‘A Sketchbook of Vital Ideas’ is an online opportunity to meet with leading theatre-makers, preview new shows in the making and find out what their work can offer you.

Now’s the time to sketch out a plan and not let ‘diversity’ be just a heading in your business plan. By engaging in conversations, commissions and the programming of diverse work for young audiences can open up new ideas and ways of working into the heart of our creative practice.

About the Work

Join artists Chad Taylor and Takeshi Matsumoto as they share their current work and invite you into a conversation, not a presentation. Chad Taylor will share his latest work in development, When I Hear Music which delves into wellbeing and mental health of young people in the transition from primary to secondary school, using Hip Hop/street dance techniques to story tell through choreography & music. It is a visceral & high energy show relevant to Young People and with urban aesthetic.

Takeshi Matsumoto will share his latest work in development, Club Origami; a space full of papers that invites family audiences to a journey that celebrates creation, imagination and alternative world view, intersecting dance, fashion and live music. Be ready to be enchanted by paper transformation and dance that Origami inspires.

About the Artists

Vital Spark is an ambitious four-year programme which harnesses the talent of a diverse range of artists in order to realise a vision of a sector that is relevant to and representative of all children.

Takeshi Matsumoto Takeshi is a Japanese inclusive dance artist, dance movement psychotherapist and choreographer. Growing up in Japan, his practice both in life and performing art is influenced by Wa, harmony, peacefulness, quiet and contentment ways of living and balancing with others and environment.

As a performer, he has worked with Darren Johnston, Beatrice Allegranti, SLiDE and 2nd Hand Dance. He was awarded an artist development programme as a Vital Spark associate artist and is currently creating dance as a Little Big Dance Commissioned Touring Artist. Little Big Dance is a partnership made up of national dance organisations, Dance East, Take Art, Yorkshire Dance & South East Dance.

Chad Taylor Chad Taylor started dancing from the age of 11. Training in the foundations of hip hop, and at 14 years of age started to widen his dance vocab by doing other styles such as ballet, Tap, and Jazz.

His work Persistence has appeared as extracts at the Curve Theatre in Leicester as a part of the Lets Dance international Festival and as apart of the Breakin’ Convention tour in Blackpool. In 2017 he was awarded Arts Council funding to develop Persistence into a full show at Contact Theatre. In 2018 he created an outdoor piece called The Awakening which was a part of the Refract Festival in Manchester. In 2020 Chad was commissioned by Z-arts and STUN to create a new piece Lost Online as part of HOME’S Homemakers project.

A Sketchbook of Vital Ideas with Chad and Takeshi