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News

Q&A with David West of EQ Dance Company

Date published
Thursday 12 March 2020

David is Artistic Director of EQ Dance Company and has choreographed the two pieces they are showing on Friday 13th March as part of "Love Your Mind".

How did you form EQ Dance Company and what does the name mean?

Having my own company was something I wanted throughout the whole of my dance training, but having had depression, and poor mental health, I realised that rather than just being a company, I wanted to create a community, a collective of artists/people. A company where they feel that their boss does have their best interests in mind. EQ stands for emotional intelligence (people smart). It’s been said by some to be the true intelligence. The company started up in June 2018.

Why is mental health so important to you?

I feel like it's important as it can have such huge impacts on you, including physically. If it's bad enough even just doing the laundry can feel daunting. Suicide is one of the biggest killers, especially of men, which why I've made a work about this as part of this upcoming show.

Tell us about P.S: Ama-te and Ana De Albuquerque?

P.S: Amate cover elements such as loneliness, and solitude so it was a good fit for our evening. For myself this was a great opportunity to give one of the members of the company (Ana) the chance to show something, rather than just me producing work. This has something I've wanted for my members for a while now. I want to create more of these opportunities for my members down the road, as an effort to support those in my company. Creating that environment is another step forward to creating a positive, healthy community within EQDC.

How long have you been dancing/creating dance performances?

I've been dancing since I was 16 but I only took it seriously when I was 18, and started professional training. In terms of creating work, I've been doing that from the beginning. Being a creative is my passion, not just as a choreographer, but as an artistic director too. The trifector for me has been learning to produce over last year and putting that back into the company. I feel complete as a creative now, and more hungry than ever to put all my skills to use.