We were lucky enough to receive ACE funding in early 2020, just before COVID-19 hit. Of course our plans had to change drastically, but the fact that we were able to work together in some way, and be paid to do it, was a privilege. We were going to be with Eleanor Bauer in both the UK and Sweden, writing our screenplay for Nora the Many, and then filming and editing the film. But instead we’ve spent a whole year (pretty much) on zoom…. doing what? Well, a tonne of things: writing our screenplay, taking part in Coven Press (an exercise in collective writing initiated by Bauer, with artists based in Stockholm), re-working the format of Nora Reels (to be more COVID friendly) and just having time together. Before 2020, we really struggled to find time together as a trio, and whenever we met it we were neck deep in applications or fundraising. So Lockdown gave us time to just catch up. We got into a pattern of twice weekly zooms, checking-in with each others’ mental health, supporting each other through the peaks and troughs and adjusting to our new ways of working and living.
Eleanor Bauer
Eleanor and Nora working at Chisenhale Dance Space.
Nora has received Arts Council Funding to begin working with choreographer Eleanor Bauer. This has been in the pipeline for a LONG time and we are so happy that we’re finally in the studio with her. Read more about the work-in-the-making here.
Kickstarter. Tick.
THANK YOU to our very generous donors who have made it possible for us to continue working with choreographers whom we love and admire. We feel VERY lucky.
Welcome Linzi!
We’re beyond thrilled to start our next chapter working with the brilliant Linzi Whitton as our new producer. W'e’re super excited to work with her and feel in very safe hands. Here we go!
Where Home Is ... premiere.
Phew. We did it.
Thank You Deborah Hay.
Thank you Sadler’s Wells.
Thank you Beckie Darlington.
Thank you Beckie!
Thank you to Beckie Darlington who has been a wonderful producer for Nora for the last few years. We’ve tried to absorb some of your wisdom and in doing so have transformed into a much steadier beast. THANK YOU for being amazing and we wish you (and Sausage) well for all that greets you next.
Arts Council England Funding!
Photo: Deborah Hay by Ralf Hiemisch
Nora is thrilled to have received funding from Arts Council England to create Nora Reels and to commission Deborah Hay. Deborah will make a new work for Eleanor, Flora and Stephanie to perform. It will premiere in November 2018 and will be the first piece of their second triple bill, Nora Invites II.
This project is also supported by Sadler's Wells and Dance East.
Nora Reels trailer
It has landed.
The trailer for the first episode of Nora Reels is now live, featuring Kip Johnson and Anwar Russell.
Happy Festivities!
Original photo by Camilla Greenwell
We all hope you have a restful christmas and a happy new year.
We look forward to seeing you all soon.
Watch this space for new performances and films.
Ellie, Flora and Steph xxx
Nora 2018 onwards
Nora in residence at Earl Street creative Space, 2016.
Very soon, Nora will be announcing plans for their second series of new work.
We are currently gathering support and funding to make this happen. Watch this space.
Thank you to Sarah Trist
We will no longer be working with the brilliant Sarah Trist, who worked generously and tirelessly for Nora as tour booker between 2015 and 2017.
Thank you, Sarah, for all your hard work!
Porthleven thinking time
Nora is enjoying the ups and downs of English summer time to catch up and settle our plans for our next project.
We've had a friggin' great time hosting Nora Talks and have one more to go. There have been so many great conversations and exciting questions. Thank you to everyone who has managed to come along. You can listen to some of the talks on our research website.
We are looking forwards to what is to come.
:)
Check out our research blog
Keep checking our research blog for videos, pictures and writing.
Our animated musings!
Berlin trip
Eleanor, Flora and Stephanie had a week of research in Berlin. Watching performances at Tanztage Festival, planning Nora talks, and sharing ideas for their next project. Step by step things get a little clearer...
Hastings Residency
Nora's first research trip, 16 - 20 October 2016, was a week long residency at Earl Street Creative Space in Hastings. This is a brand new space run by Jane Greenfield and Guy Dartnell.
It is a beautiful space and we were given a welcome invitation to do whatever we needed... which, as you can see, was a mixture of things. We talked a lot, laying bare our ideas and desires for our upcoming period of research. We wrote lists of questions, people, ideas, themes etc. and played around with very simple tasks in the space. It opened up an overwhelming number of possibilities so it was useful to have the luxury of such a calm space to allow us to enter the chaos of our thoughts.
Watch a video edit of our residency on our research blog.
Photo: Nora on their last day at Earl Street Creative Space in Hastings.
Arts Council Funding
Nora in celebration mode.
We are very happy to have been given a grant from Arts Council England to undertake our work over the next eight months.
The funded activity will include:
- Tour dates for 'Nora Invites' between October 2016 and June 2017.
- Research trips to festivals and cities to hold interviews and meeting with artists and curators.
- Articles, interviews and other published media which will come out of our research.
- A series of Nora Talks, each with a guest speaker.
- Working with our new, excellent producer Beckie Darlington.
- Deciding on which artists we will commission in 2018 to make new work for Nora.
Stephanie's new role
We are very excited to announce that Stephanie McMann, our rehearsal director, will be joining Eleanor and Flora as a third artistic director and performer of Nora. She will be part of Nora's curatorial research, will be presenting at the series of Nora Talks and, alongside Eleanor and Flora, will be curator and performer in the new series of commissions in 2018. Welcome Stephanie!
Photo: Camilla Greenwell.
Nora on Tour!
Thank you to all who donated to Nora's fund raising campaign. We are hugely grateful for your generous support. Special thanks to: PAUL BURNS, ANNE GREEN, HENRIETTA GRIFFITHS, TOM GUEST, JACOB HOBBS, JESSICA HOGG, ALISON HENDERSON, NATASHA LEIGH, REBECCA MACKENZIE, EVA MARTINEZ, SUE MAYO, ANDREW MCLENNAN, ANNIE MCALISTER-DILKS, THOMAS SCOVELL, KATIE SHELDRAKE, MARTIN SHENFIELD, CHRISTIAN SPEILMAN, ALASDAIR ROMANES, ROBERT ROMANES, JAMES AND ELIZABETH WELLESLEY WESLEY, TRINETTE WELLESLEY WESLEY.
We are now on tour... coming soon to a city near you!
See our full Spring tour dates here.
If you still want to donate to Nora, visit our Support Nora page.
Nora on Kickstarter!
Nora performing BLOODY NORA! by Liz Aggiss. Photo Camilla Greenwell.
Support Nora - click here.
After her world premiere, Nora is very happy with how it all went. After a little rest, Eleanor and Flora will be hitting the road again on a 2016 Spring Tour.
They need your help to make it happen.
From £1 - £1,000, everything will help Nora get the show on the road. Please give what you can!
To donate and to read more about the tour click here.
Thanks!
L-R: Eleanor Sikorski, Flora Wellesley Wesley and Stephanie McMann (Nora's rehearsal director) with Nora's poster outside Sadler's Wells after their premiere.
Nora finally got her premiere on. The proverbial bun's been in the oven for two years warmed by the terrific support of Nora's commissioners Sadler's Wells and DanceEast, co-commissioner South East Dance, and partners The Nightingale, Greenwich Dance & Trinity Laban Partnership, Dance4, Roehampton University, Leeds Beckett University, Institut français du Royaume-Uni, Chisenhale Dance Space and Arts Council England.
It's been a pleasure and a privilege to work with such eclectic dance makers as: Liz Aggiss, Simon Tanguy, Jonathan Burrows and Matteo Fargion.
Enormous thanks for the in-house support of Eva Martinez and Robyn Cabaret at Sadler's Wells and to team Nora: Stephanie Mcmann (rehearsal director), Seth Rook Williams (lighting designer), Camilla Greenwell (project photographer) and Sarah Trist (producing consultant) for helping to bring it all together at Lilian Baylis Studio. BIRTHING NORA.