Performed by a group of 20 young people aged between 16 and 25 from Calderdale, and known collectively as Northern Rascals, this was a piece of dance-theatre, produced in collaboration and cooperation with Northern Broadsides and The Piece Hall Trust, which spoke out about how this age group have been and still are feeling and coping with our current coronavirus situation.
Using voice-overs whilst they dance outside in the grounds of historic Piece Hall, penned by Anna Holmes and move to the original music of Jonathan Deering, Anna Holmes's and Sam Ford's choreography is heartfelt and poignant, sometimes matching the mood and sometimes in juxtaposition with the mood, making this piece feel sometimes very 'edgy'.
This 22 minute piece explores how these youths feel and do during this time of lockdown; who do they blame.. as seemingly the government is rather keen to blame them for the spreading of the disease. Here, using dance, mime, physical theatre and movement exactly how they cope with isolation, lockdown, COVID-life in general, and it is not how us "oldies" might imagine.... ie: ignoring the warnings, not wearing masks, and partying together until the wee small hours or going to illegal raves. Yes, they tell us, a small minority of our age group may well do this, but don't tar us all with the same brush! Just because we are the demographic most likely to use public transport, most likely to live in communal housing, and most likely to be blase about the whole situation doesn't mean we ALL are, they say. There is anger in their movement, but there is also hope; yes their careers, life aspirations have been put on hold, but this is a changing world, and with change there is always hope. And there is a moment, about 5 minutes before the end of the piece when some die from coronavirus, and the male dancer left alive, holds his friend and dances with him, touching him, holding him, hugging him.... and for the first time in the whole piece there is physical contact, and I simply couldn't help the lump that came into my throat at this point. Beautifully done.
However, I have one very big gripe with this video; and sadly it marred my enjoyment of the piece and I became increasingly more and more frustrated with it as the piece went along. This has nothing at all to do with the dancers, but instead the videographer. The style of filming was incredibly distracting. The cameraman (Aaron Powell) allowed us to see only what he wanted us to see: close-ups of one person when a group movement is taking place, focusing in on a small group when we wanted to see the reaction from the dancer opposite (out of shot). In general the camera work was too busy! We never truly managed to see the whole group dancing together except for a couple of ephemeral glimpses, and so never truly had a sense of the company nor the company's togetherness - it was less of an ensemble piece and more of a film director's perspective. It would have been much more advantageous for all, including the audience, to have had several cameras, or to have filmed each short vignette from different angles / perspectives and then edited the whole later. The camera was moving more or less constantly, and all I wanted it to do was to stay still and pan out so I could see the whole thing for myself and choose what I wanted to fix my eyes on.
The video is available to watch on Northern Broadsides's YouTube channel.
Reviewer - Matthew Dougall
on - 17/11/20
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