity Duet

Infinity Duet is a cross-artform collaboration in which sculpture and sound hold equal space on stage.

Cardiff based artist Cecile Johnson Soliz and National Dance Company Wales dancer Faye Tan were matched as collaborators in 2022 during NDCWales’ research and development project ‘Laboratori’ that match-made visual artists with dancers. In working together Faye and Cecile found many commonalities, discovering a shared interest in shaping gestures.

“Sculpture has so many similarities to dance, and one of the things we’ve been interested in are time, space and movement, all of those things come into sculpture and it’s one of the reasons wanted to work with Faye on this collaboration” said Cecile
 

“What I love about Cecile’s work is that it deals quite explicitly with weight and time and tension, and the potential for something to happen, even though the sculpture itself might be still in that moment” continues Faye.

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The swinging sculpture is made of newsprint paper, sourced from the end of rolls unable to be used in the printing process. Cecile then paints, twists and sculpts the paper.
Cecile also designed the costumes for the work – which are printed with her own drawings of intricate and precise criss-crossing lines.

The music, by Richard McReynolds features snippets recorded from Cecile’s art studio where the sculptures were made – sounds of ripping, tearing and scrunching paper are incorporated into the warm soundtrack.
 

"Working with Cecille and Faye has provided me with a way to reflect on my practice with different lenses…I’ve really been inspired to let the sounds I record guide the process rather than force them into a shape.”  Says Richard.

To learn more about the process of making Infinity Duet, you can watch an interview below with all three artists.

UN3D

Synchronised, silly and sublime – a trio of dancers move in perfect harmony to a smile-inducing soundtrack of Bjork and The Police.

Featuring moves inspired by synchronised swimming, line dancing and the smooth swaying of the Supremes. UN3D is a work that champions human connection over timed perfection.

Dressed in stunning satin costumes, the dancers explore the difference between moving together and being in tune as they strive for unity and balance.

UN3D by Osian Meilir was created for 4X10 in 2023, a creation and development programme for Welsh choreographic artists as part of our 40th anniversary year. Meilir has been an Artistic Associate of National Dance Company Wales for the last three years, and is at the forefront of the development of our art form in Wales.

Originally from Pentre’r Bryn on the west coast of Wales, Osian Meilir is a freelance choreographer and movement artist currently sharing their time between Wales and London. Since graduating from Trinity Laban in 2017, Meilir has been performing and creating work for a variety of performances spaces, having predominantly worked and created dance productions for the outdoors. Their work has toured extensively across Wales, the UK and internationally including Ten Days on the Island in Australia (2023), Biennale de la Danse in Lyon (2023) and at FIET; the Children's and Youth Theatre Fair of the Balearic Islands (2024).

Over the past five years Meilir has been commissioned to create new work by Articulture Wales, The National Eisteddfod, Green Man Festival and the National Dance Company of Wales with a new work in the pipeline for the company for their 2025 Autumn tour. 

Meilir’s up-bringing in rural West Wales and their fascination with notions of identity, culture and community feeds their creativity and inspires their work. Their very early experiences and background of Welsh folk dance also has a great influence on their contemporary practice and has led them to appreciate how dance can build meaningful bridges between people from around the world. Embracing unity and harmony, within ourselves and each other, Meilir celebrates the beauty, simplicity and power of human connection.

osianmeilir.com
@osianmeilir

Hang in There, Baby

“The you of today, but also tomorrow; somehow.” 
Richard Life, CEO and Director of Life & Stuff Incorporated 

Hang in There, Baby explores our relationship with destiny and decision making. Set in the depths of a new year’s office party this dark-comedy gets increasingly surreal as the relentless monotony of office life dissolves into a ‘pac-man-esque nightmare’.

Blending a sci-fi script, brilliant design and an original score by Adam Vincent Clarke, this genuinely funny and surprising dance urges you to hang on in there, no matter what.

John-William Watson is a freelance, choreographer, director and dancer from Beeston, Leeds UK.

After graduating from The Royal Conservatoire of Antwerp BE in 2019, they swiftly carved a path for themselves creating critically acclaimed, surreal, self-described ‘dance-plays’ - often exploring the interplay between science fiction, dark-comedy and contemporary dance. Creating laugh-out-loud” worlds on stage that “look at the absurdity of the world with a smile.” - The Stage 

Watson has previously received commissions from Sadler’s Wells, Messums West and The Riley Theatre. Touring and creating shows nationally and internationally their work has been described by Article 19 as “just what the wide world of dance needs right now.” 

In recent years Watson has began performing in their own company works and for UK based dance artist Beth Emmerson. Their transition to performing began with their first solo company work ‘Why This Chair Does Not Exist’ in 2023; which has since toured nationally and internationally. A slap-stick, surreal character portrait exploring an individuals relationship with consciousness and mortality; hued by the worlds of Buster Keaton and Jacques Tati. 

They have presented work at Sadler’s Wells Main House UK, Sadler’s Wells Lillian Baylis UK, The Riley Theatre UK, Birmingham Hippodrome UK, Pavilion Dance South West UK, Messums West UK, Bartholomew Fair UK, Teatro Vascello IT, Noorderlicht Festival BE & Théâtre Basse Passière FR.
 

johnwilliamwatson.com
@johnwilliamwatson

Photo: Foteini Christofilopou

National Dance Company Wales
Dance made in Wales, shared with the world.

National Dance Company Wales embraces the distinctive voices of artists from near and far.

We commission bold artistic collaborations with dance at their heart.

We share dance of ambition and imagination in theatres, public spaces, festivals and immersive settings, creating unforgettable performance experiences.

We inspire everyone to move by nourishing talent and insight, enabling new ideas to emerge and develop.

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Let us Know What You Thought

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Alternatively you could fill out a feedback postcard in the foyer and free-post it back to us.

Fill out the survey here 

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