Candoco Dance Company is a contemporary

physically integrated dance The physically integrated dance movement is part of the disability culture movement, which recognizes and celebrates the first-person experience of disability, not as a medical model construct but as a social phenomenon, through artistic, litera ...

company, founded in 1991 by Celeste Dandeker and Adam Benjamin. The company is based at the Aspire National training centre in Stanmore, North London.

History

Candoco Dance Company was founded in 1991 by Celeste Dandeker-Arnold OBE and Adam Benjamin. The Company developed out of integrated workshops at London's Aspire Centre for Spinal Injury and quickly grew into the first company of its kind in the UK – a professional dance company focused on the integration of disabled and non-disabled artists. Artistic Director Celeste Dandeker-Arnold OBE commissioned 30 new performance works for the company from internationally renowned choreographers including Emily Claid, Javier de Frutos, Doug Elkins, Siobhan Davies, Fin Walker, Darshan Singh-Bhuller, Annabel Arden and Stephen Petronio. Celeste's priority was that Candoco should be programmed and judged as a dance company, not a therapeutic project. Her ambitious commissioning strategy reflected this vision and became the backbone of the company's success, catapulting it into the mainstream dance world from the very beginning. In 2013 Celeste won the Liberty Human Rights Award in recognition for her work. Candoco's former artistic co-directors Stine Nilsen and Pedro Machado were appointed as Celeste's successors in 2007. Having danced with the company for seven and nine years respectively, they brought a natural understanding of the company's ethos to the role and continued to push the boundaries of the definition of dance with bold and diverse commissions. They commissioned work from leading choreographers Emanuel Gat, Rachid Ouramdane, Wendy Houstoun and Javier de Frutos, restaged Trisha Brown's seminal Set and Reset to include disabled dancers for the first time, and commissioned the UK's leading disabled choreographers; Marc Brew and Claire Cunningham for Unlimited – part of the London 2012 Cultural Festival. Under their directorship they took Candoco from the Bird's Nest in Beijing to the Olympic Stadium in London; performing at the handover ceremonies in 2008 and returning, alongside Coldplay, at the Paralympic Closing in 2012. In 2018, Ben Wright and Candoco founding member Charlotte Darbyshire joined the company as artistic co-directors.

Repertoire

Benjamin choreographed much of the early companies work, leaving the company in 1998, and Dandeker went on to commission work by many established choreographers including Rafeal Bonachela, Fin Walker, Siobhan Davies, Javier De Frutos, Stephen Petronio and Nigel Charnock amongst many others. Stine Nilsen and Pedro Machado succeeded in 2007 and they continued to commission choreographers including Javier de Frutos, Claire Cunningham and

Arlene Phillips Dame Arlene Phillips (born 22 May 1943) is an English choreographer, talent scout, television judge and presenter, theatre director, and former dancer, who has worked in many fields of entertainment. For many years, she was most noted as the c ...

2011 Restaging of Trisha Brown's Set and Reset

For the 20th Anniversary the company restaged the seminal Set and Reset, choreographed by

Trisha Brown Trisha Brown (November 25, 1936 – March 18, 2017) was an American choreographer and dancer, and one of the founders of the Judson Dance Theater and the postmodern dance movement. Brown’s dance/movement method, with which she and her dancer ...

in 1983. Retitled Set and Reset/Reset, this reworking reprocessed rather than replicated the original version. The piece was performed again in 2016, this time directed by Abigail Yager a former dancer with the Trisha Brown Dance Company.

2012 Paralympic Games and related performances

In 2008 Candoco took part in the Handover Ceremonies at the Beijing Olympic and Paralympic Games, representing Britain. It was the first time disabled artists were present in both events in the history of the games. The company performed at both the opening and closing ceremonies of the

2012 Summer Paralympics The 2012 Summer Paralympics, branded as the London 2012 Paralympic Games, were an international multi-sport parasports event held from 29 August to 9 September 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. They were the 14th Summer Paralympic Gam ...

in London.

References

External links

Candoco Dance Company website
{{authority control Contemporary dance companies Dance companies in the United Kingdom 1991 establishments in the United Kingdom Physically integrated dance 2012 Summer Paralympics Disability organisations based in the United Kingdom