Yanaëlle Ritter, Surfaces (2023). Photo Steven Cropper
Shifting Sites
A residency by Yanaëlle Ritter
Part of LIVE EDITIONS
Residency dates
30 June – 26 July 2026
Venue
Eastbourne College & Falling Sands
Studio sharing
Friday 24 July
1pm - 1.30pm
Outdoor sharing
Sunday 26 July
4pm - 6pm
Full event information & booking from 1 July
This residency has grown out of ongoing conversations with dance artist Yanaëlle Ritter about the development of her practice in her hometown of Eastbourne – and how to sustain a making practice alongside extensive teaching in London.
The outcome is a residency close to home during which Yanaëlle will draw on her interests in outdoor practice, site-specific performance, and Cunningham Technique*, while revisiting her 2021 solo Surfaces - a work originally created on sand.
Moving between an indoor studio and nearby beaches revealed only at low tide, Yanaëlle will be creating new movement “scores” — instructions and prompts for movement — inspired by shifting sands, hourglasses, and her current experience of pregnancy, while drawing on Cunningham Technique to support her connection to place and environment.
Yanaëlle will be joined by mentor Sue MacLennan (choreographer, dancer, and former Head of Choreography at London Contemporary Dance School) and for outdoor sessions, by fellow Eastbourne artist Loupe Couper.
Yanaëlle’s residency will culminate in two public sharings inviting audiences into her process.
More information about these events, and how to book, will be available from 1 July.
*Cunningham Technique®: Created by legendary American dancer and choreographer Merce Cunningham, this is an abstract dance technique designed to create strength and flexibility of the body and mind, foster spatial awareness, and help dancers gain rhythmic precision and dynamic movement.
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Yanaëlle Ritter is a Belgian British contemporary dance artist based in Eastbourne. She dances in parks, on beaches, in installations and on stages, and teaches dance to children, teenagers and adults across Sussex and London. She graduated from London Contemporary Dance School in 2015, later developing a strong focus on outdoor and site-specific practices through training at Art Factory International (Italy) and Chichester University.
From 2022-24, iterations of her work The Performance Path featured performances on streets and benches, by a seafront Martello tower, in front of Towner Eastbourne’s iconic Lothar Götz mural and in other locations across the town. Alongside her site-specific practice, Yanaëlle has a long-term commitment to Cunningham Technique, completing the Merce Cunningham Trust Teacher Training Programme in New York last year and recently qualifying as a Cunningham Technique® teacher. Yanaëlle also leads community projects with Company Concentric which she co-directs with pianist Mikaela Livadiotis, and collaborates regularly with musicians including laouto player Miltos Boumis, composer Owen Ho and the bands Afrit Nebula and Column258. -
This residency is part of LIVE EDITIONS, a new programme of movement, sound and performance in Eastbourne and the South Downs, supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England and running from July 2026 to May 2027. LIVE EDITIONS is led by Nikki Tomlinson, an independent curator and producer. For more about the background to the development of this programme, see here