And the winner is…

Nina Rajarani receives the Place Prize 2006 from Rafael Bonachela (winner of the inaugural Place Prize in 2004.) £25,000 and a bowl.

Top.

Who’s it going to be?

The Place Prize Final has shaped up to be a genuinely exciting and diverse programme of dance. All the work resonates with relevance to contemporary life. The pieces tackle, respectively: the collision of classical traditions with urban city life, our love affair with flat pack furniture and the trials of modern relationships, disability, sex and discrimination, the power of non-verbal communication and our preoccupation with the pursuit of the perfect body. It’s a treat of a programme spanning different styles and approaches and an ideal introduction to contemporary dance. There’s no doubt about it: The Place Prize is cool.

QUICK by Nina Rajarani

Twenty four hours in the working life of four Asian city boys is superbly portrayed in this wholly integrated piece comprising dance, film and live music. Rajarani sets the expressiveness, intricacy and energy of traditional Bharata Natyam in opposition to the blank face of urban commuter office life. Both dancers and band participate in this energetic and entertaining performance that travels through the working day from the journey into work, to battles round the boardroom table, to late night drinking and ultimate collapse before the whole cycle begins again. QUICK leaves you beaming because it dazzles but it lacks depth. There’s no attempt to explore anything serious beneath the frenetic surface and I think this may stop Rajarani from running away with the prize come the weekend.

SELF ASSEMBLY by Jonathan Lunn

This duet lays bare the perils of modern relationships likening them to the hazards of constructing flat pack furniture. Lunn’s dancers interpret the wonderfully deadpan instructive voiceover of Anthony Minghella in alternately interlocking and repulsive movements. The piece explores the emotional dynamic between the two dancers, cleverly boxed in by careful lighting design. The choreographic style is fluid and although the dancers have different ways of moving (the emphasis here being that people are different and must work at being ‘together’) they chime together and collide, enacting both desire and its malfunction. It ends suitably unresolved. This is an entirely pleasant and well thought out piece but it fails to challenge or say anything new or different. This piece won the audience vote tonight but I don’t think it’s got the originality or impact to cut it on Saturday.

POSTCARD by Lucy Suggate

There’s something very moving about POSTCARD although ultimately I was left wondering what. It’s a piece that deals directly with attitudes to disability both through a humorous talking head film and the use of dancer, James O’Shea, a double amputee. The choreographer creates a great deal of sexual tension between her cast, stripped down to suggestive bright pink catsuits, in all possible permutations and not shying away from simulations of sex. Suggate’s writhing choreography for the three on a white fur rug was beautiful. The performance is strong, funny, poignant and interesting yet the seaside postcard theme seems fairly arbitrary and peripheral to the heart of this piece but I couldn’t tell you what it is.

SILENCE SPEAKS VOLUMES by Freddie Opoku Addaie

This piece has transformed since it was first performed in the previews. Back then, I was interested and impressed with parts, yet it didn’t seem to hang together as a complete work. Tonight, however, SILENCE SPEAKS VOLUMES was seamless. The choreographic style, mixing lyrical contemporary dance, Capoeira, body popping, sheer athleticism and delicate, subtle motifs came across as truly innovative. The muted screams of the disparate cast of five are incredibly effective and underscore the theme of communication and silence that travels through the choreography. Addaie has created a genuinely new and distinctive dance work with a relevant, urban, multicultural sensibility. His vision has come into its own, just in time.

B FOR BODY by Luca Silvestrini

Silvestrini’s pair of homoerotic gym instructors could have stepped straight out of a Hitler Youth propaganda video; all firm six-packs, white shorts and manly wrestling over a massage table. B FOR BODY is funny and terrifying. A neurotic woman, dressed only in black knickers, faces up to her deepest fears about her body and puts herself in the hands of the Adonis-like pair, allowing them to exercise, manipulate and pulverise her, ultimately sending her under the cosmetic surgeon’s knife in order to attain to the received ideal of physical perfection. This is a well performed and cleverly observed piece of dramatic dance theatre that addresses a very real societal obsession but its dependence on the powerful comedic performance of Sally Marie as the unfortunate woman at the heart of the story detracts, for me, from the choreography itself. The piece depends on humour more than dance.

Tonight the sponsors were in and the vocal enthusiasm of the audience was energising. The Place’s electronic voting system worked a treat and it was great to see a real spread of support across all the pieces at the end of the night. Jonathan Lunn walked away with tonight’s cash prize of £1000 but in my book, it’s Freddie Opoku Addaie you need to watch out for come Saturday.

Place Prize previews (III)

Nina Rajarani, Quick
A day in the life of four Asian city boys from breakfast to the uncomfortable commute, through boardroom drama to the pub in the evening. Nina Rajarani’s intricate and exciting Bharatyanatyam choreography gives a new perspective on everyday urban working life. The piece is enhanced by accompanying film showing one of the dancers performing on a pedestrian crossing or in a lift at work; the traditional and elegant posturing and rhythms of Bharatanatyam contrasting starkly with the city suit and standard office setting. Live music and singing help to make this a highly entertaining and relevant package of work.

Tom Dale, Whose Futures
Yet another suit opens this piece but in an altogether quieter mode. A solo male dancer in a lightweight suit walks back and forth and pushes some white blocks around. Three space vixenesque female dancers enter in white plastic dresses and knee high socks and sit on the blocks. Another man in casual dress dances and interacts with them, possibly watching some telly. The women are slinky and cheeky. The Cassetteboy soundtrack spouts mundanities from soap operas. It feels rather like something you’ve seen before somewhere, yet it never really gets going and doesn’t make you feel anything.

Tanja Raman, Kaiku (Echo)
One who sings, one who does movement and one geek comprise this atmospheric work. Philippa Reeves has an incredibly expressive voice and John Collingswood is clearly some kind of sampling genius, creating a haunting and beautiful soundtrack as the piece progresses. Live music and techno wizardy fills the Place from two corners of the dimly lit stage. Raman’s movement in the midst of it all, however, is rather lost. Simplistic to begin, with using fluid poses, stirring the air with her arms or stretching skyward the movement builds in complexity and urgency with the ever evolving and increasingly gripping soundtrack until she’s lost in a juddering, jerking fit. Then, nothing. It all fades away.

Cathy Marston, D)US(T
This duet tells the story of the fag end of a tattered romance. Dressed in grey and performing beneath a diagonal of stark strip lights the piece spans melodrama and mundanity. Marston’s dancers perform a beautifully physical work full of arresting partnerwork, rolling and writhing; the dancers, in turn, bearing the literal weight of each other as their melancholic terminal journey progresses. The score moves through romantic violin to driving, angry bass and back to hopeless calm and the journey is a recognisably real one, working through the physical emanations of the emotional mess a relationship can end up in.

Rachel Lopez de la Nieta & Ben Ash, In This World
The wooden floor and silvered corrugated iron backdrop for this piece were quite simply stunning, transforming the Place into a cosy, yet brightly lit, contemporary night club. A lone guitarist sits to the side, in front of a table full of wine glasses and strums twangily whilst the three dancers take turns on the dancefloor in ones, twos or threes. Their style is very easy and pleasing, swooping and graceful, laidback yet intricate. At one point the guitarist gets up and, instead of drinking from the wine glasses, plays them. Delightful to watch and listen to.

Place Prize previews (II)

Mark Bruce Bad History
Mark Bruce knows how to translate contemporary guitar music into movement. Laila Diallo performs a juddering, shaking, pulsating abandon that embodies the thrashing guitars and dirty funk beat of the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, while her twisted-looking blue-faced partner, Greig Cooke, appears to orchestrate the opening section, almost playing the guitars while exerting a weird masterful dominance over her. Later he appears inexplicably deranged and Fagin-esque in frock coat and walking stick as, in a lull, she tries, gently to connect with him. The centre of this piece is Laila’s solo. Trapped in a circle of spotlights like a caged animal she languorously winds her hips, gracefully poses and generally moves in a devastatingly sexy and nonchalant way as the deranged soundtrack suggests, “fuck the man”.

Louise Katerega A State of Becoming
This ensemble piece for eight performers is about diversity, difference and tolerance; becoming one family – yet balances its message with ingenious and involving theatrical dance. The cast itself is diverse including performers with disabilities, a range of ages, cultures and different dance influences. The quaintly lit set suggests a children’s fable and multiple stories about the dancers’ relationships to each other unfold. The piece is strongest when the cast come together, the sum of its parts adding up to arresting tableaux with each performer modulating the movement to their own style.

Ben Wright Thought Latching to Thought and Pulling
The title of this piece is very naturally reflected in the shape and progression of the movement of the four male dancers. Uniformly dressed in dark trousers and flimsy, nude muslin t-shirts they express subtle quirks of individuality yet are caught in a dance that sees them sequencing and varying lyrical movement in waves as if ideas are passing between them, catching on and changing. It’s darkly lit, with one section employing a succession of light snapshots to show freeze framed poses as if in a slideshow. This is a serene piece of work accompanied by a flute soundtrack by turns urgently breathy like pan pipes and purely, melodically beautiful.

Fleur Darkin Disgo
Darkin’s dysfunctional dance theatre disco is populated by five disparate and distinctively dressed individuals who gradually come together in a freakshow sort of dancefloor mania. The quirks of a weekend nightclub are magnified on this stage in front of the huge neon “DANCING” sign at the rear. Partners come together and fall out, themes are picked up, copied and spread. A badly dressed boy dances madly on his own. All in all, a whole new interpretation of Donna Summer’s “I Feel Love”.

Henrietta Hale Man or Fish
A sub-aquatic soundscape resounds whilst two men in white vest and shorts stand there, side by side. Then they appear under large hanging lightbulbs with glowing filaments in a box demarcated by lights. Prison or fishtank? I’m not really sure. They start doing passable imitations of fish, mouth opening and shutting with makeshift handfins. Moving on to another box on the stage and they start interacting as people again, exchanging scraps of verbal but not making much sense. Might as well be fish really. This was amusing, with committed, amusing fish performances. Baffling, but watchable.

Place Prize previews (I)

 

The Place Prize is the dance equivalent of the Mercury Music Prize: credible, sexy and focusing only on the creative product; “the music on the album” or, in our case, the new choreographic work. Anyone choreographer can apply for this competition by video entry and twenty semi finalists are selected by an international panel of experts.

The Place Prize kicks the Mercury into touch, though, as it invests, courtesy of sponsors Bloomberg, £5000 in each of the semi-finalists so there’s a level playing field from which to create the competitive pieces. Additionally, they have access to studio time at LCDS, the benefit of the Place Theatre’s top notch stage crew and the performance platform of the Place itself.

“The Place Prize’s aim is to put contemporary dance in the limelight, celebrating and illuminating it for audiences both familiar and new.”

The previews give the artists a chance to air their works before judging proper begins with the opportunity to tweak pieces in the light of experience. Equally the stage crew get a dry run at tackling the diverse sets and lighting designs required by the five disparate works (no mean feat). There’s no doubt that the semi-finals will provide diverse, challenging and entertaining programmes, not to mention fierce competition in this egalitarian and intensely exciting choreographic prize. Just a snapshot of the previews gives a sense of how creativity flourishes in such an inspiring and professional environment.

The review that follows gives just a flavour of some of the works to be performed in the semi-finals proper next week, where the audience will have the opportunity to judge the finished articles alongside the eclectic panel of judges:
• Robyn Archer
Performing artist and festival director
• Guy Cools
Dance dramaturg and producer
• Brian Eno
musician, producer, artist and author
• Rose Fenton
independent arts producer and co-founder of LIFT
• Chris Ofili
artist

The panel will be chaired by John Ashford, Theatre Director of The Place.

Preview 1: Tue 5 September 8pm

Maxine Doyle & Felix Barrett Forest
This compelling duet plays on ideas of power and sexuality in relationships and kicks off proceedings promisingly darkly. A tree stands in the dark front stage right and as the soundtrack starts the lights raise dimly. A naked woman squats delicately on a prostrate shirted man and then fades to black. Lights rise again to find the man flailing disorientated and stumbling. Behind a smoky fabric screen the stage is dim lit and covered in trees. The siren lady lolls and stretches. Rising up she begins her limb led movement to an arhythmical soundscape. They meet, the female dominant and dreamy in her alluring sexiness, sinuous yet ominous. Passion and intensity grow between them, power shifting and verging into violent, flinging partner work. The choreography is wild and compelling yet precise with a twist of a finish that surprises and brings back the civilised world in a surprisingly neat way.

Freddie Opoku Addaie Silence Speaks Volumes
Incorporating subtle and repetitive motifs of mime and gesture this piece presents a thoroughly rhythmical and enjoyable experience. Three women and two men employ lyrical contemporary dance, capoeira and elements of body popping whilst exploring the communicative limits and opportunities of their dance vocabulary. Movement travels intriguingly across the group and splits them into factions in a delightful and intriguing way. Their silent, distorted screams disturb the harmony of the piece, challenging the audience to understand their individual plights whilst ‘A-OK’ gestures and furious pointing seem to connect them together as a group.

Alex Broadie All End In Tears (The Wardrobe Piece)
What happens when you’re laid up with an injury and a friend comes to call? In this case, our afflicted hero receives a vist from his chum (hiding in the wardrobe) and a full on comedy scrap ensues which hasthe audience laughing out loud until it edges into competitive press ups and ever increasingly dangerous looking bravado leaps across an upturned sofa. What seems to be played for well choreographed stunts in daylight turns into something darker as night falls and the audience is left to wonder what’s really going on as the balance of strength and virility between the friends is pushed to its extreme physical and psychological limits.

Jane Mason Come On Sun
Mason’s solo sees her stand centre stage, flanked on the diagonals by her musicians, a keyboard player and trombonist in the dark, as she is lit, in turn from each angle. She looks alternately lost, powerful, brooding and vulnerable. When she bursts into movement it is shocking, her total rebuttal of a traditional dance vocabulary finds her stamping and writhing and pulsing to her own rules. The trombone breathes tunelessly; the piece moves from wildness to timidity. Suddenly she’s a girl learning to move, finding expression through untutored actions and gestures; dabbling at the shore, raising her arms to the sun. She whistles with discomfiting and spellbinding artlessness, then recites poignant lines of verse. Is she a child or a woman possessed?