REVIEW: Resolution! 2017: Orley Quick & The Hairy Heroines, Mater-Filia, Sketch Dance Company

Tues 31 Jan
Resolution!
The Place
Orley Quick & The Hairy Heroines As We Like It
Mater-Filia Do not Go Gentle 
Sketch Dance Company Raised By Wolves

Orley Quick's As We Like It is sexy and witty. The all male trio dive from profound fury, to surprisingly sultry, to agonising and hilarious. Dancer Terell Foreshaw seduces the audience in his floor length gown, dropping to the floor in box splits. As We Like It is hilariously funny- I only wish the amusing conversations about trousers and tools lasted a little longer.

Following Quick's romp, Mater-Filia presents Do not Go Gentle, a mother-daughter exploration of mortality. Dripping sounds, a large hourglass and the sounds of ticking clocks point towards themes of life and mortality. Undulating spines and slippery floor work is matched with dancer Lauren Anthony's grounded and bold hip-hop technique. Overall, Do not Go Gently is intensified by the technical strength of both dancers. 

Dancer Jemima Brown in Raised By Wolves, Photo Credit: Yulia Antonov

Closing the evening of performance, Jasmine Andrews presents Raised by Wolves with Sketch Dance Company. With its clear narrative guided by an original score by Oliver Swain, Madeleine Blake and vocalist Sheree DuBois, Raised by Wolves plunges dancer Jemima Brown into a journey of self discovery. The ensemble sweep across the space, in a cascade of unfurling arms and gestural mime. Brown packs a rucksack and stumbles out of her cosy home in a frenzied search for identity. She reaches, rolls and runs as the forest seems to thicken. 

Amongst the bursts of red leaves and tangled arms, Brown emerges from the shadowy darkness to be met by a friend. The pair dart about the space playfully, swinging Brown's rucksack through their legs and over their heads. Andrew's fairytale choreography reminds us of the timeless and existential question of who we are. Where do we belong? And what is it that makes us us?

Dancers Jemima Brown & Joshua Scott in Raised By Wolves, Photo Credit: Yulia Antonov

Resolution! 2017 continues until 25 February at The Place, for more information visit: http://www.theplace.org.uk

Maya wrote for Resolution! Review 2016, want to see last year's articles? Click here for more!

INTERVIEW: Shaun Dillon on reworking We Stand Alone Together for Resolution! 2017

On a wintery Friday evening, I met up with fellow Roehampton alumni Shaun Dillon at London's Southbank to chat about his return to The Place's Resolution! 2017. As well as sharing his experience of reworking We Stand Alone Together, we chatted about his passion for working with young dancers and life in London as a freelance dance artist.

Shaun graduated from University of Roehampton in 2012 and set up his current venture Dillon Dance after a few years of working as a freelance artist. Notably, in 2014, Shaun worked with Matthew Bourne on Lord of The Flies. Shaun's professional works include Rise, That's Not How He Wants It, We Stand Alone Together & Where We Are.

Maya Pindar: What can you tell us about We Stand Alone Together?

Shaun Dillon: We Stand Alone Together began as a 3rd year project, which has taken various forms over the years. So, for Resolution! 2017, I decided I wanted to develop it into a more fleshed out work, without the perimeters a 3rd year project has to subscribe to! 

The piece itself comes from a really personal place, stemming from the person I used to be. I wasn't the happiest, wasn't in the best place mentally. So it's interesting to let this work be informed by the person I am now. It's a very emotionally... accessible work. There are themes of frustration, anger, having to make peace with something you're not ready to make peace with. Emotional complexity and being able to connect to the work is really important to me. I want to be moved by [dance] works, to leave the theatre having been through an experience.

Photo credit: Danilo Moroni

MP: Can you sum up where your inspiration comes from for WSAT?

SD: Digging away at the surface of it, the movement comes from the trials I had as a teenager and some of the things I had to deal with. I had a lot of tension and conflict within myself- on the surface there was a constant state of rage. There's an idea of feeling strong, even though you're alone, because your struggle unites you with others in similar situations. I was desperately trying to look for help in areas that I didn't necessarily believe in. So there are themes of almost looking for a higher power. But it's not a religious piece!

MP: What's the rehearsal process like with your dancers?

SD: So it's very different to what I'm used to, which is creating work from scratch. I already have the framework and the atmosphere of the piece. The rehearsal process is very movement heavy. It's important for me as a choreographer to have my dancers really moving through space. I like unison and I like my dancers to move as a pack. So the rehearsal process is a lot of me just putting movement onto the dancers. The original piece was made entirely by myself, then I put that onto an all female cast. I like to watch movement and I feel like that was my salvation- my coming of age.

MP: What challenges have you had to overcome while reworking WSAT?

SD: The music... because the university's music licence was a bit different to The Place's! So having to restructure and explore the work with a new soundscape was really difficult. I had to almost close my ears to what the piece used to sound like. I'm collaborating with a good friend of mine Jenny Whittaker, who is composing the new original score. She's doing an amazing job. Structurally, the new score is different, but tonally it is very similar. The sounds and instruments are very similar. We're working a lot with the sound of bells- it's something that you might associate with ritualistic ceremonies, almost cult-like. 

Photo credit: Danilo Moroni

MP: Can you pick one word that describes how you feel returning to Resolution! 2017?

SD: Progression. There is a real sense of progression from last year to this year, which I suppose is very natural. The support we get, the quality of what's being produced, and hopefully that will be obvious in the final product.

MP: As an emerging choreographer, what is the best piece of advice that you have been given?

SD: Hmm.. That's such a hard question to answer! Ok, 'the first thought is usually the right one'. It's not a direct quote. But it's something that I have mulled over and streamlined over the last few years. It's about going with my gut and trusting that the first idea is usually the right one. Gut instinct. 

MP: Last question! If you could dance with anyone, who would it be?

SD: It's going to sound really cheesy- but my students. It sounds so cliché! But their youthful energy, their sense of exploration and questioning of everything, their disagreement and curiosity. They inspire me, they make me want to improve and stay current; to be a better choreographer. And that is the beauty of teaching for me. So yeah, if I could spend the day dancing with anybody, it would be my students.

Dillon Dance are performing on 4th February at The Place's Resolution! 2017. Interested in Shaun's ideas? You can find out more about Dillon Dance, the amazing cast and other projects here.

Stay tuned for more articles and reviews of We Stand Alone Together in the run up to Resolution! 2017 at The Insanity In Dancing #Res2017

Vincent Dance Theatre's Virgin Territory: an uncompromising look at social media and sexualisation

Fri 4 Nov
The Place
Vincent Dance Theatre - Virgin Territory

Our cool detachment from the "real world" and fixation with the online world is Vincent Dance Theatre's guiding theme through issues of hyper sexualisation and adolescence.

Pink stiletto heels and large round balloons remind us of the voluptuous curves and overt sexualisation we see on our phones and televisions everyday. The dancers parade across an enormous rectangle of plastic grass. We laugh at a young boy who's stuffed his shirt with balloons. He tenses his bulbous muscles and grunts, posing like a bodybuilder. Somehow he crosses the border between childlike playfulness and genuine adult obsession.

Photographer Credit: Bosie Vincent

Artistic Director Charlotte Vincent casts young dancers on the cusp of pubescence, teetering on the knife-edge between childhood and adolescence. With adults and children dancing as equals, it's assumed that Virgin Territory should feel askew.

But instead the pairings are incredibly exciting to watch. Vincent's coupling of adult bodies and young bodies is extraordinary. The four children crash and slam their counterparts with uncompromising commitment.

Photographer Credit: Bosie Vincent

With the dancers constant snapping of selfies and video recording, voyeurism is key in Virgin Territory. Vincent blurs the lines between innocence and perversion. While a young dancer poses in front of her smartphone, dancer Janusz Orlik whispers into a microphone. He watches her, he Likes her, he Follows her, he doesn't want her to be afraid. The audience quietens as his observations continue to grow ever more sinister.

In between truly horrifying recounts of rape, and insights into the computer generated Sweetie, a supposedly 10-year-old Filipina girl, there are moments of charming lightheartedness. Virgin Territory dives into an amusing morris dancing scene. The troupe jig to Cecil Sharp's Country Garden, waving knickers and bras beneath lines of bunting. And then, swinging back to the more chilling content, dancer Robert Clark explores the online "Sweetie" sting, which caught 1000 male predators trying to pay the avatar to perform sexual acts. Wearing an unsettling latex mask, Clark paces in circles, spreading his arms and reaching slowly. The sense of shame is thick enough to slice.

Photographer Credit: Bosie Vincent

We all crave the (albeit empty) connection we find online. But with the likes of Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat and Instagram, it is far easier for innocence to be met with deviance. There is lot to discuss within Virgin Territory, but what resonates the most is the importance of talking openly about these matters with our children and young people. It is only with frank, open discussion that we can tackle such irrefutably important issues.

Maya Pindar

REVIEW: Resolution! Salah El Brogy Company, Yukiko Masui, Promotion

Fri 20 Feb
Resolution!
The Place
Salah El Brogy Company Glitch
Yukiko Masui It Takes Two Too 
Pro-Motion Ideas in Motion

Beginning the final night of Resolution! 2016, Salah El Brogy presents a raw and pensive solo performance in Glitch. El Brogy examines the struggle of accessing memories, combining strong spoken word in his native Arabic and an animalistic physicality. Clever use of lighting and alarm sounds point to a ‘malfunction’ that brings El Brogy’s dynamic sequences of capoeira- style hurling arms and percussive shifts to an abrupt halt. ‘It’s like… the words… disappear from…’ he stumbles and falters, trying to force a memory back to life. Glitch is, above all, sincere. Despite the possible language barrier of using Arabic, I feel drawn into El Brogy’s struggle.

Tokyo-born Yukiko Masui’s It Takes Two Too is a sexy, sultry landscape of Latin flavours, gently rolling hips and slow electronica. Dressed neutrally, the two couples are clad in black turtleneck tops and black ankle length skirts, revealing bare thighs through an open slit. Masui’s investigation of gender norms presents itself as same-gender pairings, as well as women leading their male counterparts. Dancers Masui and KJ L. Mortimergently manipulate Franco Conquest and Gareth Mole’s necks and hips, before throwing them into high energy, muscular floor sequences. While the commentary on gender norms doesn’t evolve further, It Take Takes Two Too is a slick and seductive work.

The triple bill closed on a high with Pro-Motion’s playful Ideas in Motion. Dabbling with comedic sketches, amusing vocal percussion and slow-motion references to Chariots of Fire, choreographer Brooke Millinercreates a truly entertaining work of hip-hop. Slapstick gunfights remind us of Tom and Jerry cartoons, while crisp unison, fast-paced footwork and breaking showcase the group’s technical skills. The group’s cohesion is unmistakable. A wholly enjoyable evening, with exciting artists and collectives to watch out for in the future.

Maya Pindar 

See the official review posted on The Place's Resolution Review! Blog here: http://www.theplace.org.uk/blog/resolution-review-2016/fri-19-febsalah-el-brogy-companyyukiko-masuipro-motion

#Res2016 

REVIEW: Resolution!: Sigh, Pauline Raineri, Foskett-Piccolo Dance Company

Sat 31 Jan

The Place

Resolution!

Sigh Kasa

Pauline Raineri Si | Si

Foskett-Piccolo Dance Company Woven

I had a great deal of hope for Sigh tonight. A theatrical opening sees a performer gliding through a bright corridor of light with a Japanese oil-paper umbrella. Light hearted expressions of surprise with toothy smiles charm us. But sequences of desperate clutching, unrelenting longing gazes, and the ascension of the umbrella on a wire cable soon indicate the subject of dark obsession. Yet, despite the potential within Kasa’s themes, a solid connection between the dancers is needed for the themes to be fully realised.

In a narrow band of light, which illuminates only their bare legs, dancers Amy Foskett and Giovanna Piccolo flex, flick and pad their feet in slick unison. Pealing their t-shirts over their heads, Woven attempts to explore connections and relationships in the body. Again however, the message needs a little more direction and coherence before we can fully believe in the performance.

Finally, sandwiched between Kasa and Woven, French choreographer Pauline Raineri presents an incredibly honest investigation into the depths of despair and the reality of escape.  At the back of the dark, smoke filled stage dancer Erin O’Reilly is a writhing mass of unfurling arms and trembling limbs. Composer Louis Richard’s bleak landscape of static noise couples fittingly with O’Reilly’s lost expression. She tugs anxiously at her clothes and fingers, stumbling about the stage as she flees an inevitable confrontation. Si | Si is intensely experienced and lived by both soloist and audience. O’Reilly offers a performance with total conviction, which resonates profoundly with everyone.

Maya Pindar

See the official review posted on The Place's Resolution Review! Blog here: http://www.theplace.org.uk/blog/resolution-review-2016/sat-30-jan-foskett-piccolo-dance-companypauline-rainerisigh

#Res2016 

REVIEW: Feet Off The Ground Dance - Éter

Fri 22 Jan 2016

The Place

Resolution!

Feet Off The Ground Dance Éter

Feet Off The Ground Dance opened the night’s triple bill with an intense and exciting performance of Éter. Four women journey through a bleak landscape of gently pulsating lights and electrical whirring. Their organic contact improvisation sets them apart from the other acts of the night (which include Maria Lothe/Rachel Blomberg and Unity Dance Company UK). Being an all-female company, dancers Lucia Chocarro, Robyn Holder, Sophie Thorpe and Patricia Zafra prove that femininity and strength are synonymously connected.

Visually, Feet Off The Ground Dance are incredibly exciting to watch. They slip seamlessly from moments of unison to intricate pairings, intertwining limbs and locking foreheads. The tone changes as live musician Panos Chountoulidis’ score intensifies. The women are like beasts. We can see the exhaustion in their pained expressions, as they hunt and chase each other through the space.

Interestingly, it is a non-contact martial arts passage, which interrupts the flow of intimacy that closes the work. The sudden physical distance between the dancers rounds off Éter quite nicely- despite us wanting a little more from the work. Using repetition and Chountoulidis’ drilling score, Feet Off The Ground Dance create a truly powerful work that highlights and draws upon the dancers’ technical skill and obvious sense of drive.



Maya Pindar

REVIEW: Resolution! Lizzie J Klotz, Maria Fonseca & What is Written Dance Company

20th January 2016
The Place
Resolution!
Lizzie J Klotz To Suit
Maria Fonseca IDADE
What is Written Dance Company Dialect of War

On the face of it, To Suit is an amusing and playful discourse. Some engaging moments see Alys North and Charlie Dearnley stood still, crying out and shrieking- an allusion to Lizzie J Klotz’s investigation of animal courtship- which greatly amuses the audience. However, somewhere between putting two fingers up to the man and disco dancing to a Bach Brandenburg Concerto, Klotz seems to lose her way. To Suit has a great deal of potential, but needs a little more coherence.

 ‘I never sin halfway’ remarks Anne Burgi, as she admits to her guilty pleasures of ice cream and chocolate. And indeed Maria Fonseca’s refreshing examination of ageing in IDADE is thoroughly considered. Fonseca plays the role of a curious young woman, while Burgi muses on the revelations of maturity. The women are inseparable in their connection. They slip between crisp gestural phrases and quirky counterbalances, gently shifting one over the other’s shoulder or hip. Overall, IDADE is honest and frank in discussing the happiness and fear that comes with the inevitability of ageing.

With its fusions of contemporary and hip-hop, What is Written Dance Company’s provocative performance of Dialect of War ended the night on a high. An uncertain opening of flashing lights and jarring floorwork thankfully gave way to a high energy performance. Sia Gbamoi and Viviana Rocha move in crisp unison, executing percussive isolations muddled with loose-limbed, whirling arms. Shifts in lighting, pounding music and changing spatial formations create a well-rounded work. There is a sense of struggle, as the dancers push against their own exhaustion and the driving rhythm of David Devyne and Jean Pierre’s original score. The tone remains primal throughout, reflecting the strength communities call upon in the struggle for survival.


Maya Pindar



See the official review posted on The Place's Resolution Review! Blog here: http://www.theplace.org.uk/blog/resolution-review-2016/tues-19-jan-lizzie-j-klotzmaria-fonsecawhat-written-dance-company

#Res2016

REVIEW: Igor and Moreno - Idiot Syncrasy

We started with wanting to change the world with a performance. We felt like idiots. Then we danced a lot. We jumped. We called on the folk traditions of Sardinia and the Basque Country. We sang. We jumped some more. We committed. Now we promise to stick together. We promise to persevere. We promise to do our best. - See more at: http://www.theplace.org.uk/igor-and-moreno#sthash.6zyFZAjk.dpuf

We started with wanting to change the world with a performance. We felt like idiots. Then we danced a lot. We jumped. We called on the folk traditions of Sardinia and the Basque Country. We sang. We jumped some more. We committed. Now we promise to stick together. We promise to persevere. We promise to do our best. - See more at: http://www.theplace.org.uk/igor-and-moreno#sthash.6zyFZAjk.dpuf

At first glance Idiot Syncrasy is a quirky, repetitive work that amuses and delights. However underneath its charming exterior, it is clear that the emotional intensity and overwhelming repetitive nature of the work lies in Igor and Moreno's subtle details. But what is most interesting is the artists' ability to make their audience feel exactly as they want.

The staging is minimal: white floor, three huge white screens staggered at the back, bright white lighting, no wings and no props. Thus the audience's attention is already directed to the two men performing in shorts and a plain t-shirt (which Igor continually changes, much to the audience's amusement). Other than the quirky opening of the work and their performance of Sardinian and Basque folk songs, the men simply bounce, for the majority of the work. There are few moments of pause or rest. From the outset, the repetitive bouncing creates a sense of tiredness in the audience.

The quirky details within the work set it apart from current and more conventional contemporary dance performance. Igor's careful concentration of undressing himself and delicately folding and laying his clothes versus Moreno's complete lack of care and disinterest in the act, is both intricately detailed and ingeniously funny. In addition, Igor's sudden reappearance from behind one of the white screens with two plastic shot glasses and a bottle of Scotch Whisky, is ludicrously hilarious. After pouring and drinking the shots, Moreno then disappears again and returns with two enormous stacks of plastic shot glasses and two large bottles of Scotch, which they then begin to pass around the audience. These charming additions to the work highlight the duo's imagination and attention to detail.

After the Scotch has been passed around the audience, the music abruptly becomes louder and more overwhelming. The auditorium is suddenly filled with the heavy vibration of the pulsating sound. The increased speed of the duo's repetitive bouncing, coupled with the alcohol, the increase in music volume and the gradual brightening of the white lighting, has a dizzying and drunk effect on the audience. The change in tone successfully provokes overwhelming feelings of tiredness and dizziness. The men continue to bounce, before slipping into a repetitive dance phrase that shifts them through the space with ease. Despite the exhausting nature of the work, they seem to glide and twist past each other effortlessly. After the work has reached it's climatic peak, the music slows and the men embrace in an intimate moment of contact. They spin slowly, hugging one another, clutching onto one another. There is a definite feeling of unity, of needing one another, as our journey with them gradually comes to an end.

Igor and Moreno perform a rich exploration of each section of the work, they exhaust every idea without compromise. No section is left inadequately investigated and no part of the work feels superficial. It could be this perseverance to fully explore without negotiation and the inclusion of charming details is the key to their capacity to manipulate the audience's feelings and emotions. In this way Idiot Syncrasy is both delightful and ingenious.


Igor and Moreno's Idiot Syncrasy was performed at The Place Tues 30 September & Wed 1 October, 8pm.