SDS invited online magazine dance art journal to write a series of pieces about NEXT Choreography and NEXT 2025, our 6-month course for creative young people and their public gathering of new work.
PART 1: NEXT Choreography cultivates a collaborative praxis ahead of festival
Rehearsal reflection from Florence Nicholls. Read in full.
“By prioritising interest over experience, the NEXT programme is an experimentation in what dance education could look like once the standard for premature success is removed, and instead encourages young artists to continue to play on, like there is no destination in sight.”
PART 2: What is NEXT Choreography?
Maria Elena Ricci interviews Lena Hannigan, Maxi Himpe and Jemima TheRese Nzinga. Read in full.
“Transcending training, the NEXT Choreography cohort was given the opportunity to taste that imagination-shaking, awareness-activating and powerfully-charging feeling we experience when moving through presence, trust and intuition. I think to myself that those are the ingredients to access freedom of movement, and not years and years of training.”
PART 3: A sensory and poetic reflection
Stephanie Burrell reflects on the NEXT 2025 festival. Read in full.
“To witness the works at NEXT 2025 was to enter a porous choreographic encounter—where memory is not fixed but fluid, continuously reactivated across body, sound, and digital trace. These works do not conclude; they echo, inviting return…”
dance art journal was founded by NEXT Choreography alumna Katie Hagan, alongside other previous NEXT-ers angel dust and Stella Rousham. Find out more here.
All images from Jemima Yong.