Barbican Theatre’s FUSE Diverse Dance programme is thrilled to announce the members of its new young dance company ‘Young Rebels’ who will work closely with the FUSE Diverse Team to share their different styles and fuse them to create innovative new performances.

Suzie West, FUSE Diverse Dance’s Lead Practitioner and Choreographer says

“The Young Rebels are an exciting group of dancers from the city. Their training has been so different which offers a range of dance styles from Ballet to Breakdancing, Contemporary to Classical Indian and the first phase of their Young Rebels programme will be about sharing their dancing style with each other.”

To apply young people from Plymouth were asked to submit films representing them and their style of dance. The final six members chosen all have varied backgrounds and styles of dance:

Isaac Davies

Isaac has been dancing with the Barbican Theatre for 9 years, and currently is training in contemporary dance with Company b whilst he studies at Exeter College. Isaac is a keen dancer and artist and is exploring the interdisciplinary nature both through installation and performance work as his Gold Arts Award.

“I’m really looking forward to challenging my body and creativity with this new collaboration. It’s great to meet new male dancers and have the opportunity to train across Exeter and Plymouth. Although I’m not studying dance at college, this will be a perfect chance to keep me dancing and learn life skills in communication and working with new people.”

Chloe Fear

Chloe is from Plymouth and has been training in Hip Hop for 8 years and in the past 4 years has learnt other Dance styles such as Contemporary, Jazz, Ballet, Tap and International Dances. She has had an ample amount of performance experience due to being a part of different dance companies. She has spent the last 2 years completing her HNC and HND in Dance at City College Plymouth and is currently going on to complete her Top-up year to gain her full BA Hons. The two highlights of her career so far are competing in Holland at a Hip Hop Festival and working with Avant garde where she learnt and performed parts of Fagin’s Twist.

“I am really excited to have the opportunity to be a Young Rebel. I believe this experience is going to push me creatively and help me grow as a dancer. I look forward to working with a fellow Young Rebel to fuse together our styles and create some beautiful choreography.” 

Jonny Hibbs

Jonny started his contemporary dance journey  in January 2019 – coming from some ballet training in his younger years and then a 5 year break from dance altogether.  Most recently he has been training at the Exeter Academy of Dance before auditions this year for dance colleges. He’s also just began training with Chhaya Collective Youth Dance Company (Kay Crook) and the CATs Graduate Programme.

“The theme of rebellion is such a topical one. There seems to be such a pressure on young people to share our voices loudly over different issues; resulting in both brilliant things, like allowing minorities to have their words heard on an overdue platform, and then also the contrary issue of how marches etc can inspire the rise of far-right (and other forms of) extremism. To explore these themes, freedom of speech, resistance and other areas, within dance feels like a very natural thing to do. I think there is a physicality in all of those feelings/actions”.

Ellie Macpherson

Ellie is a third year performing arts education student at Plymouth Marjon University. I’ve been dancing since I was 3, I have trained in ballet, tap, jazz and contemporary. I have been a OneDanceUK ambassador, performed with local dance companies and have spent over 6 years working with Hartley House Dance Club delivering dance classes to children and young people.

“I’m really excited and grateful to be chosen as a Young Rebel! I’m looking forward to work with a new, talented group of people and I can’t wait to get started!”

Hannah Saunders

Hannah began training in contemporary dance at 14 while at secondary school. She has danced with Chhaya Collective Youth Dance from age 17, going on to teach and choreograph for them. Hannah has also performed with Spindrift Dance Company, Chhaya Collective, Still Paint Dance Theatre, as well as performing in Barbican Theatre performances for their FUSE Diverse Dance project over the past 12 months.

“Having worked closely with the FUSE project so far I am excited to continue my involvement whilst also developing my own skills as a dance artist. Young Rebels will offer me the opportunity to explore my own creative potential and continue to find my own choreographic voice, something which I am constantly looking to develop.”

Luke Wilton

Luke, originally from Cornwall, started to dance and put on shows for his family at a young age. He started formal training in Ballet, which lead him to completing the Post-Secondary Bridge Training Program at Victoria Academy of Ballet in Victoria, BC, Canada. Luke has performed works by Allysa Pires, John Alleyne, Jorden Morris and Constance Cooke (among others).

“I’m really looking forward to the residency with Alleyne Dance and working with professionals to create a cool piece of dance” 

The Young Rebels will first work as a team during a masterclass with internationally acclaimed dance company Alleyne Dance, who fuse Afro-Caribbean, Hip Hop, Kathak, Latin and Circus Skills within a contemporary dance context.

Suzie West says

“The Alleyne Dance masterclass will challenge them to think differently about new styles, about taking on each other’s movement and pushing their choreographic ideas to find honest fusions and unique combinations. All four share a hunger and drive for creativity and performance and the Fuse team can’t wait to mentor them through this aspirational programme” 

For updates and details of FUSE Diverse Dance and Young Rebels projects and performances follow @FuseDiverseDance on Instagram, or visit barbicantheatre.co.uk/fuse-diverse-dance If you’d like to get involved with FUSE Diverse Dance  please email fuse@barbicantheatre.co.uk