Art&Soul
Professional Dance Company
Art&Soul Dance Theatre is a new professional part-time dance company, based in the South East of England. Presented by Isabelle Russell-Fibuch and supported by a variety of fantastic collaborators; the aim of Art&Soul is to inspire life and living through movement and bring short to medium length performances to festivals, rural communities and and outdoor events across the UK.
The vision of work created by Isabelle and collaborators in conjunction with Art&Soul, is to make work which has a creative expression that embodies form, precision, character and freedom. Where we connect through that which comes from within.
The mission of Art&Soul is to bring pieces of work which are influenced by experiences Isabelle feels a strong connection with and desire to share, and stories from people whose voices and lives we might not always hear. Work created is often very personal with the aim of pieces created being used as workshops and classes in and around London, during holiday periods or at events where work is being performed.
Isabelle Russell-Fibuch
ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
Buckinghamshire born Isabelle started dancing at Sargent and Plester School of Dance, and completed teaching and dance training with Margaret Howard Theatre School between 2014 and 2019. Between 2015 and 2023 Isabelle taught at Sargent and Plester whilst developing her Personal Training business and has run PureFitness since 2014.
Art&Soul was established in 2024 as a means for Isabelle to perform and make work that fits around family life with the intention of bringing her joy and enthusiasm for movement to more dancers over the coming years. She is intending to run workshops across the UK and Europe throughout the next year and beyond.
Isabelle is passionate about maintaining good strength, speed agility, power skills and stamina which are needed throughout the style of performance pieces she creates.
Her 20's have been dedicated to pushing her physical capacity with regular weight, sprint, plyometric and interval training around other movement practise including ballet, musical theatre and modern jazz.
More recently work with Sian Hopkins has expanded Isabelle's movement vocabulary to include work and movement derived from Dr Ross McKim's practise and exploration of other renowned contemporary artists have filtered their way into her practise intentionally.
She believes movement is something everyone should have access to and is so looking forward to being able to share her enjoyment and love of dance with others.
About performances and creations:
Performance pieces are often based on Isabelle's experience of life or on stories where she feels an authentic connection with the character she is portraying.
Her process includes a lot of improvisation and play with how movement feels in response to music and the story she is attaching to her dancing at the time.
The process of creating work starts with and experience, poetry, or a story and music which feels appropriate to the emotion or energy needed to draw out movement and ideas for the creative piece.
From there, weeks of improvisation and self-reflection form a large portion of the creative process, and are usually indulged in for weeks.
Performance pieces created form a connection from one to the other, and are a way for Isabelle to physically process life.
Performances can be booked to showcase at events, fetes, or as a collection of performance work; please do email artandsoulcreationsuk@gmail.com to enquire
Euphoria
A ten minute piece inspired by the opening chapter of 'The Dance Tree' by Kiran Millwood Hargrave.
Euphoria is the physicalisation of Frau Troffea's desperate collapse into an unrelenting dance at Notre Dame. The woman is a representative of a medieval peasant, who is suffering in her time. Multiple child-losses, lack of food and religious pressure surround Troffea, who had hoped to find bread; anything to quench the starvation and emptiness that is nagging at her attention.
As she approaches the square, Troffea sits into her exhaustion. Troffea's delirum sets in she is carried away into her dance. While the chapter finishes there; Isabelle has crafted a glimpse of the brave woman who unknowingly, started one of the largest dance-riots of the Medieval era.