I wish I could fly

Ockham’s Razor
Arc / Memento Mori / Every Action…
Linbury Studio, 22 January 2007
London International Mime Festival

Ockham’s Razor believe something magical happens when an audience watches aerial theatre. They may well be right. Their triple bill is riveting and innovative yet stripped down and simple, executed with gentle charm and humanity. My mouth remained open for most of the show. It was spell binding, gravity defying movement and storytelling.

“Arc” explores the relationship between three people set adrift. Set on a metal grid of hollow pipes strapped together like a raft and suspended in the air against a blue backdrop and a watery soundtrack the performers travel through fear, boredom and irritation at their situation to playfulness. Cutting away the corner supports of the grid they’re sent rocking and spinning, laced through the bars, over and over in gleeful abandon. Unfortunately, the piece doesn’t hit the dark notes hinted at in the programme. The drama doesn’t spiral into the deep and nobody’s really going overboard despite the intermittent sulks and fallings out but it’s still a joy to watch.

The duet, “Memento Mori”, takes place on a wooden frame, like a static trapeze. A pseudo-nude Alex Harvey, representing death, blankly allows a strikingly scarlet frocked Charlotte Mooney to writhe and climb around him, resisting and teasing him. It’s an intimate piece shot through with Mooney’s sensuality, especially at the moment when she submits to Harvey, bringing moments of beautiful peril, hanging from a human trapeze, utterly trusting in her partner’s grip.

“Every Action…” is a playful and charming climax to the triple bill. Four performers play with four different sized boxes and the implications of their respective sizes. A long rope is rigged up centre stage, hanging like a pair of curtains. The premise is simplicity itself; tug on one end of the rope and see what happens at the other end but the company play with this idea ingeniously, acting out their own comic exploration of Newton’s third law. It’s easy to forget how technically talented, strong and daring these performers are since their execution is so natural and fearless but what’s really compelling about this company is that they seem as amazed and delighted at their abilities and adventures as we are.

Ockham’s Razor’s mix of effortless aerialistics, innocent charm and crowd pleasing artistry is genuinely heartening; the majority of the audience watching, enraptured. On the most depressing day of the year the London International Mime Festival audience at the Linbury Studio couldn’t have wished for a better antidote to the January blues.

Flatulence speaks louder than words

Resolution!
Tuesday 9, January 2007
The Place

Mirjam Gurtner Tree. Book. Cigarette

Kerstin Schellander Both of Them

eko dance Ekomefeemo – Synthesis (Making one together) (Hilary Wrack-Lartey)

It seems, somewhere along the line, spoken word became the thing to do. Whatever happened to dance being the mode of expression? Isn’t that the point? Yet all three of these pieces relied heavily on their textual aspects, whether spoken by the dancers or played as accompaniment and, to varying degrees, it didn’t work for any of them. I travelled through disinterest, to hysteria, disbelief, incomprehension, back through hysteria and back to disbelief and desperate wishing for it to be over. Thank god for intervals. There was plenty of gin.

“Tree. Book. Cigarette.” by Mirjam Gurtner presents five women, colourfully attired and potentially funky, exclaiming and exploring the phase “I live my life”. Talking continues through the dance and often gets lost in the movement. A microphone is used occasionally. An unstable table and trapeze serve as perilous props in an under-rehearsed and nervy piece. It feels like My First Dance Theatre™; not dreadful but stirring no excitement, intrigue or real emotional effect. Plus it is unintentionally distracting when one of the dancers manages a perfect little fart during a dramatic unaccompanied solo. Nothing like a touch of untimely wind to crack the back row up.

Kerstin Schellander’s solo, “Both of Them” opens with a stately, ominous walk on tip toe across the stage to an inconsolable, shrieking lament. Soon she starts to speak, then her recorded voice takes over but the whimsical story about the girl and the tree and the broken legs is not illuminated by the choreography, although Schellander’s talent for understated movement and filling stillness suggests that there might be better work to come. Very suddenly, it is bafflingly over well before the billed 25 minutes leaving a bemused audience.

To cap a disappointing evening, Eko dance give us a dog’s dinner of a piece exploring European and African identities. As Hilary Wrack-Lartey’s commentary for “Ekomefeemo – synthesis” begins with “Who am I?” a man behind me groans “not again..” in response to yet more verbals. Worse is to come with the incomprehensible trio of Wrack-Lartey, a white woman with apparently no professional dance training, with Ya Lai Boye and Michael Neewuaye, two African male dancers with exuberance and showmanship in abundance. Shame there is nothing to get their dancing teeth into here. Bits of Irish, African and hip hop dance are haltingly woven together to live percussion and Eminem in between overly earnest pontificating from its creator. How this reached the Place stage I cannot imagine.

Fewer words; more dance please.

 

Ockham’s Razor

I recommended these here, part of the London International Mime Festival. Read more about them in the Telegraph and then get tickets (22-23 January at the Linbury Studio, under the Royal Opera House).

One woman dangles by one hand from the bottom rung. Another is clamped spider-like to the frame, blood rushing down to her head. It’s like the cliffhanger ending of The Italian Job, but rescripted for extra existential impact by Beckett.

How to ‘do’ Sadlers

My booze and wee orientated guide to getting the most of out of the major London dance venues.

#1. Even if you’ve got stalls tickets the bar is always less crowded on the 1st and 2nd circle floors. Worth a trip upstairs to get a drink in relative peace than fight with the mob on the ground floor. Also, there’s a cafe next door. It’s called the Stage Door cafe. Don’t be put off – it is open to everyone. It’s just it’s by the stage door. That’s where the artists come and go. So people are a bit nervous about going there. Kills the magic. Or intimidates. Still, it serves food and wine till 7.30pm and you can bet your arse it’s less busy than the foyer. And you can leave a note for your fave performer with the person by the pigeon holes. If you dare.

#2. Order your interval drinks before the show. Queues for the bar are hideous and you barely get 20 mins break. Important to have the booze ready for the interval debrief/slating/gushing/weeing.

#3. Oh yes – check how many intervals there are! Mixed bills tend to have 2 whereas more narrative shows will have just one. Always think of the booze (and the wees), say I.

#4. Glossy programmes are expensive (well £4 – you can get a glass of wine for that) but most shows provide a free cast list and running order on a sheet of A4. Ask the usher for a cast list. Top tip.

#4. There’s a cloakroom in the lower ground floor. Check your duvet sized winter coat in there to avoid smothering your row mates whilst making your way to your seat (always in the middle of the row when you decide to seat yourself at the last minute).

#5. Seat yourself at the last minute. It’s the cool thing to do. Apologise profusely and try not to step on any toes but if anyone huffs and puffs make sure you stick your arse out to annoy them more.

#6. I’m sure I’m betraying my kind here, but if you’re particularly ballsy and are attending a first night performance then you should know that the ‘press’ get free drinks on the mezzanine in the interval. There’s not exactly door control though so look confident and waft past the rope helping yourself to a free glass of vino. Openly admire Clement Crisps’s top pocket hankerchief for an extra 100 kudos points.

#7. Get the best tickets you can afford. Really. After many cheap trips sitting right at the back of the second circle (£8ish) I found myself in the stalls (£30) and had a revelatory experience. Dance is best viewed close up, there’s no doubt. Get the full on effect of those bodies and faces and actually taste the sweat if you’re lucky. Also, get a peek at the band if there is one. Go band.

#8. You gotta book ahead for the big shows. Anything starring a Darcey or a Sylvie will sell out 6 months in advance, the good tickets will be gone for Rambert 4 weeks ahead. There’s always queing up for returns on the night but that’s dead risky and should only be tried if you’re desperado. Proper fan, like, if you do that. Respect.

#9. PROMS! Sadlers do £5 proms tickets for some shows. Proms means standing. It’s an excellent idea except when you get a really long and tiresome programme. Still, cheapo, cheapo and right up close to the stage so judge your shows well and you’ll bag a winner. Choose summat like this and end up footsore and irritated. Or home by the first interval.

#10. Enjoy! Feedback. Complain if necessary. Become a Friend if you like it. The first BOGOF offer practically pays for the annual membership (£40) off the bat and you skip bookings fees forever. Do it.

Sadlers Wells. One of my favourite places.

FridayCities: London

To any London based readers go here and use this: j91c1r6zywcx. S’all good London stuff.

Resolution! review 2007

Check out what’s going down and how, here.

I’ll chip in when I make it down to Euston in the next week or so.

Get you some dance in ‘07

Happy flailing new year! Now, go get you some dance. Three ace recommendations:

1. London’s International Mime festival

Catch the premiere of a new full length work called Arc at the Linbury Studio of the Royal Opera House, 22-23 January. The Company, Ockham’s Razor, is a group of aerialistes who combine mime, dance and excellently clever aerialistics to tell simple stories beautifully. I saw them perform at last year’s Resolution! and they were a breath of fresh air. Tickets for Arc are only £10-£15 (£8 concessions) and it’s a 90 minute show with an interval. The Linbury is an intimate studio theatre beneath the Opera House with a bar decked out with great dance photos and truly excellent toilet facilities. These things are important, I know.

2. Sadlers Wells Sampled

There’s a brand new, exciting thing happening at Sadlers that’s IDEAL for flailers. On 2-4 February they’re putting on a mini festival of dance featuring 3 nights of mixed bill performances by lots of different companies and two days of FREE taster classes and workshops for those who fancy having a go at breaking, tapping, flamenco, contemporary, tae-kwon-do and ballet. The evening performance on Friday looks especially tasty to me including a cutting edge contemporary duet from Random Dance (under the directorship of the truly funky and wonderful Wayne McGregor), tap, hip-hop and, to end, the mesmerising “Swamp”, created by Michael Clark and performed by Rambert Dance Company. This piece alone is worth the meagre £10 ticket tag (£5 for a proms ticket if you’re willing to stand). Workshop places are only available to those who’ve bought an evening ticket so get booking now as places are limited.

3. And remember, Resolution! is on at The Place, Euston between 5-31 January. You never know what might happen. Full listings here.

See you there!