Homegrown and thriving

Eleven professional dancers, 10 community adult dancers, 54 dance students and 50 primary school dancers will all be performing in HG2 Homegrown at the Corn Exchange, Newbury, tomorrow (Wednesday). It has been three years since the first production of Newbury Contemporary Dance Company’s Homegrown. Since then a thriving community for dance has grown in Newbury and more young dancers have trained, graduated and are now professional dancers in their own right and so, says Debbie Camp of NCDC, it seemed timely for HG2 to celebrate these achievements and see the dancers of today, tomorrow and the years to come. The show will feature four newly-commissioned pieces that have been choreographed in close collaboration with lighting designer Vicky Allen – a ‘live’ lighting rig designed to breathe and react to the dancers. Performers include Shaw cum Donnington, Theale and Welford primary schools, the Corn Exchange Youth Dance Company in their debut performance, Theale Green School, West Berkshire Youth Dance Company, Newbury CAT scheme dancers (advanced training for young dancers at the Place, London), Seamus Condon and Francesca Pinder – both in professional training – and Nocturn dance adult community performance group. The professional dancers taking part are Debbie Camp, Gemma Cole, John Darvell, Ellie Duckman, Alice Denton, Laura Gibson, Rebecca Hinton, Will Llewellyn, Sarah Martin, Tarrant Robbins and Stephanie Townsend. HG2 is on Wednesday, March 19 (7.45pm). Tickets are priced £10 (£7 concessions). Visit www.cornexchangenew.com