Artificial Things is brand new from Stopgap Dance Company touring throughout 2014 after a series of successful European dates in Autumn 2013, where they received standing ovations. Stopgap Dance
Company are renowned for their distinctive work with both disabled and non-disabled dancers, performing together as a collective and creating extraordinary and powerful results.
Weaving beauty with destruction, Artificial Things casts a magnifying glass over our attempts to live with one another. Both bold and accessible, the piece delves deeply into what it means for people to co-exist.
Artificial Things features acclaimed disabled dancer David Toole, best known for his definitive role in
DV8 Physical Theatre’s multi-award winning film The Cost of Living as well as his prominent solo in
2012’s Paralympics Opening Ceremony. David is joined by another highly regarded disabled dancer
Laura Jones, who was an assistant choreographer and dance captain for the ceremony.
Artificial Things is the debut production for Stopgap Dance Company’s new Artistic Director Lucy
Bennett. Lucy visualises dance through a cinematic spectrum, allowing audiences to observe the nuances of individual dancers and become absorbed in the remarkable dynamics that their interactions create. The starting point of Lucy’s devising process is the personal experience that each dancer brings with them. Their stories give Stopgap Dance Company ’s work true originality and a human quality.
Lucy Bennett says: 'We’re very excited about performing Artificial Things. We spent most of 2013 working on this dance piece, and this has made it rich in texture and deeply moving. Our dancers are truly exceptional in this production, and they are very much looking forward to enthralling audiences”
As well as David Toole and Laura Jones, Artificial Things features Chris Pavia, David Willdridge and
Amy Butler. Design was inspired by a series of strange and intense paintings by Serbian artist Goran
Djurović re-imagined by Anna Jones from Curious Space. Lucy Bennett encountered this artist by chance when visiting an old mental institute in Ghent, which has been turned into an art gallery for
‘outsider’ artists. Djurovic’s work explores his fascination of man and his relationships and the suffering caused by dominance.
Chahine Yavrovan’s striking but disquieting lighting enhances the interplay between light and shade, with strong highlights juxtaposed by deep colours. Artificial Things is accompanied by scores from
Christopher Benstead, Jim Pinchen and Andy Higgs. Yoshifumi Inao, former Artistic Director of
Batsheva Dance Company, is the guest choreographer for the opening scene.
Tour Dates Spring 2014
5 th Feb – The Point (UK Premiere) www.thepointeastleigh.co.uk
12 th Feb – Ivy Arts Centre, University of Surrey,
Guildford www.surrey.ac.uk/arts/whatson/index.htm
8 th Feb – Deda, Derby www.deda.co.uk
6 th Mar – Pavilion Dance South West www.pavilliondance.org.uk
8 th Mar – University of Bedfordshire www.beds.ac.uk/theatre/whatson

20 th Mar – Farnham Maltings farnhammaltings.com
More dates to be confirmed in April/May/June 2014
For press enquiries, please contact Anna Goodman at Abstrakt Publicity on abstrakt@abstraktpublicity.co.uk or 0207 834 0440 / 07976 247 026
Notes to editors:
Stopgap Dance Company seamlessly integrates disabled and non-disabled dancers. Our work is fuelled by the new and exciting possibilities that arise from the dialogue between distinctive dancers.
We believe that integrated dance offers exceptional creative opportunities, and we are committed to sharing these via creative learning projects, publications, and by touring our original productions nationally and internationally. Stopgap Dance Company’s productions are devised by our dancers and collaborators, working as an ensemble under the artistic direction of Lucy Bennett. With our work, we seek to offer a window into a parallel world where human interdependence, strength and vulnerability play out with poetic realism. We are the only integrated dance company in the UK that devise original productions as a collective for national and international touring.
Stopgap Dance Company is a National Portfolio Organisation of Arts Council England. It is a resident company of Farnham Maltings and The University of Surrey.
Artificial Things : Slowly suffocating in each other’s company, a group of friends seek escape in a bash of riotous rock-n-roll. However, their wild disorder descends into playground politics and reveals some uncomfortable truths.
Information and videos: http://stopgapdance.com/productions/artificial-things-2013-stage
Lucy Bennett (Artistic Director): Immersed in Stopgap Dance Company’s work for nine years as a dancer and choreographer, Lucy has learnt to blend and expand the dynamic interaction of distinctly different dancers. Working as a choreographer within a company of markedly diverse dancers has allowed Lucy to develop, define and encapsulate her love for expressing human stories through dance.
In recent years she has choreographed: Tracking (2009) commissioned by Without Walls consortium,
Shape Arts and Liberty Festival, Extra Ordinary (2010) – Guest Choreographer for Dave Toole and
Lucy Hind (winner of the Standard Ovation Award, 2010) and SPUN Productions (2012) commissioned for the Cultural Olympiad. Lucy is the UK’s leading expert of integrated choreography .
David Toole studied at the Laban Centre of Movement and Dance after participating in dance workshops with Candoco Dance Company. Dave toured with Candoco Dance Company between 1993 and 1999. Subsequently he has performed with Graeae Theatre Company, The Royal Shakespeare
Company and in 2000 worked with DV8 to create and perform Can We Afford This? for the Sydney Arts
Festival. The show was revived in 2003 and later made into the film The Cost of Living . In the summer of 2012 Dave performed a key solo role in the opening ceremony of the Paralympics. He also appears in the Sally Potter film, The Tango Lesson, in the role of the Designer.
Laura Jones has performed with Stopgap Dance Company since 2001 and has been integral to the growth and direction of the company, and she is a fierce advocate for the dance and disability sector.
Drawing from her immense experience of devising and translating movement material, Laura has begun to establish a technical framework for dancers who use wheelchairs. In 1998 Laura became the first wheelchair user to complete 100% of the A-Level dance syllabus. In the summer of 2012 Laura took on the role of Dance Captain for the Paralympics Opening Ceremony. During this time she assisted choreographer Kevin Finnan (Motionhouse), rehearsed 3500 dancers and performed in all of the dance routines in the ceremony.