Londonist does SPILL

Preview of the SPILL the UK’s newest festival of performance, live art and experimental theatre.

Disappointing sequel syndrome rant

Hofesh Shechter has been getting the hype treatment. Jonzi D ‘bigged him up massive’ back in February when his work “Uprising” appeared in the “Sampled” bill alongside established dance big hitters, Rambert, Random and English National Ballet (let alone the tap dancers) and he went down a storm with his army of men-children tussling and tumbling all over the place. A big, soulful photo in the Metro preview pages yesterday morning heralded a fawning trailer for the first of his 3 big stints in London’s best dance venues; the Place, the Southbank Centre and Sadlers Wells, over the next months. Shechter’s been gifted an incredible commission; to create a new work and develop it for three major yet very different venues over 6 months. Last night’s opener at the Place held a palpable buzz and was absolutely packed with one of the most diverse audiences I’ve ever seen there. Good job then, that he had “Uprising” under his belt and could whack it out as a sure fire crowd pleaser to kick off the night.

“Uprising” is good to watch and a commercial winner. 7 fabulous male dancers filling the Place with seething testosterone. Plenty of aggression, a splodge of tenderness (not too much, mind) and Shechter style leaping, loping and grooving, some headlong dashing round in circles and playful tussling to a home made industrial soundtrack set in a smoky urban wasteland. Sometimes, it’s like a group of dancers just mucking about – a therapeutic back slapping session descends into a full on scrum fight – and Shecter patrols the performance proprietorially. No doubt who’s in charge. “Uprising” doesn’t say a great deal but it’s performed with macho commitment and elan. If the cheeky ending didn’t quite work tonight then it didn’t really matter because the audience was waiting for the main event anyway. Don’t want to peak too soon. Watch an illicit YouTube video of the Sadlers Wells performance here. It gets good around 3 mins in.

“In Your Rooms” begins with a mad Israeli bloke talking about the cosmos and confusion and chaos. He’s mildly amusing and it’s an eccentric start which is swiftly marred by the succession of briefly lit tableaux that emerge from the absolute blackness. A snippet of movement, three women sitting on the floor, 2 people staring at each other… it should probably all be loaded with meaning and emotion but it just gets annoying and starts to irritate the eyes; “get on with it” you think. When it does kick in, Shechter’s world is tremendously influenced and cross referenced to “Uprising” repeating movement and ideas from the original work yet, like in a poorly conceived movie sequel, it’s just not as good. Shechter’s vision is an apocalyptic battleground where people are isolated and disturbed and fail to communicate or even make contact with another punctuated by a grating industrial bleepy soundtrack which intermittently assaults the ears with squeals, rewinds and interference which fundamentally fails to enhance the experience. But he doesn’t seem to have anything to say about this state of affairs… it just is. His lack of intellectual conception for the piece is encapsulated in the moment when one dancer approaches the front of the stage and mournfully holds up a handwritten sign: “Don’t follow leaders” staring emptily into the audience. The gesture’s serious intent is lost behind the cliche (my neighbour collapses into giggles at this point) suddenly it feels like it’s a naive performance for Resolution! rather than the start of a major new professional project.

Why he bothered engaging such classy female dancers as Amy Hollingsworth I can’t imagine – apart from the general kudos of assocation with her excellence – there is little for the women to work with here as they either club together as the guardians of calm and emotion or run like harpies to jump on men’s backs and drag them down in failing desperation. Not the best sexual politics for the day and age. Yet, Shechter does male choreography brilliantly, even if I don’t think it works here. However, it’s a style very personal to Shechter and it feels like he is trying to clone himself and his exact quirks through his dancers rather than creating a new and objective choreographic vocabulary.

Granted, this is work in progress and I hope that the piece is better received in the more austere environment of the Southbank Centre and more fully realised by the time it reaches Sadlers in September as “In Your Rooms” can’t begin to compete with its predecessor and it looks alarmingly like Shecter is a one trick pony for now.

Contemporary dance is rubbish

Ain’t this the truth:

“When you go to a contemporary dance performance you never know what you’re going to get. A lot of the time it’s rubbish, but some of the time it’s absolute genius.”

Read more over at Article 19

Londonist does dance film festival

Constellation Change Film Festival is on this week! Read about it here.

Less than the sum of its parts

Shobana Jeyasingh Dance Company
Queen Elizabeth Hall, 6 March 2007

Faultline / Exit No Exit

It’s enormously frustrating when a professional company with a good reputation and excellent collaborators of all kinds dishes up a disappointing double bill for the second time in a row. Accompanied by a total non-dance type I was hoping for an artistic and cultural mashup that would be relevant, engaging, gritty and surprising – something to draw the other person in. Having seen “Flicker” performed alongside “Exit No Exit” before, I was hoping that “Faultline” would appeal to me more than “Flicker” had, and that the double header would at least be evenly balanced in quality.

“Faultline” started off really promisingly with some excellent film from the streets of somewhere that may well have been Hounslow featuring Asian ‘yoots’ hanging out, looking shifty, feeling edgy. There was definitely tension and this was perpetuated through the piece by the score which was cut through with an amazing live soprano voice from Patricia Rozario. Where I didn’t get any anxiety or impact was from the dancing – which is a real shame because I really do rate the company. Apart from the obvious stylistic nods to merging and meshing dance styles; Indian, hip hop, martial arts and contemporary dance all tagged and referenced, I came away feeling annoyed and my comrade bemused with me reassuring him that I didn’t “get it” either.

“Exit No Exit” was definitely better but it wasn’t so good it made up for the first half. It’s a pretty depthless piece, pleasant and pacy but not stunning or moving. Mavin Khoo was excellent as the central figure of the piece, trapped on stage yet coolly revelling in the experience and dipping in and out of the ensemble around him. Always good to see a musician perched on a wooden tower in one corner too and the Michael Nyman score was a pleasure after the strains of tense electro-opera.

So, I don’t get why but Shobana Jeyasingh disappoints me. It’ll take something pretty special, performance wise, and probably a press ticket to get me to go again.

Londonist does ballet news

Carlos Acosta excitements & East London Dance/Royal Ballet flirtation covered here.

Tights at The Place

Highlight of Resolution! 2007 – a YouTube clip of A2 Company performing “She Turned Her Head And Looked”. Read review by Donald Hutera here. Find out more about A2 here.

Londonist does underwater extravaganza

Sasha Waltz & Guests, Dido & Aeneas preview here.

More proper writing coming soon… just trying to find the time.

Londonist does cultural mashup

Shobana Jeyasingh preview here.

What a mess or ultra sex?

What do you think of London contemporary dance? Go here and fill out the short survey on behalf of the Place, Sadlers Wells and the South Bank Centre and be entered into a prize draw to win £100 of Amazon vouchers.

Do it.