FOOTPRINT DANCE FESTIVAL: Rosemary Lee Dance Film and Choreography Seminar

The first day of University of Roehampton's Footprint Dance Festival is under way! Closing the afternoon today, renowned British choreographer, director and performer Rosemary Lee led a Dance Film and Choreography Seminar.

After graduating from the Laban Centre, Rosemary Lee has created numerous site specific works and dance films, often working with installation. Lee's works are usually large scale, with performers' ages ranging from 6-80 years of age. Her choreography is often reflective of her interest in safeguarding the environment, as well as centring on a quality of taking care and listening to others.

Lee presented four of her dance films, spanning twenty years from 1995 to 2015. The oldest, Boy (1995), filmed off the coast of Norfolk, follows the imaginary world of a young boy. Sand dunes, long grass and bird song typify Lee's interest in natural materials and bird song.

Filmed in northern England, Greenman (1996), focusses on the isolation and dreams of a young man who longs for a 'greener' world. The man is seen burying his face in autumn leaves, rolling in coal and running across slag.

After some discussion, Lee presented Snow (2003), a thoughtfully constructed compilation of archival footage. Old images of Chicago snow storms, couples skating in England, images of war and Olympic skiing from the late 1800s to 1960s, were carefully organised to create a folk feel.

Finally, Lee presented her most recent dance film Liquid Gold is the Air (2015), which is currently premièring at Norwich Cathedral. The film is inspired by the 18th century poet John Clare, who was concerned with representations of the English countryside. Additionally, the work was also heavily inspired by Norwich Cathedral itself.

After each film, the audience were invited to ask questions to start discussions. Lee revealed a great interest in paganism, natural forms, and site specific work. Overall, a very inspiring and stimulating seminar.

REVIEW: Hannah Spain's 'Shift. And now I'm smaller'

Student Dance Platform

Michaelis Theatre

University of Roehampton

Sunday 3^rd May 2015

Hannah Spain’s Shift. And now I’m smaller is a clever exploration of space and mass on stage. Set to Ultraista’s Gold Dayz (Maribou State Remix), the work is both hypnotic and relentless.

Spilling and melting into the space, Hannah Spain’s dancers already seem to embody the hypnotic music from the outset. Forming a long, tight line that seems to loosely resemble some kind of tentacle-encrusted insect, the dancers swing their arms and whirl their heads. Already, Spain is playing with the varying ways that space can be used and understood by both dancer and spectator.

Interestingly, Spain opts to emphasise the shadows of her dancers on the cyclorama, which adds another dimension to her choreography. The dancers exit to leave soloist Chelsea Croft to perform a short phrase of grounded turns, back bends and sustained suspensions. Yet, her two shadows, slipping and pushing across the cyclorama behind her, create the feeling that she is not alone on stage. They also serve to add a certain amount of strength and power, since they allow the audience to experience Croft’s movement from a different perspective and through a different lens.

Finally, with its expansive movement, quick changes of level and tight spatial formations, Spain’s choreography is brimming with relentless energy. Shift. And now I’m smaller appears like a canvas of bodies, which Spain carefully constructs and deconstructs in front of the audience. Ending cyclically, the dancers find themselves back in the long, tight line from the opening. As the lights dim, they begin to crumble and break away, slipping back offstage, as they did four minutes earlier.

REVIEW: Maisie Sadgrove's 'Lotus Eater'

Student Dance Platform

Michaelis Theatre

University of Roehampton

Sunday 3^rd May 2015

Maisie Sadgrove’s bold choreography was executed with strength and power by her dancers’ full-bodied performance. Set to Mura Masa’s Japanese electronica, Lotus Eater was a dark monochrome world of self-assertion and power.

Although Lotus Eater is described as an exploration of purity within movement, inspired by the power of the lotus flower in Buddhist and Hindu beliefs, the references to Buddhism and Hinduism did not seem to emerge as prevalent ideas.

Nevertheless, themes of strength and power were clearly visible in Sadgrove’s wide stances, deep lunges and striking lines. Riddled with rippling torsos and long unfurling arms, Lotus Eater oozed with energy and weight. The choreography allowed the dancers to assume a sense of authority and assertion as they executed both delicate hand gestures and powerful, explosive movement.

Moreover, Sadgrove’s simple yet effective choreography clearly reflected the idea of purity. With little choreographic embellishments or over-exaggeration, Lotus Eater remained clean and ‘un-cluttered’, which added a sense of style and finesse to Sadgrove’s choreography.

Despite the power and strength of both Sadgrove’s choreography and of her dancers, Lotus Eater felt like unfinished business. The work seemed to finish abruptly, leaving the audience wanting more. Having said that, Lotus Eater has a great amount of potential to go further. With deeper exploration of the lotus imagery, and some refinement of the religious references, Lotus Eater could be a significantly robust and compelling work.

REVIEW: Jazz Andrew's 'Let Her Go'

Student Dance Platform

Michaelis Theatre

University of Roehampton

Sunday 3^rd May 2015

Thrown into a shadowy realm of sunburnt silhouettes and sunsets, Jazz Andrew’s Let Her Go seems to sum up the pain and tenderness of young love. While Passenger’s folk-pop Underwater Bride reflects on keeping everything ‘locked into memory’, Andrew’s intricate gestural detail and ebbing momentum also appears like a tape of childhood memories.

Typically of Andrews, her carefully constructed formations reflect the elegant orchestration of her dancers’ bodies, as they roll, fall and twist. Their arms unfurl, thrashing and clutching at the air. All eight dancers move with precision and clear, calm intention- a manifestation of Andrews’ confidence in the themes and emotion behind her work.

Although Let Her Go uses a great deal of unison, moments of solo, canon and stillness create different stories for each dancer. Dancing alone in one corner of the stage, as others watch on, each individual seems nostalgic of a time before, as if longing for someone or something. Simultaneous acceptance and anguish also seems to be a theme that threads through Let Her Go.

Overall, Andrews’ Let Her Go is a moving piece of dance that especially reaches out to young adults. Andrews’ choreographic commitment to the imagery of Passenger’s lyrics further emphasises the themes of loss, pain and longing within the stories of each dancer. With references to these universal struggles, Andrews’ choreography c

REVIEW: Molly Simpson's 'She Said: What?'

Student Dance Platform

Michaelis Theatre

University of Roehampton

Sunday 3^rd May 2015

Set to Kate Nash’s charming love song Birds, Molly Simpson’s light-hearted tap routine was a fun, feel good opening to the Student Dance Platform. As the audience enter the theatre, dancer Louise Ware sits casually using her mobile, with a bright pink rucksack strapped to her back. As the lights dim, nine other dancers, dressed in pretty floral skirts join her on stage, standing in staggered lines on individual coloured square mats.

While adding a certain quirkiness to Simpson’s She said: What?, the dancers’ physical restriction to the mats seemed to stop them from executing the movement as fully as they could have done. Yet, the quick changes of level from being upright to suddenly low and grounded was greatly refreshing.

A conversation between Ware and the other dancers follows Nash’s lyrics, reminding us of the sincerity of Nash’s love song and the narrative unfolding in front of the audience. One dancer breaks away from the others and mimes along to Nash, ‘you look well nice’, emphasising Simpson’s quirky choreography.

Despite the complexity of the steps, overall the movement was slow and relaxed. Nash’s touching Birds added an element of girly sincerity to the work. With the addition of dim lighting and shadows that seem to obscure the dancers’ faces, Simpson effectively creates a summery evening feel.

REVIEW: The Surreal Fantasy of Pina Bausch's 'Ahnen'

Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch - Ahnen
Sadlers Wells
Friday 24th April 2015

Whisked away into a strange fantasy world, Peter Pabst's cacti ridden set seems to remind us of a futuristic or alien realm. With the addition of sand, straw, an enormous ladder, a great tank of water and a wind machine, Pabst's set allows the dancers to interact with a range of natural and distinctly man-made structures. Yet the randomness of the head of lettuce, the remote controlled helicopter and the large rubber walrus sitting at the back of the stage, remains distinctly surreal.

Busy is the best way to describe Pina Bausch's Ahnen. Driven by the pulsating and changing hypnotic music, the dancers go about their activities on stage with a sense deliberation and conviction:

Perched on a small wooden stool at the front of the stage, a woman busies herself grating a white substance into a bucket throughout the majority of the first act. A man, handcuffed and gagged with an orange, receives a shave from a man in a smart suit and gloves. Later, a man with an outrageously large white feather headdress (which later appears to actually be a tutu), clad only in blue underpants, sits completely still staring into space. Elsewhere, a smartly dressed manservant continuously irons newspapers for a blind woman, as she abruptly fires a pistol into the audience.

Behind the action centre stage, a woman in a black dress and heels unloads wheelbarrows of bricks to carefully build a wall. The crashing sound of the bricks interrupts the action downstage, breaking up the confusion and repetition of the dancers in view. Despite Bausch's renowned reputation in Europe, the disconnection of the dancers arbitrary actions during first act left me feeling bewildered- and cold.

However, the work progresses and the actions of the men and women become more coherent, as they begin to interact with one another and with the audience. Rather than performing their activities separately, without acknowledgement of one another, the dancers are now seen in group formations, united by a prop or a movement.

During a storm created by a wind machine offstage, a man pushes an enormous wardrobe through the cacti, offering blankets to the dancers. Later, a woman addresses the audience, demanding they 'straighten up!', in between amusing discussions of the sound of flies and how to paint water. A man and woman mime a barbarous cartoon fight, stretching each others faces, switching limbs and removing each others guts. While still remaining seemingly random, the connection between the dancers allows meaning to exude from their actions.

It appears that amongst the randomness of the dancer's actions and the indiscriminate objects onstage, Ahnen is a surreal commentary on human life. Are our human desires and activities as futile as the blind woman's request for her ironed newspapers? Bausch's intriguing dreamscape seems to point towards the pointlessness and futility of our own human activity.


Ahnen continues at Sadler's Wells until 26 April 2015

FOOTPRINT DANCE FESTIVAL: Promotional Launch Night!

Last night saw Footprint Dance Festival's promo launch night at University of Roehampton's student union bar. Artistic directors Hannah and Nia led the evening of fundraising, selling t-shirts and doughnuts, holding a jar of sweets competition (congratulations to Ben Patterson!) and finally announcing the Footprint line-up.

Volunteer sign-up and festival tickets (available online here) were also released. Additionally, Footprint's orange mascot was welcomed as the newest member of the team.

Later in the evening, film manager Emilie's promotional video was introduced, revealing Ceyda Tanc Dance, Eden Wiseman, Crystal Zillwood and Jann Gallios, amongst others, as special guests. And finally, renowned choreographer Rosemary Lee was announced as Footprint's special guest. After graduating from the Laban Centre, Lee has choreographed and danced internationally for twenty years, often working with media and film, and on large scale site specific works.

After an incredibly enjoyable and successful launch night, the team raised £126 for the festival. Thank you to everyone who supported us!

We are incredibly excited for the festival to begin in May, get your tickets from the UoR E-Store now!! And don't forget to check out our website and Facebook for more details!