Londonist does flamenco

Preview of the Sadlers Wells Flamenco Festival on Londonist

Sensual information overload

Quartet
Musical Moves: a real time exploration that plays across the sense of the human body
The Great Hall at Barts, Saturday 17 February 2007

The project behind this performance is practically inexplicable and all the bumpf that I’d read in order to preview the event had not prepared me at all. In fact, the person who introduced the work at the start was far more helpful in saying that the project purpose was to develop two “interactive performance systems”. With this in mind it was possible to watch Quartet as a demonstration of the impressive technologies in development but it’s far from being an evening of entertainment or even any kind of art at this stage.

The presentation was split into duets, trios and ensemble pieces involving a live musician, a live dancer, a robot camera and a virtual dancer projected onto a screen. The humans were strapped up with various sensors that transmitted movement and sound information to the insensate participants and the sound system. The technology involved is baffling but at times it was possible to see the movement of the musician’s arm creating, at one point, a cacophony of electro bleeps and fuzz and then, influencing the movement of the virtual dancer (billed rather beautifully as an avatar of sensual information” but looking like an unfinished, undressed character in Second Life who hasn’t yet learned to walk properly). Equally, the live dancer performed some simple duets with the robot camera, whose design was evidently based on the adorable Johnny 5, which were at their best when she interacted with it, weaving around its moving limbs and staring soulfully into its camera eye, the images from which were projected onto the backdrop.

Disappointingly, the involvement of the choreographers, including Russell Maliphant and Lea Anderson, is not much in evidence but then it’s not about the choreography in itself but the interaction of the all the elements and there’s only so much a motion control robot camera can do without arms and legs.

The sound was element was stunning, although the electronic noise generated by the violinist and her arm was, at times, uncomfortable and alarming. I was sat next to an elderly lady with fruitcake breath and felt quite sorry for her; her breathing was getting short and I feared she was going to have a panic attack. Such an electronic sensory assault is possibly not what I’d recommend bringing your ageing mum too. However, the vocal section was hauntingly beautiful, the singer’s sounds being transmitted as her own backing track and pinging about the Great Hall in an amazing way.

In the feedback questionnaire (this is a research project, remember) I clearly ticked the box that described the performance as science, rather than art, dance or entertainment but it definitely engaged me cerebrally and the spoddery underpinning it all is intriguing. The potential for choreographers and musicians to use these systems is huge and I particularly like the robot camera eye view of the stage and the audience; it’s easy to forget how implicated an audience is in a performance. But I’ll be looking forward to the next stage of development rather than wanting to sit through this again.

Find out more about the Quartet Project here.

Final Resolution

The Place, 15 February 2007

¡Wonder, My Devilfish
SHADEseasons

Table Time
Richal Dance Art Museum

The Maze
Anti-Ballet

Shades of Celine Dion came washing back over me when I read the programme notes for tonight’s opening performance. Promising an exploration of web phenomena such as YouTube and “sync-net-performances” I was bristling with expectation. I should have known better. This disjointed piece of rough vignettes stacked together just didn’t add up. I hereby review in the manner of its incomprehensible titleage:

Air guitar, ruining Jonny Cash’s version of “Personal Jesus”, step ball change, MONOTONY, bleeee, fuzzy video camera, ARGH, comedy tiny person video moment, speaking in German, cue film of disco dancing. THE END.

Richal Dance Art Museum wants a backward R but my PC won’t do that. However, once the overly long introduction section passed there ensued cartoon comedy capers, loosely based around a love triangle and largely based around a handsome table. Owing as much to the Keystone Kops and Morecambe and Wise as Anime this fun, extravagantly mimed sketch caper was lighthearted, colourful and flirty.

For a company named Anti-Ballet, “The Maze” was disappointingly jazz ballet in bodywarmers and jazz trainers. Starting out with a touch of comedy acting as the different coloured teams were instructed to navigate the maze it all went a bit wrong as the hard house kicked in and the choreography failed to do anything interesting with its concept. Nodding to the telly kitsch that is Fort Boyard this piece sorely lacked a central evil genius like Dirty Den and frankly, it was no surprise that they all failed by the end.

Come back Celine!

Resolution! 2007 ends on Saturday 17 February.

Londonist does dance

See here. And I got given a free ticket to the Saturday performance so I’ll be reviewing Quartet too. Huzzah!

Man, they can dance

Sitting here watching the finale of Living TV’s “So you think you can dance?” I’m appalled that the prize for the winner is a year’s contract with Celine Dion’s Las Vegas show.

Yes. Celine Dion’s Las Vegas show.

I’m sure that this is a hugely popular and lucrative (comparatively speaking… dancers get paid shit, mostly) show to be in but I find myself hoping that the gorgeous and unbelievably talented Travis doesn’t win so that he can get the job he deserves in a major league contemporary company or somesuch with credibility.

It is, of course, a popularity contest – “America” votes for their favourite with the guidance of the “judges” (Nigel Lythgoe included, well it’s his baby) but the quality, temerity, versatility and showmanship of the dancers blows me away each week. Two of the finalists are contemporary dancers, two are latin/ballroom types yet all of them have managed to wing every style with consummate professionalism and flair. I’m jealous. I’m exhilarated.

It’s just really not fair that winners of reality shows like Pop Idol and America’s Next Top Model get hot shot, thousand dollar deals and outrageously privileged opportunities (number one singles, magazine covers) but dancers get… Celine Dion*. Life’s just not fair.

*Ok, so they also get an SUV and $100,000 but, still. Celine Dion. Kuh.

Baffling mediocrity

 

Resolution! 6 February 2007
The Place

maProject
Landlords & Nomads

Askao Shirai
Depth

Kinesthetic Dance Co
Somewhere Around Nothing

Pfft, what a disappointingly middling night at Resolution. Nothing awful, nothing special; three pieces of average, well intended choreography that amounted to less than the sum of its parts. Plus, being one for usually sitting down front, I never realised that they let newcomers in the back door. It was horribly distracting as loads of latecomers trooped in during the first piece all waving their programme notes and shuffling annoyingly behind our heads. I suppose it’s a blessing they didn’t distract from anything glorious.

maPROJECT’s “Landlords and Nomads” involves a collaboration with a film-maker who has created some truly beautiful and evocative cityscapes: a roadside, an empty caff, a desolate pub. These films are projected onto a transparent screen hanging downstage and four dancers take solo and duet turns before and behind it, inhabiting the space and the virtual world created by the film. Regrettably, the choreography doesn’t match up to the beauty of these poignant and ghostly films although an elucidation of the themes of transience and belonging are clearly attempted here.

The opening of “Depth” suggests the exploration of a dark, underground world. A dancer, wearing a petzl, gropes around a darkened stage space in fug and silence, creating a promising air of expectancy. Yet what emerges is something completely different. Another dancer, Asako Shirai, is discovered and she takes over the show, exploring different types of movement from within herself. This performance suggests she is an imaginative and neat dancer-choreographer who exploits her physicality and verges, occasionally, into robotics and other eccentricities. Shirai dominates this performance and it’s unclear why her colleague is necessary, dressed, as she is, like a female Fagin. A patchy but intriguing performance.

The celebrated Apocalyptica versions of Metallica songs herald a graduate troupe of nightie clad lovelies performing “Somewhere Around Nothing” with the kind of dedicated intensity you only get when you take yourself a bit too seriously to throaty, relentless strings. This well danced piece by Haris Marathefti and co. felt like an attempt to create something a bit sexy and edgy under the guise of addressing a big issue about ‘life’ but, instead, came across as overly dramatic, derivative and stylised; more at home on MTV than here at Resolution.

A little bit of what you fancy

Sadlers Wells Sampled
Friday 2 February, 2007

Sampled is a great idea. Three nights of mixed bill programming featuring almost every major dance style and a raft of excellent companies and performers complemented by a try it yourself taster workshop schedule. Sponsored by Playstation, the tickets were just a tenner for any seat and a measly fiver for standing room at the front (what we call the proms). There were massive Playstations on most levels for the kids to mess around with and a general air of festivity and excitement throughout the venue. One of the most diverse audiences age and background wise I ever seen there and definitely the loudest and most participatory (woop woop!) audience I’ve ever revelled in.

Tonight, I was a punter, having failed to get press tickets early enough and wanting to take several friends along. Front row of the second circle it was which is lovely, if you can get it, but if you’ve been spoiled by freebie stalls tickets once too often it can seem rather far away… but enough of my griping. Compere for the evening was an exuberant Jonzi D, hip hop and contemporary dance maestro and Associate Artist of Sadlers Wells. He owned the stage apron during scene changes getting the crowd to “make some nooooooooise”, bigging up Sadlers and it’s new flirtation with City Centre, New York – where the idea for Sampled originated – freestyling and generally having a whale of time (stopping just this side of pantomime dame, thankfully.)

I should imagine that programming this kind of event is actually a total fucking nightmare as well as an absolute delight. The variety on offer over the three days is awesome and all the performers are top notch in their field and wildly different. The first half tonight kicked off with a contemporary duet from Random Dance; an extract from a full length work Nemesis by Wayne McGregor, another Associate Artist of the Wells. It was a low key opener, demonstrating a version of cutting edge, futuristic contemporary dance but keeping it tame enough not to scare anyone away just yet.

Ramping it up considerably, next came the uber cool Vagabond Crew who presented a stunning piece of hip hop dance theatre, “Aliens”. These b-boys are unbelievably talented and, apparently, boneless and weightless at will. Their flawless mix of breaking, popping and locking, dancing, musicality and showmanship was gobsmacking and got appropriately rambunctious appreciation from the audience.

Possibly the only thing that could follow that and not be disappointing was the comedy martial art antics of Yegam Theatre with an extract from their show “Jump”. Playing on oriental stereotypes this Korean family, all experts in martial arts, spend a typical day practising their skills with slapstick humour galore: acrobatics, Tae Kwon Do, Karate, Judo and a big dose of well rehearsed silliness are doled out with elan and it’s a showcase crowd pleaser to lead into the interval.

The second half kept up the pace with the first urban “tap off” I’ve ever seen. Jason Samuels Smith’s ACGI (Anyone Can Get It) & Friends are virtuoso tappers from the US. Three guys and three girls split into stylised street gang factions and tap duel each other – showing off their individual styles and entering into playful oneupmanship. This is no 42nd Street shuffle. The dancers have all the street cred of the Vagabond Crew in tap shoes and are fabulous solo and ensemble performers, oozing charisma and loving what they’re doing: tap like you’ve never seen it and it was the freshest thing on show tonight.
Here’s where we hit the programming glitch. Not only was there an excessively long scene change which meant we were treated to Jonzi D for far too long (bless him – he did a great job – but, you know, he ended up talking about Celebrity Big Brother…) but it seemed that the bill was bottom heavy with chunky contemporary dance compared to the relative lightness and excitement of earlier. Still, rising star, Hofesh Schecter’s “Uprising” was powerful and full of brooding stuff going on to an industrial soundtrack. It was also full of men; 8 men in normal men’s clothes, dancing and tussling together, fighting and hugging, filling the stage with energy and movement. That’s quite rare. They’re normally in catsuits or carrying women around. A stage full of men is good to see. However, “Uprising” went on a bit and lost its way in the middle. Forgivable in this context as it contrasted beautifully with other work on the bill and had strong staging and lighting that made for a very interesting 15 minutes or so.

But, to follow this with Rambert and Swamp suddenly seemed like an error. The audience were full of expectation for a climactic end to the night and, whilst I personally adore Swamp, I couldn’t help wondering if a “Constant Speed” or “bloom” might have fared better with the crowd. I appreciate that, as a mixed bill, a classic piece of contemporary was appropriate but Michael Clark’s beautiful lines, abstract notions and challenging soundscapes seemed to bemuse rather than entrance (although I was riveted). Certainly, exiting the auditorium, audience opinion was very much in favour of the b-boys and the tappers.

That said, this was an extraordinary night of programming for Sadlers and it was a joy to watch such a diverse and top quality night of dance entertainment.

Watch highlights on the Sadlers Wells website here.

Nudity & sartorial error

Resolution!
1 February 2007, The Place

 

Helicoptered in for a last minute programming change, Timea Maday Kinga presented a challenging and brave piece for Resolution, “Working Process”. The programme notes warn that there will be nudity here but that still doesn’t quite prepare you for a totally naked Timea Maday Kinga standing on a box in a beam of light. Once over the initial surprise this is an intense and oppressive piece resembling an overly serious liveart installation rather than a dance performance. Maday Kinga’s beautifully lit, strong and graceful body slowly writhes, contracts, arches and strains to a throbbing industrial soundscape. Completely exposed she controls her movement in an attempt to subvert the constraints she is working under. However, the noise, intensity of light and inescapable nudity get claustrophobic quickly and although the commitment to this physical ‘meditation’ is, in some way, impressive it’s quite an ordeal to sit through.

 

Linda Gieres‘ “White Moment” thankfully returns us to more conventional lyrical contemporary dance, a tinkling score by Arvo Part and impressive execution in full on skirts. Inspired by a quote from the composer, Gieres seeks to explore how the audience perceives the work presented; the audience or listener is the prism that can divide the “white light” of the work into its component parts and meaning. The dancers move united and sometimes out of sync. They shadow and vary each other’s movement, resembling each other in stature and costume, although one of them chose the wrong sort of top for their body shape and looked unreasonably dumpy next to her better dressed friend; this irked me throughout so maybe that’s why I’m really not sure my ‘prism’ was working. It is a poignant and gentle, fluid duet which neither moved me nor interested me very much. Possibly a manifestation of two aspects of one consciousness or perhaps a memory of a lost sister. I’m not sure and it probably doesn’t matter.

Jessyka Watson-Galbraith rounded off an all round, good Resolution! night with “Let’s Talk About Love” and some dramatic and overblow silliness. You must read my extended wordiness here and remember all the good things about Celine Dion.

Read other Resolution! reviews here.

 

 

Sampled: live webstream

Sadlers Wells Sampled is in full swing and last night’s variety bill was excellent. More of that soon from me and my comrades. Sadlers, being net savvy, are showing a live webstream of the Sunday night performance here from 7.30pm tomorrow and, of course, you’ll be able to watch it from the archive from Monday. Embrace the technology! Sample the dance.

Also, they’ve a new website coming soon. Apparently. Watch this space.

Love YouTube

Resolution!
1 February 2007, The Place

Jessyka Watson-Galbraith’s Resolution work “Let’s Talk About Love” is inspired by the frighteningly prolific production of love songs by Celine Dion. 198 in all. Good grief.

Taking the Canadian diva as the ultimate embodiment of the cheap commercial exploitation of love, Watson-Galbraith plays with the idea of what is good and bad quality in several forms: dance, film and music.

The cast have been messing around with poor quality videos of them dancing in bedrooms and singing along to Celine on YouTube for months and several of these feature as a backdrop to the performance. The intention, it seems, was to use this tawdry, sentimental music (pop schmaltz ‘low’ culture), contrast it with contemporary dance moves (supposedly a ‘high’ art form but also poking fun at its seriousness) and have it performed by a cast of 13 young women dressed ready for bed but actually convey real emotion through the drama and blowsiness of La Dion. The project blog talks about looking at the moment when bad becomes good because it’s so bad it’s cool whereas good can be uncool and bad. Yeah, confusing, I know.  The piece is really good fun and like nothing I’ve seen at Resolution before. The opening section is the most rehearsed and straightfowardly enjoyable with the ensemble executing serious contemporary dance moves in their own style whilst feeling the love from Celine and lip-synching along. After that, it gets a bit more shambolic – too improvised and shabby for 12 of the cast whilst one, spotlit downstage, almost performs the same dance moves as the girl in the dodgy video behind her – which is effective – but too much undisciplined activity going on around her detracts from it. Still, watch this. It’s kooky:

This was very nearly cracking in its shambolic appeal and was the emotive icing on a tasty three tiered Resolution cake.

PS. I hate to admit it, but the Celine tracks actually sounded very powerful in the intimate Place auditorium. And, alarmingly, I know the words to this song: