We are thrilled to announce that Pop-Up Duets will be presented at the 2019 WOMAD FESTIVAL in AUSTRALIA and NEW ZEALAND!!! This exciting tour is supported by Creative Scotland through the Made in Scotland Expo programme.
https://www.womadelaide.com.au/  WOMADelaide

To celebrate our good news here’s a gorgeous NEW TRAILER of the work, created by Tao-Anas Le Thanh. Music & Lyrics by Pippa Murphy featuring Kathryn Joseph. Danced by Al Garo, Joanne Pirrie, Amy Hollinshead & Valerio Di Giovanni Supported by PingPong Productions, Global Arts Link, Creative Scotland, National Museum of Scotland

It’s an absolute honour for the Janis Claxton Dance Team to continue Janis’ inspiring work, and with her formidable energy and direction in mind, POP-UP DUETS (fragments of love) are back in the studio to start rehearsals for Bilbao’s Fair Saturday on 24th November.

Fair Saturday Bilbao Thanks for having us!

Some exciting announcements for Pop-Up Duets to follow…….

It is with great sadness that we share the news that Janis Claxton died early this morning.

Janis was a tour-de-force: a hugely talented choreographer and a front-line fighter for gender equality in dance. She died early this morning having been diagnosed with lung cancer in the spring.

Her most famous work POP-UP DUETS has just finished at Tanzmesse and will continue with its scheduled tour, next stop Bilbao. The dancers are and have been absolute legends throughout the tour, all over the world.

For those of you who wish to mark her memory please do donate to the Marie Curie hospice who have been amazing;
www.mariecurie.org.uk/donate

We are ecstatic to announce that Janis Claxton has won the prestigious HERALD ARCHANGEL AWARD for her sustained contribution to the arts in Edinburgh during the festival.
Previously Janis was awarded the Herald Angel award for Enclosure 44 at Edinburgh Zoo, and this year Pop-Up Duets (fragments of love) has taken the company to new heights!! What a high coming to the end of our 2018 international tour!!! Herald article here

Pop-Up Duets don’t mind being mentioned amidst such glitterati in the New York Times – article available here 

After great success in Sweden, next week we will be stopping in New York for the Lincoln Center Out of Doors Festival.  Not only once, but we have the honour of being mentioned twice in the New York Times. The second article is available here. #feelthelove

POP-UP Duets had the absolute thrill of performing at Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival in Massachusetts USA in June, where we made our debut in the Opening Gala just before the festival officially opened.

Janis Claxton Dance then had the honour of performing all week in and around the Jacob’s Pillow venues, we are only the 2nd company from Scotland invited to perform at this amazing festival! Following in the footsteps of Margaret Morris in 1954!

Here we are mentioned in the New York Times as a top dance pick!

Thanks to ISPA (International Society for the Performing Arts) for the introduction, and Creative Scotland for support

We are pleased to announce that Pop-Up Duets will be performing at Tanzmesse in Düsseldorf, one of the largest professional gatherings dedicated exclusively to contemporary dance, from 29 August-01 September.

Pop-Up Duets will travel to Germany after 2 weeks of performing in the Edinburgh Fringe at the National Museum of Scotland, where this work was originally premiered back in 2016. More tour dates and details can be found here.

Thanks to Creative Scotland for support.

• New tour announced for 2018 across Scotland, England, USA, Singapore and Sweden. More details here!

• Janis Claxton Dance is the first Scottish group to perform at Jacob’s Pillow since the Celtic Ballet of Scotland, founded by Margaret Morris, made its U.S. debut at the Pillow in 1954.

★★★★★ The Herald  ★★★★ The Observer  ★★★★ The Times   ★★★★ The Scotsman

Janis is currently in Kolkata, India to work with Vikram Iyengar, Ruchira Das and co at The Pickle Factory from 7-25 February.

The Pickle Factory has invited Janis to import the idea of POP-UP Duets, but not the product, re-imagining it in and for an Indian context working with Indian dancers drawing from the forms they are trained in. Janis will work for two weeks with a group of kathak-trained dancers from Calcutta companies Ranan and Rhythmosaic, introducing them to improvisation and partnering techniques that underlie POP-UP Duets. This exchange between dancers from two completely different contexts, histories, physical understandings and assumptions will hopefully create areas of overlap, friction and discovery that familiarity cannot uncover. Improvisations developed during the period will pop-up in various venues across the city for The Pickle Factory’s inaugural season.

“The invitation to re-imagine POP-UP Duets within a new and unfamiliar context is almost as terrifying as it is exciting. The work is deeply rooted in specific and detailed processes based in a unique system of partnering improvisation that will be totally new to the Indian dancers. Classical Indian kathak dance is a form totally unfamiliar to me. Together we will share in trainings and use the improvisation processes to allow new material to emerge.” – Janis Claxton

Thanks to British Council Scotland & Creative Scotland for support.

We are pleased to announce that Pop-Up Duets will launch our 2018 international tour at Singapore International Festival of Arts from April 26-29.

With music by Pippa Murphy and dancers Al Garo, Joanne Pirrie, Valerio Di Giovanni and Amy Hollinshead.

We will tour all summer with other dates to be announced soon including throughout Scotland and our USA debut at Jacob’s Pillow Dance in June.