2 faced 2012

Tamsin Fitzgerald trained at the Northern School of Contemporary Dance. After graduating Tamsin founded 2Faced Dance Company in 1999. Tamsin has choreographed four major works for the company including State of Matter, Still Breathing, Third and 7.0 which have toured across the UK and Europe. In 2007 Tamsin received the Rayne Fellowship for Choreography and worked with Australian Dance Theatre. In 2008 Tamsin choreographed Watch This Space alongside Hofesh Shechter for the International Dance Festival Birmingham and soon after became Associate Artist at DanceXchange in Birmingham. Tamsin has since been commissioned to create a range of works including Wings of Desire for IDFB, The Rock for Dance East and Two Old Men for Hull Dance. Tamsin teaches at a range of conservatoires including The Place, NSCD, The Centre’s for Advanced Training as well as extensively in schools and colleges across the UK.



This is the first time that we have commissioned other choreographers to
work for the company on our major work and the first time the company have
performed in Edinburgh with work made by other choreographers.

what made you pick these two choreographers?

As a company we see it as important to reinvent ourselves from time to time,
keep our work fresh, generate new audiences and challenge perceptions.
I thought it would be interesting to explore what a male choreographer
would create on an all male company. Tom Dale's work interested me
because I felt that there were certain similarities in his use of music
and the energy that he created with his dancers. I had met Freddie on
a few occasions and felt that his work was more theatrical and had more
narrative than mine. I also felt that both choreographers would be
able to work with the mixture of stylistic approaches and dancers that the
company has.

2faced have been making an interesting journey... from crowd pleasers to
more thoughtful work... does this continue that journey?

The journey with these three pieces has been the most interesting so far.
The company is now at a very different stage than it was at when we did our
first Edinburgh Fringe in 2004. These three works still maintain the three
traits that 2Faced have always had: the athleticism, masculine energy and
fusion of urban and contemporary styles. These new works will really push
the perceived vision of what 2Faced Dance was and is. As a company you have
to grow and develop and we have just made National Portfolio Status with
Arts Council England, which rightly or wrongly automatically takes you to
another level.

the last time you were up here, you didn't get the same positive response
from critics - except for me. I liked that work the best so far... is there
a problem with trying to do that thing artists do, to develop your work and
ideas, to expand and become more serious and not rely on crowd pleasing,
given the way criticism seems to work here?

As a company it's difficult when you create work that is popular and sells
because you get pigeon holed into being an 'entertainment troupe' when
really you just create the work because at the time it seemed right. I think
it's hard to shift perceptions of what you do and I'm sure people still
think of us as the 'all boy group who take their tops off' but really that
ended four years ago. I think that as a company we do what is right at the
time, for us, and that we are considered by some to be rebellious and not
sticking to the rules. But I like that. Although critically we didn't get
rave reviews from everyone it definitely started a debate amongst the dance
world and I thought that was brilliant. After all the arts are surely
there to spark a reaction.

what else have 2faced been up to? i did miss you last year

Last year we created two smaller works and toured them to Europe which was
brilliant and the reception we had was very positive. We are looking to do
this again in 2012 after we have toured the UK with In The Dust. I also
wrote hundreds of funding applications to make sure that we could keep
creating and building the company.


do you have any affinity with other companies? do you fit in a British or
more continental tradition?

I think we have an affinity with companies that create muscular and athletic
work such as Australian Dance Theatre and Hofesh Shechter but I think really
we don't fit into any mold because unlike a lot of companies we use language
from b-boying and other urban styles and this therefore doesn't always sit
well with people, unless it's on your TV screens on Saturday night. For us
all dance forms are artistic, they all share the same language. Dance should
show the extremes the human body can go to and then make you want to see
more.