Dance With Us (or maybe that could also have been 'Dance With US' - since this event was a collaboration with a dance company from Pittsburg, USA) was a rather long and disjointed pot-pourri of 8 separate items. Staring at 7:00pm and not finishing until 10:00pm with only a short 20 minute interval, the evening felt too long and too protracted. This feeling was further advanced since one of the 8 items was not a live presentation but a film, shown on a large screen on the stage; and the final item of the show was not even in the theatre at all, but a promenade production of a site-specific semi-improvised work using various locations throughout the university building.
The ideas behind each item were noteworthy, and indeed well presented. However, a theatre performance should be just that - a theatre performance; and had we been presented with just the 6 items which were theatrically presented it would have been a more acceptable length for a dance show and been much more acceptable from an audience perspective.
The film was completely extraneous, and due to the fact that I was sitting very close to the front of the stage the images on the film were too large and somewhat blurred, meaning I had to close my eyes as the screen was making them hurt and smart, and consequently missed majority of the action on the film. From what I did understand of it; then it was a filming of a live show presented by 2 performers who spoke poetry, writing words on canvas and using these words as an impetus to create movement and body tensions. It was performed in the round and the audience (on screen) were visible at all times too.
The final piece, a devised collaboratoon between Salford University and La Roche College in Pittsburg was also a bit 'hit and miss'. developed further with a little more thought to the route, and the timing of the piece, it might have been something quite special, and certianly something that could have and should have been presented as a separate item. Not everyone who wants to sit and watch dance wants to follow an immersive promenade piece - they are completely separate genres.
This final piece, called 'Meeting' was the outcome of a masterclass these students had with Lisa Cullen, the programme leader of the BA Dance course at Salford university. Students had written short poetic texts to accompany their work, which were handed to us on a sheet prior to the start of the presentation, however there was no apparent cohesion between these texts and what we watched, and the first few sections of this were very short and fragmented. Very experimental in nature, and even though we understood that it was a structured improvistion between dancers who have had very little time to work together, it still was much more like watching a classroom excercise than a piece ready for an audience.
Far more successful for an evening of dance were the 6 items in the theatre. The first item we witnessed was by the Pittsburg company 'Bodiography'. Headed by Maria Caruso, this company use dancers who are 'non-stereotypical ballet bodies'. Championing the maxim that we are all beautiful and capable of exquisite dance routines, regardless of our shape and size, the Bodiography company performed 'Fractured And Rebuilt', a contemporary ballet and modern war-cry to all men and women out there to love your bodies and be proud of what you have. This company also performed the penultimate item in the showcase this evening too; a piece called 'Parabola', again choreographed by Caruso. This dance was a mixing of traditional ballet with more modern dance influences and small sections of it were very reminiscent of Riverdance!
Maria Caruso was also responsible for the choreography of three further dances this evening. 'Journey' which saw three Salford university student dancers perform a short routine; 'Light Of Love' which saw Bethany Schimonsky and Josef Hartman perform a highly sexually charged and passionate pas-de-deux; and in the second half, Caruso danced her own choreography to the music of Jeff Buckley's 'Hallelujah'. Again, very intimate and passionate.
The only other item not accounted for was a dance by Lisa Simpson called 'Migratory'. From the programme: "Lisa Simpson, director of Lisa Simpson Inclusive Dance [is] a choreographer with quadriplegic cerebral palsy who is also a non-verbal communicator. Lisa creates dance pieces through a trained translator. Migratory is Lisa's first work with a company of non-disabled dance graduates. Migratory fuses material from contemporary and hip-hop styles with [her] background in visual art to explore the theme of migration."
The four dancers involved were very good indeed, especially the lead male, whose body-popping and body isolation was stunning; however the piece went on far too long on a very static level, desperate for a change in dynamic and level.
In conclusion, the evening was a very mixed bag of both expression and ideas, and sadly it did not all cohere. The dancers themselves have nothing to worry about at all; all were very good, and I am not laying any of my negativity at their feet at all. My negativity springs from the lack of dynamicism in the evening, the programming of too many differing genres [theatre, film and promenade theatre] and for making the evening too long.
Reviewer - Matthew Dougall
on - 12/3/19
No comments:
Post a Comment