Julia K Gleich receives major grant from Arts Council England

London, UK--Julia K Gleich has been awarded a £10,000 grant from the Arts Council England for an innovative presentation of ballet in the traditionally under-served market of Barking, East London. 

Gleich, who is currently on faculty at Trinity Laban and Head of Choreography at London Studio Center will curate Counterpointe: a new series featuring women choreographers on pointe from June 1-19. This is followed by three nights of Speak Easy Secrets from 21-23 June, an immersive ballet experience directed and choreographed by Gleich, wherein dancers and audience engage directly with each other, and the audience can move from room to room in the "Speak Easy" where illicit alcohol and illicit ballet are presented in the atmosphere of Prohibition America.

Julia said: "Women have been overlooked as choreographers. Speak Easy Secrets is an especially innovative approach to reaching a market that has been poorly served."

Julia is a choreographer, teacher, scholar, and mathematics aficionado interested in re-contextualizing ballet: creating new environments for traditional works and illuminating the relationships between the traditional and the contemporary. Her company, Gleich Dances, has performed in the UK and US, and she collaborates with Denis Pelli, Professor of Neuroscience and Psychology at NYU, in an exploration of peripheral vision through dance. She is President of Norte Maar for Collaborative Projects in the Arts, based in New York. (as reported by Trinity Laban, June 18, 2013)