Company
Sweetshop Revolution produces extraordinary dance theatre with people at its heart. Whatever the subject matter, the company always endeavours to make shows that are questioning, alive and entertaining and can be enjoyed on multiple levels. Our aim is to give voice and space to real people, centering them in our productions and participatory projects.
The work is continually evolving to embrace new contexts; isolated communities are a particular focus right now including hospices, hospitals and care homes. Touring is also central to the company’s work – reaching people in all sorts of areas and in lots of different locations.. from theatres, to shopping centres, to galleries and woodlands.
I love collaboration. Ideas that melt into each other and transform into something much more than they might have been. The dance theatre work we make often focuses on intimacy, honesty, humour and pathos on both intimate and larger -scale contexts. I also feel a deep love for audiences; I truly care about them.
Sweetshop Revolution won the New Adventures Choreography Award 2013 and The Children’s Choreography Award 2014 for a Sadler’s Wells / The Place commission. The company was also nominated Best Independent Company by The National Dance Awards 2016 and a finalist for the Oxford Samuel Beckett Award 2017
Reviews of the production ‘I loved you and I loved you’ included “something special”(**** The Times) and “a miniature gem”(**** Observer). It was also nominated as Best Dance Production 2015 by the National Dance Awards and toured to 20 venues nationally. Our 2018 follow-up ‘BeautifuL’ toured also nationally.
Sally Marie
Sally Marie trained at Central School of Ballet and worked with amongst others, Protein Dance, Sean Tuan John, Jasmin Vardimon, Tilted Productions, H2, Frauke Requart and Deja Donne.
During her onstage career in the UK and internationally she received four nominations as Best Female Performer from both Dance Europe and the National Dance Awards, along with a Spotlight Award for new talent.
Of her two initial solos, ‘The Extra’ was performed at The Linbury, Royal Opera House. And various full-length works followed between 2008-18: the anti-war ‘Dulce et Decorum’; Tree,’ about our connection to nature; ’I loved you and I loved you,’focused on Welsh composer Morfydd Owen; and ‘BeautifuL,’ about women’s sexuality.
Aside from running her company, Sally has been movement director for John Retallack’s national tour ‘Hanna and Hannah in Dreamland’ and ‘Archipelago’ directed by Stephan Wrentmore. She also choreographed ‘Nerve’ for Baron’s Court Theatre and the musical ‘Reasons to be Cheerful by GRAEAE for Theatre Royal, Stratford East.
Commissions have included ‘Cherry Pops and Frozen Snow’ for Edge Hill University, ‘Ice Dust Chronicle’ for Images Ballet Company, ‘W O N D E R L A N D’ for Northern School of Contemporary Dance and ‘Palma Violets, Crimson Smile’ for the Centre for Advanced Training in Birmingham. In June of this year she received a MOTUS commission to make a children’s piece, ‘Silver Things and Cloud Things’ for The King Edward Theatre in Milton Keynes, as well as reworking ‘I am 8’ for an outdoor tour. In terms of community engagement, her project ‘Everyday People’, produced by The Dance Movement gave six members of the public the chance to choreograph on four professional dancers.
Sally has also mentored other artists such as Keira Martin, Stuart Waters, and Lennie Lennie and Ray Prendergast, as well as offering life coaching to the young artists part of The Sweetshop Tigers graduate apprenticeship scheme. This is something we have run on a bi annual basis where we link up 8 graduates with up to sixty Independent choreographers.
‘One of the most interesting talents to emerge within recent years’ ( Evening Standard)
‘I came to movement because I was too shy to speak. I stayed with it because I found in it some essential honesty. Movement seems to speak the silence between the full stops that words can never reach.’