Dance Special

FRONT

FEAST CREATIVE PICTURE: OLIVER ROSSER

Ian McKellen is a sound for sore ears

Kicking off our celeb birthday round-up are professional smoulderers Jamie Dornan, Joanna Lumley and Julie Benz, all of whom will look bloody beautiful when they blow out their candles on the very first day of May. Following them on May Day is charisma machine Dwayne Johnson, aftershave hawker David Beckham and ray of sunshine Ellie Kemper, who are all presumably ardent supporters of workers’ rights. Less gorgeous but equally talented is an impressive roster of film directors with birthdays in May, including Wes Anderson (1st), John Woo (1st), Michel Gondry (8th) and Robert Zemeckis (14th). Prefer to see glamour in front of the camera? Then join us in wishing many happy returns to acting royalty Robert Pattinson (13th), Cate Blanchett (14th), Tim Roth (14th) and Samantha Morton (13th). George ‘Gorgeous George’ Clooney (6th) straddles several of the above camps, as someone who has been both in front and behind the movie camera. And is, as the nickname suggests, quite gorgeous. Our selection of Scots who burst forth into the world like a Xenomorph includes musical supremos David Byrne (14th) and Donovan (10th), plus Andy Murray (15th), Craig Ferguson (17th), Martin Compston (8th) and Phyllida Law (8th). May your birthdays be happy and your presents many. Claire L Heuchan argues that snobbish attitudes towards audiobooks ignore the positive impact they have on marginalised communities

Audiobooks are the fastest growing segment of the publishing industry. Sales are soaring. Through the first half of 2021, when the country was under lockdown, the income generated by audiobooks was up a colossal 71% from a mere two years before. This rise is meteoric compared to print sales, which grew 6% in the same period; and ebooks, sales of which rose by 10%. Having more free time encouraged more people to try audiobooks, and even as the world opens up again, people continue to listen.

But the success of audiobooks isn’t purely down to the pandemic. Even before Covid-19 hit, their popularity grew exponentially. We can listen to books on a dull commute, while cooking and cleaning, when we’re shopping at the supermarket, during walks or long car journeys . . . the possibilities are endless. Audiobooks bring colour to the mundane, and calm us as we live through major historic events.

In a cultural landscape increasingly defined by clickbait and endless content, it means something that more and more people choose to spend hours of their lives immersed in listening to books. Ever since the advent of e-readers, people have been predicting doom and gloom for the future of the novel. But this widespread hunger for audiobooks tells a different story.

Apps like BorrowBox and Libby have breathed fresh life into local libraries too, allowing people to borrow audiobooks for free. Indeed, research indicates that libraries are the leading competition to Amazonowned Audible which dominates the market. The success of digital catalogues offers still more proof that libraries continue to be vital.

Yet, in spite of all the pleasure they bring readers across generations, there is a persistent snobbery attached to audiobooks. Some don’t consider it ‘real’ reading, because the books are narrated. But snobs would do well to reflect on whom their prejudices exclude from the label of reader. The ready availability of audiobooks means that more people who are visually impaired, people with dyslexia or ADHD, can engage with novels than ever before.

Besides, as audiobooks grow in popularity, publishers are more likely to invest in quality narration. Ian McKellen, Fiona Shaw, Bahni Turpin, Robin Miles (all tremendous actors in their own right) have made waves performing audiobooks. Their readings add a new dimension to every text. This quality and innovation elevate audiobooks as a medium, ensuring they are here to stay. Audiobooks are a gamechanger.  Claire L Heuchan is an author, commentator and award-winning essayist. She’s the founder and chair of Labrys Lit, an international lesbian book group.

Fantastic Mr Fox, directed by and starring two May birthday boys

Who better to make an Easterthemed crack than Lucy Dacus, the author of ‘VBS’ (Vacation Bible Study). Just one day later the singer-songwriter played her own resurrection gig to adoring fans in Glasgow’s Old Fruitmarket after having to reschedule by a month (a dose of the dreaded ‘c’ word, we hear)

SWEET TWEET my new hobby

Continuing a family tradition, Hannah Ross is steadily getting to grips with the button accordion

I grew up in Shetland surrounded by ceilidh and folk music, but never really played it, instead studying classical piano and playing jazz double bass. I’ve barely played anything since I graduated in 2010, but in 2016 my mainland grandad died and left me one of his button boxes. In 2021, I finally decided to give it a proper go.

It’s diatonic, meaning each button plays two different notes or chords, depending on whether you’re pushing or pulling the bellows. Learning tunes is frustratingly slow, but also quite fun. I’ve been taking lessons online with a melodeon player in York, and with so many different influences I’m intrigued to see what kind of musical style I end up with. My aim is to be able to play in sessions with friends. I’ve tried a couple online (on mute) and I’m definitely not ready yet. Thankfully my neighbours claim not to mind . . .  Hannah Ross is Choirs Co-ordinator at Love M usic Community Choir; choir.lovemusic.org.uk

RETRO PERSPECTIVE

REGÉJEAN PAGE

The Netflix-breaking Bridgerton is back for its second season with more extravagant wigs, estates and hoisted bosom aplenty. But this season’s shift in focus onto the eldest Bridgerton brother Anthony leaves besotted fans yearning for more heat, hedonism and, well . . . Regé-Jean Page.

IS IT CAKE?

To touch a cake, to crave a cake, to sleep, perchance to dream a cake. Such is the ropey premise of Netflix’s Deal Or No Deal rip-off Is It Cake?, in which cheerful contestants guess if everyday objects are cakes or, erm, not cakes. Is it rubbish? Yes, yes it is.

Bring It Back Get It Gone

NDT 2 FEATURES

total dance

Brilliant Dutch company NDT 2 kicks off our dance special. As its dancers put the legwork into riveting new pieces, Kelly Apter can’t help but be dazzled by their technique, energy and innovation

They may not be visible on stage, but an old car motor, a vacuum cleaner and a mobile phone are all playing their part in Nederlands Dans Theater 2’s latest tour. In fact, there’s a whole world of ideas and preparations that we, the audience, aren’t privy to, but feed into the brilliance of this young Dutch company.

As Nederlands Dans Theater 1’s youth wing, NDT 2 is a rocketfuelled company of 19 to 25-year-olds drawn from around the world. A stringent regime of daily classical ballet and contemporary dance classes, coupled with work by some of the finest choreographers in the business, make each show as compelling as the last. And, after a two-year absence, the current tour featuring two UK premieres by Marco Goecke and Johan Inger, plus Hans van Manen’s Simple Things, is a very welcome return.

First, the car motor, which doesn’t appear in Goecke’s The Big Crying, a work inspired by the death of his father. ‘One day Marco wheeled it into the rehearsal room and said, “that’s my father”,’ recalls dancer Cassandra Martin. ‘And he explained that when he was at the hospital visiting his father, the doctor said that our bodies are machines and as we get older the machine gets run down and stops working. It’s just a part of life and nothing you can philosophise about.’

The motor prop never made it onto the stage but did help inform the dancers’ understanding of Goecke’s grief. As a result, TheBigCrying speaks poignantly to anyone who has ever lost someone they loved. It also contains some hugely impressive, fast-paced synchronised movement. How hard is it to achieve that razor-sharp unison, especially after the recent spell of pandemicenforced inactivity?

‘It’s very difficult,’ says Martin, before revealing another behind-the-scenes trick in the NDT 2 playbook. ‘Before each performance we have a ritual of dancing the group sections together onstage before the curtain goes up. It’s a way of getting into the right mindset, removing the ego and making sure we’re working as a unit, as a vessel for the piece.’

A little backstage magic also comes into play in Inger’s IM PASSE , a ‘them and us’ drama driven by the infectiously joyful music of jazz composer Ibrahim Maalouf. Opening with a trio of dancers living their best, carefree life, the mood shifts when a group of commercial-looking business folk arrive. ‘The trio are more in touch with nature and have a child-like curiosity,’ explains Martin. ‘Then what we call the “city people” come in to seduce them into a more consumerist lifestyle and a slicker way of moving. So each night backstage, the city people decide what it is we’re “selling” to the trio (something like a vacuum cleaner or a phone) to influence their lifestyle.’

This duplicity flies off the stage with a lightness of touch that has ‘feelgood closer’ written all over it. Yet there’s something deeper at play in Inger’s work that slowly creeps under the skin. ‘You really see how it reflects a lot about today’s society in the way that so much turmoil and negativity happen around us, but it’s embellished in these beautiful packages that disguise what’s actually going on,’ says dancer Emmitt Cawley, who plays one of the trio. ‘And the audience gets swept up in the joy, It’s so easy to watch; it’s mesmerising. But then there’s a moment where you see it for what it is. It’s so subtle but so impactful, it really makes you question, “was that joyful or did it have something else to say?” And perhaps there are other aspects in life where these embellishments distract us from things that are tearing you down and changing you.’

It’s this ability to blend incredible technique, engaging choreography and thought-provoking content that has made each NDT 2 performance an anticipated event for over 40 years. ‘We know that we have this lineage, this history and reputation,’ says Cawley. ‘But with that reputation comes responsibility. The reason we have it is because we’re constantly pushing boundaries and thinking, “what is the next thing we want to say?” Something that’s not just noise but a true response to what’s needed in today’s world. And that’s really beautiful to be a part of and to witness.’

NDT 2, Festival Theatre, Edinburgh, Friday 6 & Saturday 7 May.

When award-winning choreographer Aakash Odedra was 21 years old, he realised he’d been spelling his name incorrectly his whole life, missing out the second ‘a’. The reason? Dyslexia, which he had worked throughout his school years to try and minimise. Years later, however, he would use this same neurodivergence, which Odedra calls a ‘gift’ not a ‘curse’, to create the subject for his 2015 dance piece M urmur. Following that success, Odedra has now adapted it into Little M urmur, a new work that tours with a rotating cast of solo dancers and is showing as part of the Edinburgh International Children’s Festival.

‘You’re always put into special needs groups if you’re dyslexic, or if you don’t fit the mould,’ dedra says over oom from Mumbai where he’s

word play

When understood correctly, dyslexia can be a creative superpower. In the Edinburgh International Children’s Festival programme, Lucy Ribchester finds a new dance piece by Aakash Odedra which explores this special inner world

currently working on a new piece. ‘You’re labelled unintelligent, because there’s a lack of understanding of what dyslexia means.’ Some of the world’s brightest minds, Odedra points out, have been dyslexics: Einstein for one. Searching for a non-verbal metaphor with which to explore a language-based neurodivergence, he homed in on this idea of intelligence, and settled on the image of a starling.

‘They’re very curious (curiosity is a sign of intelligence) and when they fly they form a murmuration,’ dedra says. ‘There’s this warping of shapes in space.’ With dyslexia, he explains, information is interpreted differently via the visual cortex: ‘letters and objects change their perspectives’. In Little M urmur, he wanted the chaos of the starlings’ murmuration (created with flying paper and swirling pro ections) to echo the creative world of a dyslexic person, which can shapeshift and transform objects. It’s the reason Odedra can look at, for example, an iron and instinctively see in it an animated, characterful creature.

Little M urmur is dedra’s first piece for children. is choreographic style merges contemporary dance with classical Kathak, creating a dance language ‘without borders’. As a British Asian speaker of four mother tongues indi, u arati, athiawari and nglish), he compares this to that moment when he can’t find the right word in one language, making it feel natural to switch to another.

For similar reasons, Odedra believes that creativity is inherent in dyslexia. ‘In a school, when you’re writing a sentence and you can’t spell the word that you need, you’ll find another word that you can spell to compensate for it; that’s being creative.’ Dyslexia, it seems, has always been present in Odedra’s work, even to the extent that feeling like an outsider led him to set up his own company. ‘If you’re not going to make allowance for me, I’ll make allowances and bring people into my world.’

BE HERE NOW

As one of television’s most recognisable dancers, Oti Mabuse may live a sequinned, star-studded life now. But she tells Lucy Ribchester that it was growing up in postapartheid South Africa which inspired her to become the dancer she is today

If birth names are given to fulfi l prophesies, Oti Mabuse’s has certainly succeeded. ‘ tlile’ her full fi rst name) translates from South African language Setswana as ‘I am here’. It’s the name Mabuse has given to her new stage show, and unless you’ve been hiding under a rock for the past fi ve years (or don’t possess a television or the internet), you will know that, yes, Oti Mabuse is most defi nitely here.

She joined the cast of StrictlyCome D ancing in 2015 and went on to become the only pro dancer to win in consecutive years, doubling down on that by also leading her teams to victory twice in a row on BBC show TheG reatestD ancer. Appearances as a judge on RuPaul’sD ragRaceU K and TheM askedD ancer followed, then earlier this year, Mabuse hung up her Strictly shoes to join the judging panel of ITV’s D ancingO nIce.

But that, it seems, has not kept her quite busy enough, as she has now created her own touring stage show. Even the prospect of spending the summer in Scottish weather cannot dampen Mabuse’s famously vibrant spirit. ‘I love Scotland and I always think they are the best audiences; they will be rooting and shouting,’ she says brightly over Zoom, where she is knee-deep in a day of backto-back publicity interviews. Mabuse talks excitedly about the show, which

talks excitedly about the show, which she created to celebrate her path to dancing and fame. ‘I want audiences to try and feel that they know me. I want them to know where I come from and what ignites me.’ I AmHere sets out to chart Mabuse’s life through dance, blending together the sambas, tangos and jives she’s known for into a choreographed ensemble piece. But though the show aims to be ultimately uplifting, its path, she points out, was not always a happy one. s one of the fi rst generations to grow up in post-apartheid South Africa, Mabuse is keen to show the political climate in which she discovered dance. In fact, growing up in the shadow of horror has been one of the driving forces throughout her career. ‘What we’ve been through, and what I know life to be like in South Africa, is something that inspired me to do what I do with dance right now. It inspires me to be grateful for everything that I have, and that I don’t have to fi ght for education or to have housing, and that I can travel.’ Mabuse has defi nitely walked the walk when it comes to living these values. It was this connection with her past that drove her to give away free dance lessons on YouTube and Instagram during the pandemic. Marooned from work like every other dancer, her thoughts turned to the children at the dance school her mother set up in South Africa. ‘My mum was really, really upset. She was crying. At the school they give the kids food. Some of these under-privileged kids are not going to be able to have breakfast, lunch or dinner if they don’t come to school. I ust thought, I live right now in a fi rst world country where everybody has a phone. Let me do something useful.’ Alongside her husband, she continued streaming free lessons for a year, which eventually evolved into the CBeebies show Boogie Beebies, targeted at getting small children moving. But while it’s clear Mabuse wants to share her love of dance, anyone who watches Strictly will know this determination doesn’t always present itself with uncomplicated kindness. She famously strapped ill ailey to a crucifi to correct his posture and made elvin letcher perform press-ups if he got his steps wrong. Are there any limits to how far she will push a non-pro dancer?

‘I don’t have limits,’ she says. ‘ o, honestly . . . with ill and with elvin it was about giving them the most diffi cult choreography and telling them it’s easy. nd because they don’t have anybody in their ears who could tell them, no, it’s too diffi cult , they have no perspective of what’s easy and what’s diffi cult. Then on aturday, everyone goes, wow that was diffi cult , and they’re like, was it he told me it was easy .’

At least Mabuse only pushes others as hard as she pushes herself. As our conversation draws to a close, she’s gearing up for another of her 40 interviews scheduled to promote I Am Here. Will she get a day off tomorrow? ‘No!’ she scream-laughs, in that famous, friendly-but-takes-no-prisoners voice.

I don’t have limits

Oti Mabuse: I Am Here, SEC, Glasgow, Saturday 7 May; Festival Theatre, Edinburgh, Sunday 8 May.

PICTURES: BILL COOPER Ballet Black

Moving Forward

Kelly Apter fi lls us in on another quintet of top dance highlights over the coming months

BALLET BLACK

The dynamic London-based company celebrates its 20th anniversary with a double-bill of works by South African choreographer Gregory Maqoma (whose Dancing In The Streets appeared at last year’s Edinburgh International Festival) and Ballet Black founder Cassa Pancho.  Festival Theatre, Edinburgh, Wednesday 4 May.

LORD OF THE DANCE: 25 YEARS OF STANDING OVATIONS

The title says it all: the Irish music and dance show that Michael Flatley created after parting company with Riverdance has wowed crowds around the world. Staying seated is not an option.  Alhambra Theatre, Dunfermline, Thursday 19–Saturday 21 May; SEC, Glasgow, Saturday 4 & Sunday 5 June, Friday 8 & Saturday 9 July.

DIVERSITY: CONNECTED

wherever they land. This time their dynamic routines focus on social media and digital connection.  King’s Theatre, Glasgow, Thursday 19–Saturday 21 May.

SCOTTISH BALLET: THE SCANDAL AT MAYERLING

One of the most dramatic productions Scottish Ballet has ever staged, The Scandal At Mayerling is a true story of passion, predilection and tragedy in the 19th-century Austro-Hungarian Royal Court. See review, page 63.  Festival Theatre, Edinburgh, Wednesday 25–Saturday 28 May.

STRICTLY COME DANCING: THE PROFESSIONALS

Unshackled from their celebrity partners, the real stars of Strictly shine like a disco ball as ten of the team (champions one and all) deliver some first-class Latin and ballroom.  SEC, Glasgow, Saturday 28 May; Festival Theatre, Edinburgh, Sunday 29 May.