Turn Festival

 3-5 May 2012. Contact Theatre, Manchester

Turn Festival has been hosted by Contact this year, as a Green Room Legacy project.  With a selection of  unknown talent from around the region, Turn has something for everyone, including the chance to perform your first Wedding dance, watch a wrestling match in an office, and witness a young girl give in to her most impulsive thoughts. (Most unforgettably emptying a bowl of noodles all over herself).  Unfortunately I couldn’t attend all three nights, but here are a few of my highlights…

Emma Lansley and Eve Stainton created the perfect opening to Friday’s evening’s performances.  Better Because I wear Vintage offered a light and humorous approach to the current trend of wearing dated clothing and acting kitsch.  A Conversation: Part 1 offered an intelligent response to psychological topics such as sanity and obedience.  Mainly using text to open the duet, the piece then developed into some interesting, fluid movement.  I hope this is a work in progress by Hannah Buckley and Dwayne Antony, as it left me wanting to see more.  Moving on to my absolute favourite – Work Songs by the dangerologists.  On paper, this piece explores ‘masculinity in the office [and the] mindless drudgery and hopeless alienation that is the normal working day.’  In physicality, it is so much more – the two male dancers produce a comical, physically brutal performance, which escalates into a violent conflict.  The performers have amazing acting ability, and deliver truly convincible characters, which most of the audience could probably relate to.  This piece will no doubt inspire many people to leave their monotonous office jobs and start living.

Hofesh Shecter

Hofesh Shecter – Political Mother. 27/4/12 The Lowry, Salford.

The programme states ‘Shecter’s first full length work burst onto the world stage in 2010 and since then has been an unstoppable force, touring the world to great acclaim.’  This is due to the mesmerising ensemble pieces, consisting of raw, committed movement and powerful images.  Exploring themes of power, oppression and conformity – which are a common trend recently – the dancers take the audience on a painful journey to subjection and back again, in which the choreographer allows the dancers’ individuality come to light.

The element that sets Politcal Mother aside from many other contemporary dance pieces is the choice of a live band and the bold style of music.  The musicians are such a part of the staging, and make up almost half of the performers, that Shecter has made a whole performance genre of his own.  The daring, deafening music dramatically increased the atmosphere throughout the piece, and continually created the tension.  It is fair to say that without the rock music/ gig element, the dancing would be rather underwhelming.  Having said that, Political Mother is still an undeniable masterpiece, and I doubt the ‘unstoppable force’ of the piece worldwide is about to slow down.

The Black Keys with Band of Skulls

7/2/12 Manchester 02 Apollo

Band of Skulls – No nonsense, no crowd-pleasing.  No facades or fabrications.  No pyrotechnics.  Let the music speak for itself.  Kings of Leon with a female, quirky addition.  Dirty riffs.  Grungy guitars.  Dark, dingy atmosphere created for an un- reactive crowd.

The Black Keys – Flashing lights.  Mixing it up.  Place the drummer at the front, why not.  More dirty riffs.  Seductive rock rhythms.  Toe tapping, head nodding, melody singing stuff.  American rock stars who attract an unlikely diverse audience.

Two up and coming bands who offer something completely unique to the British music scene.

We are all in need of....

A motivational quote!

I don't usually do autobiographical posts, but I feel at a dead end recently and have a feeling many people are with me.  So I am spending my morning wallowing, wondering why it is that everything I try to achieve, every job or audition I attend always comes back with the same answer.  I'm always the understudy, I was just "pipped to the post", I've made the reserve list.  I wish someone could pinpoint what I'm doing wrong, but they never can - everyone else is just somehow better.

So a friend advised me to read a sort of 'self help' book - which I admit I had reservations about.  It's called The Success Principles by Jack Canfield, and some of the stories and quotes in there really have kept me going.  Here's mine for today:

"No" is a word on your path to "Yes."  Don't give up too soon.  Not even if well-meaning parents, relatives, friends and colleagues tell you to get "a real job." Your dreams are your real job.
-Joyce Spizer



[Coincidentally, whilst writing this I got a call for an interview.  No doubt I'll still be reading a bit of Jack when they decide to reject me and say I'm next in line if another position comes up.]

Dance Fragments

8/12/11 The Hat Factory, Luton

The triple bill began with Sarah Levinsky’s Plastic Island, which constructed a landscape of plastic carrier bags centre stage.  The piece consisted of four female solos, each entering the stage and interacting with the bags to create different relationships.  Each dancer displayed a sense of individuality within their movement, and the most impressive element to this performance was the realisation that all the dancers were improvising.  As the night’s pieces were all works in progress, Levinsky had decided not to set anything at this stage of her investigation.  Plastic Island delivered an intense, alienated atmosphere which transported the audience to another world – or foreign island as the title insinuates.  The sculpture of carrier bags added connotations of mass consumerism and environmental issues, and I predict the concluding product to be captivating.

Kolesk Dance’s Julia Cheng  followed the first piece with her solo, Hat & Ball.  Whilst Cheng has an undeniable original, interesting movement style and stage presence, the choreography completely lacked sophistication.  The title left nothing to the imagination – the piece centred around a hat and a ball for choreographic inspiration.  However, the solo received good feedback from the members of the audience from a non-dance background, who could relate to the non-narrative style and enjoyed the hybrid mix of dance styles that Cheng always delivers.

The Hat Factory saved the best till last as Helen Parlor ended the night with her new work Close/Distance.  This piece of dance theatre used interesting characters to give a voyeuristic insight into the minds of those people who live nearby and we pass regularly in the street – but don’t bother to interact with.  The performers delivered well executed lines to enhance the dancing narrative, and all gave incredibly believable performances.  It was hard to believe that this piece was also in the early stages of development, as the relationships between the dancers seemed so natural that one would presume they had worked together for years – when in fact in reality it was just ten days. Close/Distance was dynamic and thought provoking, and I am waiting with baited breath to watch the final production when it tours next year.  

Odissi Ensemble - Shades of Love

17/11/11 The Hat Factory, Luton

Having never experienced an Asian Dance performance, I was an eager audience member anticipating Odissi Ensemble’s debut showing of Shades of Love.  So were plenty of others, as the crowded theatre in Luton’s Hat Factory was buzzing with excitement.  As the dancers enter the theatre in darkness, the anticipation rises with the jingle of the bells around their feet.  This leads into the first of seven individual dances, in which each one tells a different story, and the bells induce a rhythm that always matches perfectly with the music.

The style itself is definitely separated from the stereotypical Indian dance that is now commercialised.  The intricate and unique isolations are delivered by the dancers with such precision, along with a great sense of musicality towards the choreography.  The dances also demand a high level of expression within the face, and at times the dancers are literally miming situations, to engage the audience in the story.  Some could find this a bit too literal, but I thought it was conveyed well and gave a context to the pieces that needed it.  Other sections did not have a set theme and relied mainly on the musical –bodily connection; yet even in these pieces strong relationships between the dancers were evident.  The classical choice of colourful costume, jewellery and make up added to the glamour and culture of Odissi and complemented the choreography beautifully.

As someone who generally leans towards contemporary dance, it was so refreshing to see this antithesis dance form, and I enjoyed it for its differences.  The current trend in dance theatre is to strip the dancers down – emotionally and physically – in regards to costume we often see neutral colours and a lot of bare skin, coupled with emotionless, serious faces.  In Shades of Love the dancers were often smiling, allowing their genuine happiness to shine through to the audience – and this was uplifting.  Odissi Ensemble are aiming to increase the profile of this niche Indian Dance style, and with audience members describing it as magical I think they are on they way to success.

PLATFORM AD

3/11/11  Actors Church, London

In the beautiful setting of the Actors Church in Covent Garden, I seated myself second row from the front and anticipated the performance ahead – a platform of emerging dance artists, ready to excite me with their fresh and inspiring approach to choreography, just like those of the Judson Church in the 1960’s……or so I thought.

Exquisite Corpse Dance Theatre opened the show, with an ambitious piece that for me lacked identity, which made it hard for the audience to relate to the choreography.  With confusing motifs and far too many crotch shots, any cohesion that actually existed in Roma swiftly vanished.  It’s unfortunate because the dancers had undeniable skill, and I think their talent was overshadowed by the recurring dodgy angles coinciding with the tiniest pants ever – trust me, everyone was rooting for an eyeful rather than being impressed with their flexibility.  Choreographer Anthony Lo-Giudice should give his girls a little modesty so people can focus on their dancing.  The second piece from Diciembre Dance Group was the complete antithesis.  Dressed head to toe in outfits resembling a Victorian fairytale, to describe this piece as dated is an understatement.  Based on a strange theme of a Lewis Carroll poem, Lewis After Wonderland attempted to explore ‘Alice as a metaphor of childhood’ and ‘an idea that haunts him.’  But there was no haunting atmosphere in this pas de deux, just the impression of a ballet exam with posh frocks.  For me it was far too literal and behind the times to be involved in this contemporary dance platform.

Room performed by Beyond Repair Dance is the most original production so far.  The concise, minimal movements performed in exact unison created a feeling of suspense that appeared from nowhere.  Although the piece is simple and quite repetitive, I would rather describe it as unpretentious, and the intricacy of the choreography makes it interesting to watch.  After a few technical glitches, A.D. Dance Company present Fawn, inspired my Mozart’s requiem.  Four duets perform movement reminiscent of NDT and Lalala Human Steps, in which the female is central to the choreography, and the male just lifts her around in different positions like you would expect to see in a ballet.  As in the opening piece, the dancers were incredible but the choreography didn’t live up to them.  It was predictable, didn’t have any real dynamic changes and felt rather long.

The only solo of the night, Patriot finally blew away the convention that seemed to surround this platform.  Choreographed by James Finnemore, it was original, modest, and the movement actually felt real and purposeful as opposed to being about virtuosity.  Erik Lobelius completely invested in his performance, and this is what made it mesmerising.  Now, I thought, it feels like the Judson Chruch.  Stewart Kennedy Dance Company closed the evening with No Tomorrow, which was also in a league of its own.  With more of a release/physical theatre style, it successfully produced a sinister feel.  There felt like a lack of contact work in this piece – but maybe this is compared to the other pieces’ excess partner work?  There was also a sense of the choreographer becoming the centre of attention, but overall it was still one of my favourites.  Maybe that was a collective mistake of this platform – in many of the pieces the choreographer performed in their own dance.  This could have allowed for misjudgement and a lack of viewing the performance with an outside eye, which all choreography needs in the rehearsal stage.  The night definitely had potential – hopefully next year choreographers will embrace this and push it further.