Newton Aycliffe-based fireplace manufacturers, CVO Fire, have sponsored two dancers to allow them to perform worldwide.
CVO Fire sponsored Francesca Willow and Rosie Macari, from Newcastle, to travel to Texas to take part in two high profile festivals.
Francesca and Rosie are professional performers who recently completed training at London’s high profile Trinity Laban dance school and were keen to create a dance piece in memory of a friend in Texas who passed away suddenly at the age of 20. Christian Taylor was a highly-regarded young poet and scientist and was a core member of Texas’s ‘Mic Check’ poetry scene.
The dancers created a piece in his memory and wanted to showcase it at the Texas Grand Slam event, the largest poetry festival in Texas organised by Mic Check, and to Christian’s family and friends.
Thanks to the sponsorship from CVO Fire, Francesca and Rosie took their work to Texas and performed not only at the Grand Slam festival but also at ‘Write about Now’, a poetry event in Houston, attended by hundreds of performing arts professionals.
Both dancers hope to continue working with the poetry scene to create collaborative work and to further explore the ways that creativity can provide healing in difficult circumstances.
CVO Fire is one of the UK’s leading fireplace designers and manufacturers selling its products all over the world to both domestic and commercial customers.
Director at CVO Fire, Christine McLoughlin, said: “We try to support a number of small, local good causes as part of our work in the community and these girls were so passionate about their work. I’ve seen them perform on a number of occasions and their eagerness to take their performances oversees was so inspiring that we decided to become their sponsors.”
Francesca Willow added: “We felt great empathy towards Christian’s community and were inspired by his work to create a dance piece ourselves. We were also keen to be able to showcase our work internationally and Texas was the natural place for us to do this in front of Christian’s friends and family. Without CVO Fire’s help this would never have been possible so we were thrilled to be given this opportunity.”