Notes · DanceUK · A-Levels

Optional: Independent Contemporary Dance in Britain 2000-current / Sutra

Independent contemporary dance in Britain 2000-current is one of the four optional Areas of Study for Section B, focused on the named work Sutra (Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, 2008). This topic teaches the character of the independent contemporary dance scene - its cross-cultural fusion, dance-theatre and collaboration - the named work Sutra (its collaboration with the Shaolin monks, Antony Gormley and Szymon Brzoska, and its themes), and the named practitioners Shobana Jeyasingh, Matthew Bourne, Jasmin Vardimon, Akram Khan and Hofesh Shechter, with the style, context and significance of the scene.

5 sections~18 min reading time2 competenciesLevel Foundation 1 · Standard 2 · Advanced 2

T·141414 / 15

Exam profile

AO3 · Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of independent contemporary dance in Britain and Sutra, using appropriate terminologyAO4 · Analyse, interpret, evaluate and critically appreciate the works and practitioners of the area of study

Operators:identifydescribeanalyseinterpretevaluate

basic level

AS-Level study of this optional area expects accurate knowledge of the independent scene, Sutra and the named practitioners.

higher level

The full A-level expects analysis, interpretation and evaluation of Sutra and the practitioners, linked to the character and context of the independent contemporary dance scene, in essay form.

Depth

Text

Contents · 5 sections

Optional: Independent Contemporary Dance in Britain 2000-current / Sutra

Independent contemporary dance in Britain 2000-current#

FoundationAQA 7237 Component 2 Section B (independent contemporary dance in Britain)Ofqual GCE Dance subject content

British independent dance 2000-current: milestones

Fig. 1Milestones of independent contemporary dance in Britain since 2000, including Sutra (2008) and works by the named practitioners.

This Area of Study covers the flourishing, diverse world of INDEPENDENT contemporary dance in Britain from 2000 to the present. 'Independent' here means dance made outside the large, established institutions (such as the major ballet companies) - by individual choreographers and their own, often project-based companies, working with a great range of influences and collaborators. It is a scene defined not by a single style but by variety, individuality, cross-cultural exchange and collaboration, and it has made Britain one of the international centres of contemporary dance.

The scene is marked above all by DIVERSITY and FUSION. Its choreographers draw on and combine many traditions - Western contemporary dance, South Asian classical dance (such as kathak and Bharatanatyam), martial arts, physical theatre, hip-hop, folk and more - creating hybrid, cross-cultural forms that reflect a multicultural Britain and a globalised, connected world. This fusion is not incidental but central: much of the most important British dance of the period lives precisely at the meeting points of different movement languages and cultures.

The scene is also marked by COLLABORATION across art forms and by an emphasis on DANCE-THEATRE. Choreographers work closely with composers, visual artists, designers, filmmakers and performers from other traditions, and they often blend dance with theatre, narrative, text and striking visual design. Producing houses - Sadler's Wells in London above all - have supported and presented this work, giving independent artists a stage and helping commission ambitious collaborations. The scene is international in outlook, touring widely and drawing artists from around the world.

The Area of Study is anchored by the named work Sutra (Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, 2008), a striking example of cross-cultural collaboration, and by the named practitioners Shobana Jeyasingh, Matthew Bourne, Jasmin Vardimon, Akram Khan and Hofesh Shechter. Studying it means understanding the character of the scene (fusion, collaboration, dance-theatre, diversity), the named work, and the practitioners' distinct voices, and being able to analyse and evaluate them. The following sections cover the scene's features, Sutra, the practitioners, and the scene's style and significance.

Worked example

Explaining what makes the scene 'independent'

What does it mean to call British contemporary dance since 2000 'independent', and what characterises it?

Define independent
'Independent' means made outside the large established institutions - by individual choreographers and their own, often project-based companies - rather than by a big ballet or repertory company.
Identify diversity
The scene is diverse and individual: many distinct voices rather than one house style, reflecting a multicultural Britain.
Identify fusion and collaboration
It is characterised by cross-cultural fusion (combining dance traditions and cultures), collaboration across art forms, and dance-theatre.
Note the support structures
Producing houses like Sadler's Wells support and present this work, and the scene is international and widely touring.

Result: The scene is explained as independent (outside big institutions), diverse, fusion-driven and collaborative - the defining character of the Area of Study.

Typical mistakes

Taking 'independent' to name a single style rather than a diverse scene of individual, cross-cultural voices.
Not knowing the named work or the five named practitioners of the Area of Study.

Active revision

Explain in a short paragraph what 'independent contemporary dance in Britain' means and its defining features (fusion, collaboration, dance-theatre, diversity), and name the area's named work and practitioners.

Active recall

Recall the key points — then reveal.

Sources: AQA AS and A-level Dance (7236 / 7237) specification (AQA)

The features of the independent scene#

StandardAQA 7237 Component 2 Section B (features of the independent scene)Ofqual GCE Dance subject content

Features of the independent scene

Fig. 2The recurring features of the independent contemporary dance scene - fusion, dance-theatre, collaboration, engagement with ideas, and internationalism.

The independent scene has no single style, but it has characteristic FEATURES that recur across its diverse work. The first is CROSS-CULTURAL FUSION: choreographers bring together movement languages from different traditions and cultures - Western contemporary with South Asian classical dance, with martial arts, with physical theatre, with hip-hop or folk - to create hybrid forms. This fusion reflects the artists' own backgrounds and a multicultural, globalised Britain, and it is the scene's most distinctive quality.

A second feature is DANCE-THEATRE - the blending of dance with the resources of theatre: narrative, character, text, dramatic situation and striking visual design. Many independent works tell stories or explore ideas and social themes, using theatrical means alongside movement, so the boundary between dance and theatre is deliberately crossed. A third, closely related, feature is COLLABORATION across art forms: choreographers work with composers, visual artists, sculptors, filmmakers and performers from other disciplines, so that music, visual art and design are integral to the work rather than mere accompaniment.

A fourth feature is the ENGAGEMENT WITH IDEAS, IDENTITY and SOCIAL THEMES. Independent choreographers frequently use dance to explore questions of cultural identity, belonging, politics, spirituality and the human condition, giving the work seriousness and relevance. A fifth is the scene's INTERNATIONALISM and its structures - project-based companies, touring, and producing houses like Sadler's Wells - which shape how the work is made and seen, connecting British dance to a global network of artists and audiences.

These features - cross-cultural fusion, dance-theatre, cross-art-form collaboration, engagement with ideas and identity, and internationalism - are your analytical vocabulary for the scene and for the named work and practitioners. Because the scene is so diverse, you analyse an individual work by identifying which of these features it embodies and how, and by characterising the particular fusion or collaboration it represents. Sutra, for example, embodies cross-cultural fusion (contemporary dance and Shaolin Kung Fu), collaboration (with a sculptor and a composer) and engagement with ideas (Buddhist philosophy), as the next section shows.

Worked example

Identifying the features in a described work

A British work brings together a hip-hop dancer and a classical Indian dancer, with a live musician and a video artist, to explore two cultures meeting. Which features of the scene does it embody?

Cross-cultural fusion
Bringing together a hip-hop dancer and a classical Indian dancer is cross-cultural fusion - combining movement languages from different traditions.
Collaboration
Working with a live musician and a video artist is cross-art-form collaboration - music and visual art integral to the work.
Engagement with ideas/identity
Exploring 'two cultures meeting' is engagement with ideas of cultural identity and encounter - a serious theme.
Conclude
So the work embodies fusion, collaboration and engagement with identity - characteristic features of the independent British scene.

Result: The described work is analysed as embodying fusion, collaboration and engagement with identity - showing how the scene's features let you characterise any independent work.

Typical mistakes

Trying to define a single 'independent style' rather than analysing the scene's recurring features across diverse work.
Overlooking the collaboration and engagement with ideas that give the scene's work its seriousness and character.

Active revision

List five features of the independent scene and, for each, give an example from a work or practitioner you know; then note which features Sutra embodies.

Active recall

Recall the key points — then reveal.

Sources: AQA AS and A-level Dance (7236 / 7237) specification (AQA)

Sutra (2008)#

AdvancedAQA 7237 Component 2 Section B (Sutra)Ofqual GCE Dance subject content

The features of Sutra

Fig. 3The constituent features and collaborators of Sutra - Cherkaoui and the Shaolin monks, Gormley's transforming boxes, Brzoska's music - serving its themes.

Sutra, choreographed by Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui and first performed in 2008, is the named work for this Area of Study and a landmark of cross-cultural collaboration. It was created with the Buddhist SHAOLIN MONKS of China, whose Kung Fu and way of life are at its heart; its striking set was designed by the sculptor ANTONY GORMLEY; and its music was composed by SZYMON BRZOSKA (performed live). Cherkaoui himself performed in the original production. The work brings a Western contemporary choreographer, Chinese Shaolin monks, a leading visual artist and a composer into a single collaboration - a supreme example of the independent scene's fusion and collaboration.

The SUBJECT and themes of Sutra arise from the meeting of Western contemporary dance with the Shaolin monks' martial arts and Buddhist philosophy. The work explores this encounter - between cultures, between an outsider and a community, between the individual and the group - and themes of spirituality, discipline, transformation and belonging. Rather than a plot, it presents a reflective, evolving dialogue between the choreographer's contemporary sensibility and the monks' physical and spiritual world, and between the single Western figure and the group of monks.

The most famous feature of Sutra is Gormley's SET: a group of large, person-sized wooden BOXES that the monks and dancer continually reconfigure throughout the work. The boxes become, in turn, individual cells, standing walls, toppling dominoes, a boat, a forest and other structures - an ever-changing environment that the performers inhabit, move and are moved by. This transforming set is integral to the choreography and meaning: the performers' relationship with the boxes dramatises the themes of individual and group, confinement and freedom, and transformation.

Analysing Sutra means reading its constituent features and their collaboration: the fusion movement (contemporary dance meeting Shaolin Kung Fu), the performers (the monks and the dancer, the group and the individual), Brzoska's live music (aural setting), Gormley's transforming boxes (a physical setting that is also a partner in the movement), and the reflective structure - all serving the work's exploration of the meeting of cultures and of the individual and the group. As a named work it rewards knowing its collaborators, its themes and its famous set, and analysing how these combine. It is a defining example of the independent scene's ambitions.

Worked example

Analysing the role of the set

How does Antony Gormley's set of wooden boxes contribute to the meaning of Sutra?

Describe the set
The set is a group of large, person-sized wooden boxes that the monks and dancer continually reconfigure - into cells, walls, toppling dominoes, a boat, a forest and more.
Analyse the interaction
The performers do not just dance in front of the set; they move, inhabit and are moved by the boxes, so the set is an active partner in the choreography.
Interpret the meaning
The changing boxes dramatise the work's themes - the individual box against the group of boxes suggests individual and community; enclosure and opening suggest confinement and freedom; the constant transformation suggests change and impermanence.
Evaluate
The set is central and effective: it makes the physical setting a means of expression, embodying the work's themes visually and physically rather than merely framing the dance.

Result: Gormley's boxes are analysed as an active partner in the choreography that embodies the work's themes of individual and group and of transformation - showing how a physical setting can carry meaning.

Typical mistakes

Not knowing the collaborators (the Shaolin monks, Gormley's set, Brzoska's music) or the central role of the transforming boxes.
Treating the boxes as mere scenery rather than an integral partner in the choreography and meaning.

Active revision

Write a short profile of Sutra (choreographer, year, collaborators, set, themes); then explain one way the wooden boxes contribute to the work's meaning.

Active recall

Recall the key points — then reveal.

Sources: AQA AS and A-level Dance (7236 / 7237) specification (AQA)

Practitioners: Jeyasingh, Bourne and Vardimon#

StandardAQA 7237 Component 2 Section B (practitioners: Jeyasingh, Bourne, Vardimon)Ofqual GCE Dance subject content

Independent practitioners (1)

Fig. 4Three named practitioners of the independent scene and their distinct strands - Jeyasingh, Bourne and Vardimon.

SHOBANA JEYASINGH is a British choreographer who fuses the classical South Asian dance form Bharatanatyam, in which she trained, with contemporary dance. Her work explores cultural identity, structure and the meeting of traditions, creating a distinctive contemporary language rooted in but not confined to her classical training. Jeyasingh represents the scene's cross-cultural fusion of South Asian classical and contemporary dance, and its engagement with questions of identity and heritage.

MATTHEW BOURNE is a choreographer and director who makes narrative DANCE-THEATRE for wide audiences, reimagining familiar stories in fresh, theatrical ways. Working with his company New Adventures, he is famous for productions such as his Swan Lake, which replaced the traditional female corps of swans with a male ensemble, and other narrative reworkings. Bourne represents the accessible, storytelling, theatrical strand of the independent scene - dance that reaches a broad public through narrative and theatrical spectacle.

JASMIN VARDIMON is an Israeli-British choreographer whose company makes physical, dramatic DANCE-THEATRE. Her work blends dance with theatre, text and striking physicality, often addressing social and political themes with intensity and a strong visual and dramatic sense. Vardimon represents the physical-theatre strand of the scene and its engagement with serious contemporary themes through a fusion of dance and theatre.

Together these three show the RANGE of the independent scene: Jeyasingh's fusion of South Asian classical and contemporary dance and her focus on identity; Bourne's accessible narrative dance-theatre for wide audiences; and Vardimon's intense, physical, socially engaged dance-theatre. Each represents a different kind of fusion, collaboration or engagement, and knowing their distinct voices and a representative work or approach for each gives you material for the comparison and evaluation essays the Area of Study sets.

Worked example

Characterising a practitioner's fusion

How does Shobana Jeyasingh's work exemplify the cross-cultural fusion of the independent scene?

Name her training
Jeyasingh trained in the classical South Asian form Bharatanatyam, which gives her a rich classical movement language.
Name the fusion
She fuses this Bharatanatyam base with contemporary dance, creating a distinctive language that is rooted in but not confined to the classical tradition.
Link to themes
Her work often explores cultural identity, heritage and structure, so the fusion is not only formal but expresses questions of belonging and the meeting of traditions.
Link to the scene
This exemplifies the independent scene's cross-cultural fusion and engagement with identity - combining dance traditions to reflect a multicultural Britain.

Result: Jeyasingh's fusion of Bharatanatyam and contemporary dance, and her engagement with identity, are shown to exemplify the scene's cross-cultural character - modelling how to characterise a practitioner.

Typical mistakes

Blurring the practitioners' distinct kinds of work (Jeyasingh's classical-contemporary fusion, Bourne's narrative dance-theatre, Vardimon's physical dance-theatre).
Not knowing a representative work or the characteristic approach of each.

Active revision

For Jeyasingh, Bourne and Vardimon, write one line on each practitioner's distinctive work and what strand of the scene they represent.

Active recall

Recall the key points — then reveal.

Sources: AQA AS and A-level Dance (7236 / 7237) specification (AQA)

Practitioners: Khan and Shechter, style and significance#

AdvancedAQA 7237 Component 2 Section B (Khan, Shechter; style, significance)Ofqual GCE Dance subject content

Independent practitioners (2) and their fusions

Fig. 5Two more named practitioners of the scene - Khan's kathak-contemporary fusion and Shechter's visceral, musically integrated style.

AKRAM KHAN is a British choreographer who fuses the classical Indian dance form KATHAK, in which he trained, with contemporary dance, creating a celebrated and internationally influential hybrid style. His works range from intimate collaborations (such as Zero Degrees, made with Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui in 2005) to large-scale pieces, and he choreographed a section of the London 2012 Olympics opening ceremony. Khan represents the scene's cross-cultural fusion at its most internationally prominent - the meeting of South Asian classical tradition and Western contemporary dance in a singular, expressive language.

HOFESH SHECHTER is an Israeli-British choreographer known for a visceral, driving, percussive style, often set to his own composed music and drawing on folk and communal movement. Works such as Political Mother show his charged, energetic, group-based aesthetic and his engagement with power, politics and the individual and the crowd. Shechter frequently composes or co-composes the music for his works, making the fusion of movement and a distinctive musical world central. He represents the scene's raw, communal, musically integrated strand and its engagement with contemporary and political themes.

The STYLE of the independent scene, seen across all five practitioners and Sutra, is best summarised as diverse, fusion-based, collaborative and often theatrical or socially engaged - a plurality of strong individual voices rather than a single style. Its CONTEXT is a multicultural, globalised Britain in which artists of many backgrounds work and collaborate, supported by producing houses (Sadler's Wells above all) and connected internationally through touring. The scene reflects and expresses a connected, plural, contemporary world.

The SIGNIFICANCE of independent contemporary dance in Britain 2000-current is that it has made Britain a leading international centre of contemporary dance and has expanded the art form through cross-cultural fusion, collaboration and dance-theatre. Its practitioners - Jeyasingh, Bourne, Vardimon, Khan, Shechter and collaborators like Cherkaoui - have created influential, distinctive work and reached wide and international audiences. For the highest-level essays, bring style, context and significance together and support them with Sutra and the practitioners, illustrating the scene's fusion and collaboration and reaching a judgement about its importance - exactly the analysis, interpretation and evaluation the Area of Study rewards.

Worked example

Evaluating the significance of the scene

An essay asks you to evaluate the significance of independent contemporary dance in Britain 2000-current. Outline a strong answer.

State the claim
Argue that the scene has made Britain a leading international centre of contemporary dance and expanded the art form through fusion, collaboration and dance-theatre.
Support with the character
Support this with the scene's cross-cultural fusion (Khan, Jeyasingh), collaboration (Sutra), dance-theatre (Bourne, Vardimon) and distinctive individual voices (Shechter).
Support with works and reach
Support it with landmark works (Sutra, Zero Degrees, Political Mother, Bourne's Swan Lake) and the scene's international reach and wide audiences.
Reach a judgement
Conclude that the scene's diversity, fusion and collaboration, and its international prominence, make it a major and influential development in contemporary dance.

Result: The evaluation states a claim and supports it with the scene's character, works and reach before judging - the evidenced, evaluative essay the Area of Study requires.

Typical mistakes

Confusing Khan's kathak-contemporary fusion with Shechter's percussive, folk-influenced style.
Asserting the scene's significance without supporting it with Sutra and named practitioners.

Active revision

For Khan and Shechter, write one line on each practitioner's style and a representative work; then write a paragraph evaluating the significance of the independent scene, supported by Sutra and one practitioner.

Active recall

Recall the key points — then reveal.

Sources: AQA AS and A-level Dance (7236 / 7237) specification (AQA) · Ofqual - GCE AS and A level qualifications (Ofqual)

References & sources

Sources

AQA

AQA AS and A-level Dance (7236 / 7237) specification

Ofqual

Ofqual - GCE AS and A level qualifications

Optional: Independent Contemporary Dance in Britain 2000-current / Sutra

5 sections~18 min reading time2 competenciesLevel Foundation 1 · Standard 2 · Advanced 2

Optional: Independent Contemporary Dance in Britain 2000-current / Sutra

Key points

Explaining what makes the scene 'independent'

Key points

Identifying the features in a described work

Key points

Analysing the role of the set

Key points

Characterising a practitioner's fusion

Key points

Evaluating the significance of the scene

Sources

Optional: Independent Contemporary Dance in Britain 2000-current / Sutra

Key points

Explaining what makes the scene 'independent'

Key points

Identifying the features in a described work

Key points

Analysing the role of the set

Key points

Characterising a practitioner's fusion

Key points

Evaluating the significance of the scene

Sources