Broken Chords 2008
Blah blah etc
The Epic Every Day 2023 - 2024
We are guided by the invisible bonds that connect us. Bonds born out of curiosity and play and freedom to be ‘other’. We are an unlikely and beautiful mixed community of ages, cultures and identities finding the humour, pride and ownership of who we are and how we live
We question how we perform our identity taking the role of the watcher and the observed. We explore the unexpected joy and meaning of being together and how established relationships can still surprise and amuse in uncharted waters.
We bring ourselves and our lives to the stage elevating the hidden experiences of 'our everyday’ to reinvent an unlikely Renaissance world to share and celebrate all that is us.’
Following in the footsteps of Company of People’s previous work ‘In Your Shoes’, epic stories of everyday lives are at the heart of this new performance.
From the small and seemingly insignificant to curious to the outlandish and unexpected , The Epic Everyday shines a light on intimate details and transforms ‘everyday’ culture to the grandeur of high art.
Yorkshire Dance’s Company of People is an intergenerational group rooted in the communities of Chapeltown and Harehills in Leeds, UK. The group worked collaboratively with choreographer TC Howard, and dance artists Kate Cox, Izzy Britain and Bakani Pickup to create Epic Everyday. The company was established in 2021 through the Performing Gender: In Your Shoes project.
Photos by Elly Wellford
Skin Portraits
A film created for The Epic Every Day, featuring all the participants from Company Of People.
Photography by Casey Orr
Music - Dank Sie Dir Gott, Ernst Reijseger and Emmi Leisner
The Epic Every Day performances:
​Leeds Playhouse
Yorkshire Dance hosted the European Partners and friends from Performing Gender; In your shoes to Leeds in 2023 to take part in their Encounters Festival. It featured 3 of the pieces created through the Performing Gender project from Holland, Budapest and the Netherlands alongside the premiere of h at the Yorkshire Playhouse.
Bologna Gender Bender Festival
Company Of People were invited to perform at Bologna’s Gender Bender Festival. The festival has taken place annually since 2003 and fills the entire city with multidisciplinary art from all over the world. It offers a rich, welcoming exchange of contemporary culture, representation and difference.
Den Bosch Boulevard Festival
The largest theatre festival in the south of the Netherlands presenting non-conformist theatre and dance in unexpected places throughout the city, from disused factory buildings to someone’s back garden. Company Of People took a scaled-down, interactive version of The Epic Everyday to perform at the festival's Closing Lab.
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Reclaim The Night
In collaboration with visual artist and activist Melanie Manchot, Yorkshire Dance’s Company Of People took their own unique brand of creative dance and joined an eclectic mix of dance groups from all over Leeds, re-tracing the routes taken by the original trailblazing feminists in March 1977 protesting against sexual violence, for gender equality and safer streets. Project led by Kate Cox and Izzy Britain.
YD 40th birthday party
Company Of People performed at Yorkshire Dance’s 40th birthday celebration
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Reclaim the Night - Photo by Dražen Prignica
Quote from Gender Bender Bologna
The 21st edition of Gender Bender has just ended and we want to thank you from the bottom of our hearts for your valuable presence at the festival.
It was a particularly happy edition, with an enthusiastic audience that crowded the halls of the many scheduled events with continuous sell-outs.
Your work was much loved by our audience and allowed us to realize a festival as we want it to be: an open and participating space of sharing and dialogue with the whole city.
Please, send a deep thanks to all of The Company Of People. Let's keep in touch about the developments of your work for possible future collaborations.