Rejection. Failure. Loser. ☹️
For 15 years, Thomas has faced a constant, stifling stream of rejection. Dates broken, relationships soured but even worse … dance pieces that never got made. He's written about the blighters in funding applications, discussed them with commissioners, paraded them out to promoters, but sadly, they remain unwanted. From a large-scale interactive piece about the apocalypse to a piece exploring the nuances of cheddar cheese, for one night only, using letters of rejection as a starting point, Thomas will bring them to life. Maybe we’ll discover there was a reason that they never got made …
The Unwanted is one part comedy and one part musical. The narrator, Thomas, shares his letters of rejection accompanied by a dancing sidekick who is armed with a multitude of cheap props. Destruction and chaos ensue as things fall apart. Failing props and costumes are held together with duct tape, while the pair do everything they can just to keep going on with life and the show.
With comedy songs specially written by Mark Franks of The Overtones, and with lots of audience dancing and karaoke, this comedy dance theatre show makes for a brilliant night out.
The show lasts 60 minutes and is suitable for 14+. PLEASE NOTE THERE IS SWEARING IN THE WORK
The Unwanted premiered on 23rd February 2019 at Macphail Centre, Ullapool.
Tour Dates
The Unwanted toured from 23rd February to 8th March 2019.
Cast
Thomas Small
Dancer and Concept, Choreography & Direction
Thomas graduated from London Contemporary Dance School with a BA (Hons) degree. He has won many awards and commissions for his work including the prestigious Bonnie Bird New Choreography Award and the Robin Howard Foundation Commission.
In 2015, he was appointed as the first ever BBC Radio 2 Artist in Residence in association with The Space. He has also been short-listed for the Peter Darrell award in 2003 and The Place Prize in both 2006 & 2008. Thomas was Choreographer in Residence at The Space, Dundee throughout 2008 and Artist in Residence at The Byre Theatre, St Andrews. In 2013, he was awarded the Creative Scotland fellowship on the Clore Leadership Programme. During his fellowship he undertook a secondment at The Roundhouse, London and V&A Dundee and was mentored by Farooq Chaudhry, Producer at Akram Khan Company and English National Ballet. In 2017, Thomas was mentored by Kerry Nicholls and Christopher Hampson where he worked with Scottish Ballet dancers as part of Scottish Ballet Creates.
He took part in the Royal Opera House’s DanceLines 2009 project where he was mentored by The Royal Ballet’s Resident Choreographer Wayne McGregor and he presented the work he created during DanceLines at The Royal Opera House FIRSTS Programme in November 2010. He was invited to present his work ‘Falling Man’ at the Cunningham Studios in New York City in 2011 and Berlin in 2012. His work received five star reviews in the 2011 Edinburgh Festival Fringe and was featured on the BBC Culture Show. He was a Creative Partner with National Theatre of Scotland for their 2012 Exchange Festival. His work, ‘Within This Dust’ was selected for the 2012 Made In Scotland Showcase and went on to enjoy a sell out run at the 2012 Edinburgh Festival Fringe. The work tours to New York City, Brazil and Bangladesh in 2013. In 2014, he was commissioned to choreograph La Banda’s Struileag: Children of the Smoke for Festival 2014, directed by Dan Ayling and featuring music by Artistic Director, Jim Sutherland.
Thomas is a Trustee at The Barn (Woodend Arts Limited) and was Chair of the Advisory Board for Performing Arts at Scottish School of Contemporary Dance at Dundee & Angus College. He was a Trustee for Federation of Scottish Theatre (FST) 2013 to 2016. He was the founder and Artistic Director of the acclaimed Smallpetitklein from 2000 to 2015. He established and Chairs the first Scottish chapter of the What Next? movement in Dundee. He has also Chaired the Dance Forum for Federation of Scottish Theatre. Thomas is a trained mentor on FST's Step Up programme.
Miranda Mac Letten
Dancer
Miranda performs in Thomas Small’s The Drive, which premiered at Chris Evans’ CarFest in 2015. She also performs in the critically acclaimed production The Adventures of Isabel. She appeared in Thomas' Lost But Found film inspired by stories from Children In Need and his BBC Radio 2 films Shakespeare Shuffle and a collection of children's dance films.
Miranda graduated with a 1st class Hons degree from London Contemporary Dance School. She first worked with Punchdrunk as an apprentice on The Duchess Of Malfi, a co-production with the English National Opera, and has continued performing for Punchdrunk on a number of projects including a years run in The Drowned Man. Other dance credits include: Scorned, SHhh! (C-12 Dance Theatre) and working with The People Pile and Bicycle Ballet. She is also the founder of her own company, Kerfuffle Dance, whose professional works include The Endeavor To Be Super.
Miranda first worked with Thomas on his production of Wheechin Aboot project in 2014.
Robert Anderson
Dancer
Alex McCrossan
Dancer
Born and raised in Newcastle Upon-Tyne, Robert began B-boying at the age of 15, quickly joining the world renowned Bad Taste Cru, with whom he battled, taught and performed with internationally, and continues to do so.
In 2015, Robert graduated from the Northern School of Contemporary Dance with a first class honours degree and the Carolyn Woolridge award for outstanding performance. He then went on to tour with the post-graduate company Verve 16, under the artistic direction of Gianluca Vincentini, performing across the UK and Europe.
Over his performing career, Robert has worked with choreographers such as; Anton Lachky, Richard Chappell, Renaud Wiser, Robby Graham, Josh Hawkins, Efrosini Protopapa and Anthony Lo-Guidice.
At the beginning of 2017, Robert began creating his own work after being awarded a commission from Dance city. “Them..” a duet choreographed in collaboration with Clementine Telesfort, premiered at Dance City as part of Dance Edits in October of the same year.
Rob performed in Shaper/Caper’s mass participation show for the opening of V&A Dundee.
Alex didn’t step into their first proper dance class until the age of 13 or 14 - they accompanied a friend to a hip-hop dance class and they were instantly bitten by the dance bug! They practiced at home every minute they could find and the idea of a career in dance became a goal. Without joining a formal dance school, they competed in casual dance competitions around Lanarkshire and Glasgow and learned much of their basic training from YouTube videos and learning dances from music videos off MTV (remember that was a thing??)
Deciding on wanting to become a dancer full time, Alex studied their first two years in Professional Dance Performance at Glasgow Kelvin College and progressed onto complete their BA Honours in Dance through Northumbria University in 2016.
Since graduating, Alex has worked in several different sectors of the dance/performance industry including cabaret, drag and pop-up performances. They enjoy practicing dance recreationally through pole dance, aerial hoop and having a nice wee stretch with some yoga in the evenings.
Alex joined Shaper/Caper in 2018 thanks to funding support from Creative Scotland's Year of Young People Creative Traineeship Fund. The traineeship was such as success that Alex joined the company full time as Dance Artist in March 2019 - and they’ve stuck around even longer!
Listen to music featured in The Unwanted
Promoters Information
We have various resources available including a Promoters Booklet with detailed information about the production and a Marketing Pack to support venues to sell the production. We can also provide you with images, a press release, and print.
If you would like a Promoters Booklet or for more information about the show, please contact:
Tessa Gordziejko
Producer
The Unwanted is funded by Creative Scotland