Candoco is a high-profile flagship Contempory Dance Company founded in 1991 to create an inclusive working community that is viewed throughout the world as a normal dance company and not a "therapeutic project."
We talk to Artistic Co-Directors Pedro Machado and Stine Nilsen along with dancer Tanja Erhart to find out what life in this lively yet refreshing company is like.
Over the years, Candoco’s works have ranged from the immersive ‘the show must go on,’ which won the 2015 UK Theatre Award’s ‘Achievement in Dance’ to the stark, funny and yet stunning double bill CounterActs (their most recent production).
Many of Candoco’s performances - including counteracts - involve audience interaction, thus the dancers must “enjoy being physical” as well as being “curious and willing to work in a team and have a sense of humour.” This combined with choreographers who have a “distinct voice” and “challenge the dancers” allows performances to be engaging and exciting.
These original and unique works enable the dancers to travel as far afield as Vietnam and Mexico, where, as dancer Tanja Erhart tells us, they were able to “perform in front of nearly a thousand people during a festival!”
By traveling around the world, Candoco are able to spread the message of equality between disabled and able-bodied people in general. And although “it's difficult to measure our success on changing perceptions, the fact that we are making more and more work, there are more disabled artists making work and more and more promoters and venues want to book us suggests that we have had and are continuing to have an impact.”
As well as entertaining audiences, Candoco run workshops and classes for young people who “relish the opportunity to interact with professional dance artists, finding their own role models and mentors.” Classes take place in the world-renowned Trinity Laban and The Place buildings so that children can “enjoy getting physical with the work but also engaging with the ideas that come from the repertory.”
It’s not all fun and games though, whilst the rest of us are sitting at a computer, the Candoco dancers undergo a grueling schedule of dance from 10:30am till 6:00 pm. To be able to do this, the dancers clearly have to love their profession: “Once I just performed and had so much fun in performing that I completely lost myself in it and after all that I hear the crowd applauding and cheering with a standing ovation and you realise: ‘Wow, nailed it!’ ”
The roller-coaster that dance is can only be truly appreciated if you are highly exposed to it: Whilst the artist is looking sleek and elegant on the outside, chances are, they are writhing in pain inside. “But being passionate about your profession helps a lot when going through difficult times. Once, I was so exhausted that I thought it's not worth the struggle, but then I went out there on stage and I instantly knew, it's totally worth it. I love being on stage!”
What about the future? As Candoco continues to grow, it would be easy for the aims of the company to become lost, however they have assured us that they are “not going anywhere! We want to continue doing what we are doing but better. Supporting more disabled artists and creating stronger shows” along with “continuing to influence perceptions about disability.”
