Shifting Sites

Yanaëlle Ritter

30 June – 26 July

Residency dates

30 June – 26 July 2026

Indoor studio sharing

Friday 24 July

Outdoor sharing & walk

Sunday 26 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 at Eastbourne College 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 work alongside mentor Sue MacLennan, choreographer, dancer, and former Head of Choreography at London Contemporary Dance School. For outdoor sessions, she will be accompanied by fellow Eastbourne artist Loupe Couper.

*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.

Artist bio

Yanaëlle Ritter

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.