Login/Register Find Us
About The Place
Channels
Blog
Supporting The Place
RSS
Share: Blog
What's on
< M
About the theatre
January T
>
W
T
F
S
S
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
In This Section Resolution! Review 2013 Resolution! Review 2012 Resolution! Review 2012
Resolution! Review 2013
The Ticket Theatre
Interact
Book Tickets
Scratched
Eleanor Sikorski Chocolate A.D Dance Company
FAWN
Resolution! 2012 began with a typically varied programme, and charged with the task of opening proceedings were The Ticket Theatre Dance. Scratched was described as a work made of available resources, which seemed to lead to an overreliance on the steel-drumming and tap dancing skills of the cast. There was some vague comment on the rivalry and selfishness of performing, and the contrast with the have-a-go attitude required to put on a show at short notice. However, at least one of the elements needed to be exceptionally well done for the work to achieve any clarity, and the combination of average dancing with substandard slapstick meant it simply meandered along to an inconsequential end.
Resolution! Review 2011
open in browser PRO version
Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API
pdfcrowd.com
Resolution! Review 2011 Resolution! Review 2010 Archive My Tickets My Basket My Account
Spot-lit and engagingly deadpan throughout, Eleanor Sikorski’s solo meditation on chocolate was built around the vicarious and oddly intrusive experience of watching somebody eat. Fragments of stories and memories emerged as Sikorski skimmed through the complexities of consumption and its many inextricable links; desire, comfort, relationships, femininity. There is further to go with this, but it was intimate and lightly handled, and provided the most successful moments of the night. Additional kudos is also due for putting that postChristmas excess of Quality Street to good use.
Checkout Finally, A.D Dance Company gave us FAWN, a grandly ambitious prospect promising a combination of ruptured classical form and Mozart’s Requiem. What we witnessed was more like an extended limbering session; lithe females paraded through various contortions by their mostly static, intensely po-faced partners. Although it was ably performed, the piece suffered hugely from an unimaginative relationship with the score, which was played at a volume that dwarfed everything else. Credit must go to the dancers however, for their complete lack of irony in performing those seemingly random incidences of pelvic thrusting - an unintentional comic highlight of the evening. Misa Brzezicki Resolution! 2012 got off to an inauspicious beginning thanks to a less than sure-footed stab at comic dance-theatre and an ambitious but unwittingly camp slice of classicism, with the evening’s saving grace slotted in between. ‘Scrabbled together out of available resources, unlikely connections and mismatched relationships’ was an all too apt a description of The Ticket Theatre Dance’s sextet Scratched. This good-natured but weaklyconceived piece tried to delineate the discombobulated shenanigans of a show-within-the show. Thinking itself more amusing than it ever actually was, the net effect was mild embarrassment. Just the ticket? Alas, no. The humour engendered by FAWN arose from far loftier intentions. Made for A.D Dance Company, Holly Noble’s octet was a string of slipper-shod, irony-free duets and quartet set to Mozart’s heavy-duty Requiem. The choreography, notably un-layered, entailed plenty of pelvic action and striking of poses but precious little steps. Noble was one of the imperious females hauled about by carefully-coifed men who appeared
open in browser PRO version
Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API
pdfcrowd.com
imperious females hauled about by carefully-coifed men who appeared understandably spooked by their tasks. She and her dancers tried hard – maybe too hard – but to little avail. I don’t know who was more trapped – them, or us? The night’s top marks thus fell to soloist Eleanor Sikorski’s Chocolate. She entered a spotlight with a ‘magic’ cardboard box out of which was pulled all manner of chocolate – drops that flipped into her mouth via the ends of forks, sticks she decapitated with her teeth and slabs that melted between hot hands that were then ravenously licked clean. (PostChristmas diets be damned!) There were shards of narrative here, suggestions of pleasures found and lost and hungers only temporarily, perhaps nauseatingly slaked. At the end, tellingly, everything went up in powdery chocolate smoke. Perhaps the work’s implications could’ve been more deeply plumbed, and the result more profoundly bittersweet, but it showed originality. Donald Hutera What did you think? Tell us your thoughts on the Resolution! Review tab on our Facebook page. The Place 17 Duk e 's R oad London W C 1H 9PY Tick e ts: +44 (0)20 7121 1100 Adm in: +44 (0)20 7121 1000 R e g. charity no 250216
Supported by:
open in browser PRO version
Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API
Inde x C re dits: He lp Site by: Privacy Policy Tincan Acce ssbility De signe d by: Te rm s & C onditions Draught
pdfcrowd.com
Login/Register Find Us
About The Place
Channels
Blog
Supporting The Place
RSS
Share: Blog
What's on
< M
About the theatre
January T
>
W
T
F
S
S
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
In This Section Resolution! Review 2013 Resolution! Review 2012 Resolution! Review 2012
open in browser PRO version
Resolution! Review 2013
Interact
Book Tickets
Toby Fitzgibbons & Matthew Robinson (why wait for what, for wait for when) Daniel Walters BooJack MaxwellDance Project The B-Sides Toby Fitzgibbons and Matthew Robinson’s (why wait for what, for wait for when) assaults the viewer with a jumble of information. Scenes flit from one to the next, rallied along by popular music and a backdrop where looming clouds express the ever changing mood. The two men appear to tell the story of a volatile relationship. But references to feathers, clothes and a brightly lit sign of the word ‘Din’ confuse matters. Birds, angels, inner city, innocence and prostitution all come to mind. Finally, and inexplicably, a woman appears from underneath a pile of clothes, perhaps a prostitute, an angel, or ghost of a lost lover? Even now I'm uncertain. With an ambiguous title, at times this confusion left me
Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API
pdfcrowd.com
Resolution! Review 2011 Resolution! Review 2010 Archive My Tickets My Basket My Account Checkout
wondering what I was even waiting for. In BooJack, Daniel Walters explores our disaffected media saturated society. Dancers cover themselves in newspaper, stuffing it into their faces as if literally consuming them as part of their daily diet. The stage, strewn with piles of leftover paper, shows how news has become something that can simply be discarded. However, while the meaning of this work is clear, I can’t help but feel the piece could have been much more provocative. Furthermore, with such a strong focus on newspapers I am left pondering its relevance in today’s internet culture. The B-Sides, a brand new work by The MaxwellDance Project, provided a fun, intoxicating atmosphere to finish the evening. Inspired by reggae music, the piece combines reggae dance hall movement with contemporary dance. Rolling their hips, pulsing their bodies and dropping low to the floor, dancers work the crowd with the swagger more common to hip hop performers than contemporary dancers. The reggae movement gives the piece its individuality, but, the relatively simple structuring lets the work down at times. B-Sides is at its best during playful duets and when the energy is at its height. Lucy Jarvis (why wait for what, for wait for when) is a hard title to understand, but it has a certain poetry. That’s apt for Toby Fitzgibbons and Matthew Robinson’s mystifying duet, which hints at a story – there’s a pile of clothes, a broken billboard sign, an image of a mill silhouetted against sunlit clouds – but works better through mood, not meaning. There’s a lonesome-cowboy feel to the piece, the men synching into loose linedancing, or joshing with casual high-fives and shoot-from-the-hips hands. There are also melancholy moments: Fitzgibbons taking off into a disquieting solo of sidewinder twists and lizard crawls; the pair playing at falling down dead. Both are fine dancers, the choreography is well crafted and the music (Lynyrd Skynyrd, Tom Waits and others) casts a captivating spell. All it needs is more narrative coherence. Or less narrative. Daniel Walters’ BooJack is more straightforward: it’s about newspapers. Two women read tabloids while a third emerges from a paper pile with a concertina of newsprint unspooling from her mouth. The imagery is striking, but the piece doesn’t get into gear until the women start floundering in paper flotsam. One dons a head of rumpled pages, like a
open in browser PRO version
Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API
pdfcrowd.com
monster from the deep; another is suffocated by sheets clamped over her face. The choreography could be better honed, but its mix of long flailing hair and newspaper neuroses did make me think of Rebekah Brooks. Which was creepy. The B-Sides is sharp, smart entertainment. Riffing on the rhythms of Jamaican music, choreographer Shelley Maxwell melds contemporary dance technique with the snap and reverb of a reggae offbeat, the down-and-dirty thump of a bassline and the show-off brio of rap â&#x20AC;&#x201C; like patois, in dance form. Two women shake their hips as expressively as if they were wagging tongues. There are strutty chicken-walks, smutty boob-and-butt rolls, and plenty of attitude. All six dancers are great, but special mention goes to the superlative Theo Lowe, and his pelvis. Sanjoy Roy What did you think? Tell us your thoughts on the Resolution! Review tab on our Facebook page. The Place 17 Duk e 's R oad London W C 1H 9PY Tick e ts: +44 (0)20 7121 1100 Adm in: +44 (0)20 7121 1000 R e g. charity no 250216
Supported by:
open in browser PRO version
Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API
Inde x C re dits: He lp Site by: Privacy Policy Tincan Acce ssbility De signe d by: Te rm s & C onditions Draught
pdfcrowd.com
Login/Register Find Us
About The Place
Channels
Blog
Supporting The Place
RSS
Share: Blog
What's on
< M
About the theatre
January T
>
W
T
F
S
S
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
In This Section Resolution! Review 2013 Resolution! Review 2012 Resolution! Review 2012
open in browser PRO version
Resolution! Review 2013
Interact
Book Tickets
CoDa Dance You Remind Me of Someone I Once Knew Hamish MacPherson & Martine Painter Meeting Place DO NOT DANCE UK
Local Group
A despairing situation often forces people to have a different perspective on time. You Remind Me of Someone I Once Knew is a poignant portrayal of the most intimate frustrations and fears that are evoked in such forlorn circumstances. Kimberley Collins and Georgia Godfrey begin the piece curled up tightly on the floor, moving slowly in circles, mirroring the movement of hands on a clock with the passing of time. The pair repeatedly threw themselves to the floor in anguish, only finding temporary solace in each otherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s embrace. Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API
pdfcrowd.com
Resolution! Review 2011 Resolution! Review 2010 Archive My Tickets My Basket My Account Checkout
Mathematics and dance seem to be unlikely bedfellows, yet Hamish MacPherson and Martine Painter’s duet has found a Meeting Place for the two. The piece reflected a thoroughly considered approach, building up a number of simple movements in a formulaic way. In spite of the seemingly rigid structure it is based on, Meeting Place had a certain refreshing, unrehearsed quality. The choreographers-turned-performers were delightfully unpredictable as they engaged in playful dialogue with each other, boldly sustaining moments of stillness and amplifying the humour in the occasional and apparently coincidental moments with their deadpan faces and absolute conviction. An alien being detained at Earth’s border without a visa is the centerpiece of Jose Campos’ Local Group. Benson the alien, who resembles a cross between a scarecrow and a monkey, shrugs its way through questions posed by two stern immigration officers, revealing it to be a fifteen year old high school student. This puzzling exchange is followed by two dancers wearing cone hats of their height, bending very slowly to lively tribal drumming. The work is bookended by an ensemble of dancers moving in various permutations around the stage, repeating the same sequence so many times that I was willing them to stop. Germaine Cheng Sometimes it pays to keep things simple. CoDa Dance's You remind me of someone I once knew is at its strongest when its at its starkest – the two very good performers, Kimberley Collins and Georgia Godfrey, in matching movements, slow and grounded. The unison moves are compelling, played in perfect parallel, not just in timing but in weight and attack. Then they grow into something less harmonious, more confrontational. They're together, they're apart, they're both of those things at the same time. The glitchy electronic soundtrack threatens to overwhelm the choreography with its unvarying tone of mild torment, but there's enough emotional heft and sincerity in their dancing to see them through. An algorithmic formula is behind Hamish MacPherson and Martine Painter's Meeting Place. You know, algorithms, like the complex formulae that investment banks' computers use to drive us into financial meltdown. This one, however, has a far more benign and entertaining purpose, and results in a moderately charming game of repetition, accumulation and amusing absurdity. As a pair of performers, MacPherson and Painter have a nice connection and they string together
open in browser PRO version
Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API
pdfcrowd.com
MacPherson and Painter have a nice connection and they string together simple units of movement - an arm swing, a raised leg, a vocal yelp â&#x20AC;&#x201C; in a manner that manages to keep our attention for almost the full twenty minutes. Some genuine laughs out loud and a nice visible logic at play. Logic is the ingredient completely missing from Do Not Dance UK's Local Group, choreographed by Jose Campos. The highlight of the piece is one girl's rendition of the bossa nova tune How Insensitive, with a voice so delicate it might drift away on the Ipanema breeze. Around her flock a murmuration of birdlike dancers, wings rolling, feet padding in rhythmic unison. All very hypnotic. But as for the rest: more birds, two boys in pointy cone hats crouching VERY slowly, some lasers, two border patrol officials questioning a straw-covered refugee from space. Random â&#x20AC;&#x201C; that's the only word for it. Lyndsey Winship What did you think? Tell us your thoughts on the Resolution! Review tab on our Facebook page. The Place 17 Duk e 's R oad London W C 1H 9PY Tick e ts: +44 (0)20 7121 1100 Adm in: +44 (0)20 7121 1000 R e g. charity no 250216
Supported by:
open in browser PRO version
Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API
Inde x C re dits: He lp Site by: Privacy Policy Tincan Acce ssbility De signe d by: Te rm s & C onditions Draught
pdfcrowd.com
Login/Register Find Us
About The Place
Channels
Blog
Supporting The Place
RSS
Share: Blog
What's on
< M
About the theatre
January T
>
W
T
F
S
S
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
In This Section Resolution! Review 2013 Resolution! Review 2012 Resolution! Review 2012
open in browser PRO version
Resolution! Review 2013
Interact
Book Tickets
Replica Dance Company, 4:14 Eithne Kane & Dominick Mitchell Bennett, When Kane Met Conspicuous Ffin 2, The Art of Riot Replica Dance Company presents us with a vintage start to the evening, with the stunning yet simple duet, 4:14. As smoke from a steam train billows in, a man and a woman make a futile dash for a train. Though they miss the train, they gain new love, quickly beginning their journey together. Lifting each other, they merge into one. Diving under each otherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s legs, they see a gateway to something new. Covering each otherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s eyes, the playfulness and fun of new love shines through. All the while, a large clock looms over the stage, bearing the never changing time 4:14. Time stands still just for a while, long enough to be stunned by this performance by Hannily Bendell and Thomas Pickard.
Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API
pdfcrowd.com
Resolution! Review 2011 Resolution! Review 2010 Archive My Tickets My Basket My Account Checkout
Sheer physicality takes over the next duet, When Kane Met Conspicuous. This volatile and disturbing piece sees Eithne Kane and Dominick Bennett power their way across the space, propelling themselves into each other’s arms and manipulating each other with an uncomfortable force. Balances are punctuated throughout the piece, Kane pausing on Bennett’s back, neck and even his head, showcasing the strength of both dancers. Crawling and creeping about the stage, the dancers sometimes appear bestial or inhuman and their heavy breathing (that somehow trumps an ambitious accompaniment boasting John Williams and Yo-Yo Ma) seals off a strange and athletic choreography. High expectations for Ffin 2’s The Art of Riot quickly dwindles as the small group of five performers present their take on the London Riots. Anger towards authorities is depicted too simply through punching gestures and aggressive facial expressions. Subtle moments attempt to rescue the piece; a tense exchange sees Matthew Sandford slowly bring a hand over Russell Fine’s face, capturing the influence the rioters had over each other. Perhaps tackling a theme too large for a small company to embody, this was not quite the success that I’d hoped for. Natalia Okeke It’s a moment from David Lean’s Brief Encounter: a man and woman miss their train but furtively find love while waiting on a cold, desolate platform. A stylish clock, again the kind you see in American vintage movies, is suspended above two chairs on which Hannily Bendell and Thomas Pickard enact the beginning of their fleeting relationship. Gestural movement, tightly crafted, gives way to exuberant travelling steps in which her brittleness is the perfect antithesis to his grounded fluidity. Pickard has a remarkable physical pathos which pulls us right into their intense but short-lived romance. Parting as hastily as they met, their touching story lingers on, unresolved. A door separates dancers Eithne Kane and Dominick Mitchell Bennett. This literal and symbolic partition fuels the tension of the pair’s troubled relationship. They want to be together but when they are, hammer each other like Punch and Judy. Daring, jaw-dropping athletics carried out in a slap-stick style both on the door and on each other’s bodies convey their artistry. Kane in particular is an intrepid performer, flinging herself sometimes brutally at her partner in a relentless, needy cycle of dependence. While punishing to witness this duo, I can’t help but
open in browser PRO version
Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API
pdfcrowd.com
dependence. While punishing to witness this duo, I can’t help but admire their stamina. What is riveting about The Art of Riot is the continuous, tense exchange of glances amongst the six performers. This communicates the mood of the piece more effectively than some of the literal actions such as jeering at the police, grabbing loot or mugging a passer-by: anger, confusion, vulnerability. An nervy sound score compliments the shifting unease portrayed by Ffin 2 as they search for the ‘art’ within rioting. Expansively articulated leg extensions and stretches separate the responsible citizen from the introverted, shuffling of the lost hoodie, but Ffin 2 work superbly as a team and capture a hollow sense of shared responsibility – post-riot. Powerful lasting impressions make up for some naïve choreography. Josephine Leask
What did you think? Tell us your thoughts on the Resolution! Review tab on our Facebook page. The Place 17 Duk e 's R oad London W C 1H 9PY Tick e ts: +44 (0)20 7121 1100 Adm in: +44 (0)20 7121 1000 R e g. charity no 250216
Supported by:
open in browser PRO version
Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API
Inde x C re dits: He lp Site by: Privacy Policy Tincan Acce ssbility De signe d by: Te rm s & C onditions Draught
pdfcrowd.com
Login/Register Find Us
About The Place
Channels
Blog
Supporting The Place
RSS
Share: Blog
What's on
< M
About the theatre
January T
>
W
T
F
S
S
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
In This Section Resolution! Review 2013 Resolution! Review 2012 Resolution! Review 2012
open in browser PRO version
Resolution! Review 2013
Interact
Book Tickets
Tiffany Gibson & Virginia Munday, Maybe We Should Dirty Feet Dance Company, Out of Nowhere Needlefoot Dance Theatre Company, She Knocked Three Times From playful innocence to failed experiment, the evening progressed. Considering the works in reverse order, the programme came to a misguided conclusion with Needlefoot Dance Theatre Company’s sloppily abbreviated and depressingly limp version of the revolutionary classic Marat/Sade. No Sadistic grit here. Just worn out tropes of PoMo pastiche; projections, a microphone, a silly genre swapping Vegas-style number. In the original groundbreaking productions, a chorus of pestilent inmates tracked with self-inflicted scratches, represented the damned of humanity; here student types awkwardly executed clichéd, limón-esque dance class exercises in grey asylum-chic tunics.
Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API
pdfcrowd.com
Resolution! Review 2012 Resolution! Review 2011 Resolution! Review 2010 Archive My Tickets My Basket My Account Checkout
The five sexy show-offs in Dirty Feet Dance Company (although they wore socks) took centre slot, spewing an affray of twitches and pikes, pivoting plough poses and weight exchanging mutual flip-flops, to a sizzling, buzzing and post-apocalyptically thudding score. But it wasn’t just b-boying fusion. There was some sort of narrative here too. Although I couldn’t work out whether the checked-shirt-and-chinos boys and street gear girls were supposed to be grunge superheroes, tortured with electrodes in the basement of an evil genius or the cast of a 90s educational infomercial about teenage relationship abuse. But despite the anti-story eventually getting boring and the adolescent posturing notwithstanding, this was the most wholly realised work of the night. To begin was a prim duet between Tiffany Gibson and Virginia Munday. A rug of crumpled papers in warmly complimentary colours provided both the scenography and a gimmick, was relied on too heavily for content and used too predictably. There was sweetness in the friends’ cuddles and quarrels, but choreography-wise the piece was a collection of noncommittal pedestrian gestures and a few bursts of rushed unison phrasing, finished before we had the chance to enjoy them. This first piece ended with the girlish pair sacking up their scrap paper debris, putting away their childish things as it were, into bin bags; an apt prescription for all three of these as yet juvenile companies. Jeffrey Gordon Baker Breakdance started as an exuberant dance form, a spontaneous expression of street movement. But the next generation of hip hop is pushing in fresh and sometimes darker directions, as compellingly witnessed in Out Of Nowhere, choreographed by Rebecca Williams and Daniel ‘Didge’ Ovel, with input from the rest of Dirty Feet Dance Company. This was the flip side of breakdance, coiled springs of emotion tightly wound around five dancers immersed in internal struggles which erupted in electric shocks of movement. A world away from the feelgood tricks of TV talent show breakdance, Out Of Nowhere had a dramatic undertow and sense of urgency which gave it a raw edge, unsettling emotions given a visceral edge - this is a company to look out for.
open in browser PRO version
Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API
pdfcrowd.com
At the other end of the emotional spectrum, Tiffany Gibson and Virginia Munday brought a light comic touch to Maybe We Should, a duet which dabbled its feet in a field of immaculately scrunched-up coloured paper, a setting which somehow suggested the wildflower meadows of an idyllic childhood. Gibson and Munday were perfectly in sync as they roamed around the edges of memory, only splitting when their recollections diverged. A sharper sense of story - and a splash of music would have helped, but Maybe We Should had a low-key charm. It’s quite hard to make a work about the Marquis de Sade that’s stripped of all eroticism, but Needlefoot Dance Theatre pulled it off in She Knocked Three Times, an undercooked mini dance-drama that looked the business - Gerred Blyth’s set and projections were first class - but came nowhere close to capturing the celebrated psychotic milieu of de Sade, the unhinged Charlotte Corday and the unfortunate Dr Marat. Only song and dance number Bloodhouse Blues approached the oomph levels needed to pull off this nutjob thriller - sadly the acting fell way short. Keith Watson What did you think? Tell us your thoughts on the Resolution! Review tab on our Facebook page. The Place 17 Duk e 's R oad London W C 1H 9PY Tick e ts: +44 (0)20 7121 1100 Adm in: +44 (0)20 7121 1000 R e g. charity no 250216
Supported by:
open in browser PRO version
Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API
Inde x C re dits: He lp Site by: Privacy Policy Tincan Acce ssbility De signe d by: Te rm s & C onditions Draught
pdfcrowd.com
Login/Register Find Us
About The Place
Channels
Blog
Supporting The Place
RSS
Share: Blog
What's on
< M
About the theatre
January T
>
W
T
F
S
S
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
In This Section Resolution! Review 2013 Resolution! Review 2012 Resolution! Review 2012 Resolution! Review 2011
open in browser PRO version
Resolution! Review 2013
Interact
Book Tickets
Jacob Hobbs, Project 51 Jessie Brett, Woolgatherer Kip Johnson, Birthday Billed as an homage to science fiction film, Project 51 riffs on several stereotypes of the genre (the berserk cyborg figure, the slow motion battle/victory scene), with sharp, syncopated movement and silver swimming caps. Light-hearted overall, the piece had its moments, particularly in the accomplished handling of the aforementioned slow motion scene and the remarkable plasticity of the performers’ facial expressions. Ultimately, though, it failed to engage me, with predictable choreography and a flat narrative. From futuristic robot homicide to the bucolic calm of a park scene, Jessie Brett’s Woolgatherer opens with a woman seated on a bench performing a succinct distillation of the gestures that frame discomfited waiting. This seems to be Brett’s strong point - communicating an element of the
Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API
pdfcrowd.com
Resolution! Review 2010 Archive My Tickets My Basket My Account Checkout
everyday with a single, boiled-down gesture. A ‘down the rabbit hole’ section (signaled by an abrupt pencil roll across the floor) would be an anthem to disinhibition (the dancer removes several pairs of knickers), but for the puppet-on-a-string quality of the movements undermining any sense of freedom. The final section of the piece felt oddly redundant; Woolgatherer surprises and compels, with an intriguing and potentially rich premise, but loses momentum at moments. And so to the end of the night, where there’s always one lousy drunk at the party who ruins it for everyone. A study in self-destruction, Kip Johnson’s Birthday sees a plasticine-headed monster debasing himself at a club whilst embarrassed friends look on. Kip uses his top-heavy, multi-coloured cranium (a prop that works well as a symbol of a drugaddled brain) to good advantage, punctuating his floor sequences with many, pendulum-like tumbles. A strenuous-looking duet with Eleonor Sikorski concludes with the removal of the headgear; divested of his figurative narcotic armour, the dancer seems suddenly pathetic rather than destructive. The end sequence, in which Kip worms his way, spotlit, across the floor, was the most affecting part of the performance, concluding the top contribution of the night. Rachel Donnelly Tonight’s bill was almost a textbook example of what Resolution! does best: provide a platform for diversely talented young choreographers to test out ideas while, ideally, engaging us in the process. Jacob Hobbs’s consistently amusing Project 51 was first out of the gate. Fashioned in lovingly tongue-in-cheek tribute to a host of chest-beating Hollywood sci-fi adventures, it cast Elisabeth Connor, Anna Kaszuba and Lucy Starkey as Sigourney-esque space warriors caught in potentially deadly battle with an unseen (by us) monster. But beware of shortcircuiting androids… Fuelled by a kick-arse score (by David Ibbett) fusing quasi-big screen bombast and club grooves, the grimacing threesome threw themselves into a series of stealthy, bellicose and OTT slow-mo macho moves that yielded wittily knowing juvenile pleasure. In Woolgatherer, Jessie Brett played a young woman waiting on a public park bench for an assignation that never happens. And so she dreams… Brett effectively juxtaposed choreographed gestures and props (mainly her own casually retro-stylish costume) with some pretty full-out motion (slides, lunges, lush backbends). Although hardly careless, she didn’t
open in browser PRO version
Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API
pdfcrowd.com
(slides, lunges, lush backbends). Although hardly careless, she didn’t always invest quite enough in the movement to make every moment count. Nevertheless this deft little character vignette showed that Brett has presence, facility and flair. The evening’s bravest, rawest work was Kip Johnson’s Birthday. Head encased in a gouged-out, rainbow-hued blob of material, like some modern-day version of the Elephant Man, this slithering beanpole of a dancer was the writhing centrepiece of what could’ve been viewed as one of the saddest parties imaginable. In attendance were six mainly inert, vaguely hostile witnesses plus a strangely slick DJ (Matt Winston) whose ironically joyless exhortations to have a good time only helped perpetuate an atmosphere of grim unease. Dealing with various psychoemotional states – shame, pain, isolation – that many budding dancemakers might shy away from, Johnson’s simultaneously exposing yet enigmatic study of (post-adolescent male) masochism courted ambiguity while seeming to offer (physicalised) tough love as a partial solution at best. Bleak? You bet. Dramatically naïve? Maybe. But, however bluntly or inarticulately expressed, there was definitely something going on here. Donald Hutera What did you think? Tell us your thoughts on the Resolution! Review tab on our Facebook page. The Place 17 Duk e 's R oad London W C 1H 9PY Tick e ts: +44 (0)20 7121 1100 Adm in: +44 (0)20 7121 1000 R e g. charity no 250216
Supported by:
open in browser PRO version
Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API
Inde x C re dits: He lp Site by: Privacy Policy Tincan Acce ssbility De signe d by: Te rm s & C onditions Draught
pdfcrowd.com
Login/Register Find Us
About The Place
Channels
Blog
Supporting The Place
RSS
Share: Blog
What's on
< M
About the theatre
January T
>
W
T
F
S
S
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
In This Section Resolution! Review 2013 Resolution! Review 2012 Resolution! Review 2012 Resolution! Review 2011
open in browser PRO version
Resolution! Review 2013
Interact
Book Tickets
Joss Arnott Dance, 24 Jemma Bicknell, Please Not Mine Thom Rackett Company, You Just Live For an ode to one of Britain’s fashion icons, Alexander McQueen, Joss Arnott’s 24 is unimaginatively costumed. The ensemble of six female dancers clad in beige vest tops and shorts impress with their articulate undulations and balletic hyperextension. Their explosive attack of the material is commendable, though I feared for their knees each time they fell to the floor. Marrying the extremes of his dancers’ bodily range of movement with the extreme volume of James Keane’s rhythmic soundtrack, one cannot help but think of Arnott as the dance equivalent of Wayne McGregor and Hofesh Shechter’s lovechild. News reports, each more alarming than the last, tragically punctuated London last summer. Please Not Mine is the heartfelt cry of a woman
Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API
pdfcrowd.com
Resolution! Review 2011 Resolution! Review 2010 Archive My Tickets My Basket My Account Checkout
witnessing the utter bedlam in the capital city, valiantly maintaining a shred of hope amidst her intensifying fear. The lithe Katie Armstrong is adept at portraying the weighty severity of her role, her every movement charged with deep melancholy. Her fears are realized as the man she has been waiting for comes through the door. He is a picture of remorse, having fallen prey to the herd mentality of the rioters. Their ensuing duet encompasses a plethora of emotion, ranging from disbelief to forgiveness, culminating in a compelling embrace. Sam Way’s memorable monologue is the nucleus of Thom Rackett’s You Just Live. A young man is caught in a world where the herd mentality once again prevails. Three uninhibited dancers shimmy and shake to the melodious strains of Joan Sutherland’s Casta Diva. They gradually close in on him, forming imposing silhouettes against his seemingly diminutive frame and in turn, his diminishing individuality. The protagonist eventually manages to overcome this pressure to assert his unique identity. Undeterred in his thoughtful recitation of Way’s text despite having newspapers and flowers stuffed in his shirt and placed atop his head, he repeatedly poses the question: How do we best live? Well, we simply just. Germaine Cheng Jemma Bicknell’s Please Not Mine falls between two stools. On the one hand, she tries to tell a story: a man leaves a woman alone in a spotlight, where she does lots of dancerly emoting (expansive reaches, coiled contractions and suchlike), while he goes off with a group of others before returning, rather remorsefully. On the other, she seems more interested in group composition than plot or character: there’s a simple but highly arresting walking section (over far too quickly), and some well crafted ensemble work. Wet blankets of morose indie music contribute to the sense of a creative spark that hasn’t caught hold. Thom Rackett’s You Just Live has plenty of spark. Forget the superfluous opening scene – a standard contemporary-dance stand-off between a couple – and boggle a bit at the rest. One man keeps posing the question “how do we best live?”, and muses that the answer may be “by just living”. While philosophising, he gets drawn into a sort of fencing-match, with a table stand and top for a foil and shield. Then he becomes a magnet for a backing trio who, no matter how he lays them down still, keep bubbling back to life and returning to shimmy behind
open in browser PRO version
Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API
pdfcrowd.com
down still, keep bubbling back to life and returning to shimmy behind him, as if fulfilling their life’s purpose. With apple-eating, newspaperstuffing and blasts of operatic arias, it’s pretty discombobulating, but you feel that you have just lived a little. Joss Arnott’s 24, apparently inspired by the work of Alexander McQueen, features six Amazonian woman with fearsome technique and a whole lot of angst. It switches between tortuously convoluted solos – writhe, rail, writhe, rail – and a kind of militarised anguish (more writhing, now in strict formation). The piece went down a storm, but I found it all effect and no substance. It also gave me a sense of déjà vu. Afterwards, I found that I had written about another Arnott piece in Resolution 2011, and uncannily, that review applies almost verbatim to this year’s 24. Sanjoy Roy What did you think? Tell us your thoughts on the Resolution! Review tab on our Facebook page. The Place 17 Duk e 's R oad London W C 1H 9PY Tick e ts: +44 (0)20 7121 1100 Adm in: +44 (0)20 7121 1000 R e g. charity no 250216
Supported by:
open in browser PRO version
Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API
Inde x C re dits: He lp Site by: Privacy Policy Tincan Acce ssbility De signe d by: Te rm s & C onditions Draught
pdfcrowd.com
Login/Register Find Us
About The Place
Channels
Blog
Supporting The Place
RSS
Share: Blog
What's on
< M
About the theatre
January T
>
W
T
F
S
S
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
In This Section Resolution! Review 2013 Resolution! Review 2012 Resolution! Review 2012 Resolution! Review 2011
open in browser PRO version
Resolution! Review 2013
Interact
Book Tickets
Neshima Dance Company, Beyond Words Lindy Nsingo, Self Tourlander, Don’t Say It Was A Dream With a refreshing irony, Beyond Words clearly communicates the complexities of the inability to speak. The dancers talk; sometimes to no one, sometimes at each other, always with the intention of wanting to be heard. Words are shouted confidently, they are whispered and they always take the form of answers to questions that nobody asked. Elbows jerk and backs bend as words try to escape from bodies any way possible. Even as the lights fade, all six individuals vie to be heard through snippets of conversation, paradoxically completing Neshima’s jigsaw of a dance. Part one-woman comedy show, part spoken-autobiography, Lindy Nsingo’s Self makes an impression through its sheer honesty. Into a microphone, she speaks about embracing her quirks, leaving the word ‘crazy’ ringing on loop pedal – creating a chorus of her own voice as she dances. She jerks across the stage, her hands often gripping her head,
Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API
pdfcrowd.com
Resolution! Review 2011 Resolution! Review 2010 Archive My Tickets My Basket My Account Checkout
tormented by her loneliness. Wrapping herself in the microphone chord, she serves as the perfect metaphor for being trapped in her own thoughts as her own words continue to loop. Salsa beats, waltz steps and folk dance reminiscent of Bruce’s Ghost Dances all feature in Tourlander’s Don’t Say It Was a Dream; a condensed ‘boy meets girl’ story. A couple, bound together by a cord, literally attempt to stretch their connection to its full potential. Waves of sensuality run through a beautifully acted piece, but eventually the two lean too far and the cord snaps, severing their story and the cohesion of the choreography. What follows is the rushed final moments of the piece that see four dancers guide the heartbroken girl around the stage, literally lifting her to lift her spirits her as she looks back on the love she left behind. In these closing moments a ukulele version of Somewhere over the Rainbow plays and, although quaint, hinders the strength of the rest of the piece. Natalia Okeke Those of a superstitious disposition may have noted that the aggregate number of performers in this triple bill totalled thirteen. It may have been an unlucky sum for some although not, I’m pleased to report, for this talented trio of emerging choreographers. First up was a company returning after a successful Resolution debut in 2011, armed with the added fillip of Arts Council funding to develop a new work. Bristol-based, Neshima Dance Company (Neshima is Hebrew for ‘breath’) showcased Beyond Words, a work for six dancers and five chairs. It began with seated performers mouthing unheard monologues, as if confessing their latest lapse to a session of “addicts anonymous” before a heavy rhythmic beat seduced the group to dance with simple, repetitive movement motifs. An initial overlay of self-consciousness quickly dissipated as a sequence of solos began to articulate each personality. Neshima is an unpretentious and engaging ensemble, directed with an eye for interesting structure and diversity by Batel Magen. Lindy Nsingo brought a change of mood with a courageous, apparently auto-biographical solo – entitled Self- that required her to sing, speak, dance and mix her own sound. Intriguingly lit by The Place's Gareth Green, Nsingo’s authoritative performance commanded attention although – at 25 minutes - the work was at least a section too long.
open in browser PRO version
Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API
pdfcrowd.com
although â&#x20AC;&#x201C; at 25 minutes - the work was at least a section too long. Both of these choreographies began strongly but ended in the all-toofamiliar process of fading, even fizzling, out. Soledad de la Hoz won my imaginary prize for structural integrity with Don't Say It Was a Dream, a work that was clearly defined in the beginning, middle and end of three distinct sections delineated by very different pieces of music. Her six dancers attacked the movement with a seductive, infectious sharpness and joy. While there was nothing exceptionally brilliant or innovative in this programme, it was nonetheless a consistently entertaining and satisfying evening. Graham Watts What did you think? Tell us your thoughts on the Resolution! Review tab on our Facebook page. The Place 17 Duk e 's R oad London W C 1H 9PY Tick e ts: +44 (0)20 7121 1100 Adm in: +44 (0)20 7121 1000 R e g. charity no 250216
Supported by:
open in browser PRO version
Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API
Inde x C re dits: He lp Site by: Privacy Policy Tincan Acce ssbility De signe d by: Te rm s & C onditions Draught
pdfcrowd.com
Login/Register Find Us
About The Place
Channels
Blog
Supporting The Place
RSS
Share: Blog
What's on
< M
About the theatre
January T
>
W
T
F
S
S
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
In This Section Resolution! Review 2013 Resolution! Review 2012 Resolution! Review 2012 Resolution! Review 2011
open in browser PRO version
Resolution! Review 2013
Interact
Book Tickets
Black Gecko Dance, We Have Won Saad, Think_outside Jindeok Park with thisnowthis, A Downpour A generally inscrutable offering for the ninth evening of Resolution! The most transparent piece of the night, We Have Won, was propelled by an impressive, percussion-driven live soundtrack, and opened with four dancers circling a pool of light. Engaging in a competitive display of solos, each scrabbled for dominance with defiant undulations and strong extensions. As the movement became increasingly frenzied, dramatic lunges and daring duets built to an en masse rush for the front of the stage that resulted in a pile of tangled bodies. This was a deft and solid piece, with some strong choreography from Georgie Hay and Grace Sellwood, although the central concept lacked complexity. In contrast, Think Outside was an enigma. A host of intriguing elements
Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API
pdfcrowd.com
Resolution! Review 2011 Resolution! Review 2010 Archive My Tickets My Basket My Account Checkout
framed a not-quite-graspable idea: a mesmerizingly simple, and compressed, opening floor sequence by choreographer Marc Saad; a recurring motif of a forehead-to-floor movement, implying religious supplication, reinforced by eerie music from Ayshay, with strains of the Islamic call to prayer; a chilling scene featuring dancer Joe Wild kneeling in a spotlight, back to the audience, seemingly waiting for a judgment to be meted out; a violent duet in which Wild, passive, is dragged across the stage by Saad, concluding with both dancers seated side by side in discord. Something about unthinking acquiescence versus independent thought? Perplexing, but nonetheless affecting. A downpour was the most flummoxing contribution of the evening and aptly named for its bombardment of input that confused rather than resolved. A woman rifling through old papers comes across something forgotten that makes her stop short, pre-empting a tumultuous monologue that scores two complementary solos. The aim seemed to be to mirror the complexity (chaos) of thought through movement, and it’s interesting that the dancers are immobile during a reading of the ‘factual’ account of a memory. However, despite a strong ending, the connection between the words and the choreography is not always apparent and the overall effect was one of distraction. Rachel Donnelly Black Gecko Dance have drawn on the myth of Pheidippides, the original marathon runner, to make We Have Won, a tale of pushing the limits that feels like a gang of alpha females in a race for supremacy. First they prowl in the spotlight, eyes blazing with challenge, before letting loose with big swoops of limbs and dramatic falls, while live musicians provide the thump and riff to back them up. The problem is there's just not enough raw power in the performances to propel this to the next level. Although they work hard, the dancers are lacking the explosive energy that would make this piece convincing – it needs a bit more punch. More like a playground scrap than an all-out battle. Marc Saad's Think_Outside follows a similar crescendo, in this case from movement that's understated and inward – long peels of the arms, body folding into the floor – to expansive leaping and reeling. But while Saad's sweat is flying, Joe Wild kneels quietly in the centre, a recurrent image that suggests prayer or meditation, stillness against the noise. Perhaps the idea of a mind/body, conscious/subconscious duality is at play here, which is intriguing. It's not a bad piece, but neither does it
open in browser PRO version
Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API
pdfcrowd.com
play here, which is intriguing. It's not a bad piece, but neither does it quite soar. Jindeok Park's A Downpour raises some interesting questions about composition. Three people doing stuff simultaneously on stage does not a composition make, and that's what we're initially faced with: actor Grainne Keenan reading a jumbled text while Park and the striking Martha Pasakopoulou move in a disjointed, improvisatory fashion behind her. So far, so 'experimental'. But when the text finally coalesces into something narrative, and we realise we've been listening to mixed up fragments of a sane story all along, we have to ask: did we miss the method in the movement too? An answer isn't readily forthcoming. Lyndsey Winship What did you think? Tell us your thoughts on the Resolution! Review tab on our Facebook page. The Place 17 Duk e 's R oad London W C 1H 9PY Tick e ts: +44 (0)20 7121 1100 Adm in: +44 (0)20 7121 1000 R e g. charity no 250216
Supported by:
open in browser PRO version
Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API
Inde x C re dits: He lp Site by: Privacy Policy Tincan Acce ssbility De signe d by: Te rm s & C onditions Draught
pdfcrowd.com
Login/Register Find Us
About The Place
Channels
Blog
Supporting The Place
RSS
Share: Blog
What's on
< M
About the theatre
January T
>
W
T
F
S
S
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
In This Section Resolution! Review 2013 Resolution! Review 2012 Resolution! Review 2012
open in browser PRO version
Resolution! Review 2013
Interact
Book Tickets
Giorgio de Carolis & Elena Zaino, Bunga Bunga Non Applicable Dance Collective, Bi-Winning Matthew Huy, After Happily Ever After There was something to be glad about in all three of this evening’s offerings, despite some missed opportunities and ideas left to founder amid the distracting strain of efforts on the part of the companies to deliver some fragment of narrative at the expense of disciplining their talents as dancers. For example: Giorgio de Carolis and Elena Zaino’s Bunga Bunga gets an automatic two points out of ten for an early sequence in which Ms Zaino applied strips of prosciutto to her face, whilst Mr de Carolis wanked and shot at the audience with an inflatable phallus. Now that’s really all the story you need, isn’t it? Time to start dancing! And both were clearly
Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API
pdfcrowd.com
Resolution! Review 2012 Resolution! Review 2011 Resolution! Review 2010 Archive My Tickets My Basket My Account Checkout
capable movers, but a technical glitch completely stalled the pair, despite several audience members gamely entreating them to ‘just keep dancing!’ Advice they sadly didn’t heed. Matthew Huy’s After Happily Ever After was also a duet, this time wracked with angst-ridden flops and sighs, which seemed to be inspired by marital arguments brought on by Mr Huy’s propensity for stealing the covers in bed and glaring ominously at his spouse. The romance was heartfelt, however, and Mr Huy and partner Emma Louise Walker were pleasantly exhilarated by their own rushing leaps and Time-of-My-Life lifts even if the choreography felt a bit trite and dated, at times awkwardly executed. The most uplifting overall was Non Applicable Dance Collective’s feelgood romp Bi-Winning. What the piece lacked in cohesion and thematic consistency – the self-help voiceover text at the start was cloyingly ironic and a rough-and-tumble play section felt out of place and too long – it made up for in smiles, brought on by the fun that was clearly being had by these four sweetly geeky women. Po-faced, grinning, long-hair flying; Sian Myers, Fenella Ryan, Beth Mcguines and Orley Quick threw themselves bodily into juicy phrases, variously out-of-step and intricate, sloppily plucky and full of unashamed joy. Jeffrey Gordon Baker There are really such things as happy accidents. A technical hitch involving a musical breakdown during Bunga Bunga, an oddly titled portrait of a fractured romance by Giorgio de Carolis & Elena Zaino brought us closer to this engaging pair of performers than any of their artfully constructed scenes. Forced to improvise and open up, suddenly their dance came alive. Up to that point we’d had a neat if clichéd picture of repressed desire, him leering at naked male pin-ups on one side of the stage, she chomping on a salami sandwich on the other. He also got to play with a giant blow-up phallus, always good for a cheap snigger. But the musical @#!*% -up turned it from empty symbolism to real human territory. Was the breakdown for real or was it part of the show? Either way, they should keep it in. Non Applicable Dance Collective’s Bi-Winning started brightly, the four performers miming gestures to the verbal beat of a motivational
open in browser PRO version
Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API
pdfcrowd.com
performers miming gestures to the verbal beat of a motivational speaker. But as this satirical take on how we try make ourselves into what we want to be gathered physical speed, it ran out of ideas. Ironic use of pop songs can fall horribly flat if the irony isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t underpinned, and here hauling out Walk Like A Man by The Four Seasons felt more like a cheap attempt at crowd-pleasing than any comment at what had gone before. There was some nice sub-classical phrasing in Matthew Huyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s After Happily Ever After and he and Emma Louise Walker made a well-matched duo, capable of lyrical interplay and appealing chemistry. But this was a piece that was less than the sum of its parts, where nothing truly hung together. From the disparate music choices to dance that shifted gear without an emotional core, this was pretty dancing but little more. Keith Watson The Place 17 Duk e 's R oad London W C 1H 9PY Tick e ts: +44 (0)20 7121 1100 Adm in: +44 (0)20 7121 1000 R e g. charity no 250216
Supported by:
open in browser PRO version
Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API
Inde x C re dits: He lp Site by: Privacy Policy Tincan Acce ssbility De signe d by: Te rm s & C onditions Draught
pdfcrowd.com
Login/Register Find Us
About The Place
Channels
Blog
Supporting The Place
RSS
Share: Blog
What's on
< M
About the theatre
January T
>
W
T
F
S
S
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
In This Section Resolution! Review 2013 Resolution! Review 2012 Resolution! Review 2012 Resolution! Review 2011
open in browser PRO version
Resolution! Review 2013
Interact
Book Tickets
Nina Kov, Divide By Zero Interdigitate, Instrument of Touch Mariana Lucia Marquez, Untitled Nina Kov’s Divide by Zero pitched Catarina Carvalho against some nifty interactive projections by Hellicar & Lewis, visual representations of the dancer’s unconscious as she performs. Carvalho’s gloopy shadow moved with and above her like a tortoise’s shell, a nightmarish abstraction of her articulate writhing. Initially reminiscent of Martha Graham’s Lamentation, the projection transformed into a giant flashing cursor highlighting and deleting what we saw of the live body, then into a galaxy of lines and asterisks. Ultimately though, the virtual element was far more interesting than the live, the movement never quite living up to the hypnotic visuals. Tightening the connection between the projections and the body might solve this, as there were moments where Carvalho looked to be waiting for a light cue which lessened the overall impact. Another minor quibble was our unavoidable proximity to the performance space, a touch more distance from the spectacle and it would have been even more effective.
Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API
pdfcrowd.com
Resolution! Review 2011 Resolution! Review 2010 Archive My Tickets My Basket My Account Checkout
Interdigitate gave us a well-rehearsed but faintly amateur piece, danced with an almost confrontational enthusiasm by the cast. The piece riffed on hands and their gesturing, with a structure that felt jam-packed with every bit of motif development from the creation stage. In the end I felt rather battered by the endless permutations of those familiar love/hate contact duets that alternate between wrestling and caressing. Sequences of gestures - flicked V's and other obscene hand gestures – were performed with ‘provocative’ relish, the only problem being that they weren’t especially provocative. Each audience member received an envelope prior to Mariana Lucia Marquez’s Untitled, containing a chatty letter that outlined the aims and context of the work. The innate failure of performance, and the notion that choreography only works when it doesn’t, are the issues Marquez is concerned with. The choreographer herself was a presence throughout; setting up the space, instructing and cueing performers and crew from a holding area on stage. A catwalk marked out in gaffer tape was removed at intervals to allow entrances and exits for the three performers; a trio of identikit beauties with sharp hair, sad eyes and sexy slip dresses. They stalked and posed, repetition augmenting as ‘random arms’ turns and reversals were completed with stately poise and the odd human wobble. It all combined nicely; the performers’ pleasingly casual manner of completing the tasks given, the choreographer’s informal and visible direction, and the audience’s inclusion in the process of the live performance. Misa Brzezicki Due to unforseen circumstances, our professional critic was unable to attend this evening's performance. The Place 17 Duk e 's R oad London W C 1H 9PY Tick e ts: +44 (0)20 7121 1100 Adm in: +44 (0)20 7121 1000 R e g. charity no 250216
Supported by:
open in browser PRO version
Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API
Inde x C re dits: He lp Site by: Privacy Policy Tincan Acce ssbility De signe d by: Te rm s & C onditions Draught
pdfcrowd.com
Login/Register Find Us
About The Place
Channels
Blog
Supporting The Place
RSS
Share: Blog
What's on
< M
About the theatre
January T
>
W
T
F
S
S
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
In This Section Resolution! Review 2013 Resolution! Review 2012 Resolution! Review 2012 Resolution! Review 2011
open in browser PRO version
Resolution! Review 2013
Interact
Book Tickets
Gwyn Emberton Dance, The Seamless Art of Being Lila Dance, A Readiness Victor Fung Dance, Positively Phototactic In a haze of light a muscular male frame commands the space. Limbs slice the air, as if pressing a knife through cold butter, his tensile body articulating each in turn. This is the opening to Gwyn Emberton’s duet The Seamless Act of Being. Accompanied onstage by Johanna Devi, as the duo first meet they briefly catch each other’s eye and his hands shift to her hips. They appear to know one another, yet their bodies only make peripheral contact. There is neither the tension of first meeting nor the comfort of long-term love. Their bodies seem almost neutral and when they divide at the end we’re still left unsure about who they are. A school bell rings and two dancers (Abi Mortimer and Carrie Whitaker) dash towards us before collapsing to the floor. Deep rumbles and the
Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API
pdfcrowd.com
Resolution! Review 2011 Resolution! Review 2010 Archive My Tickets My Basket My Account
dim glow from standing lamps provide tension and uncertainty in Lîla Dance’s A Readiness. Small sounds make them jump. Like startled children exploring a new world they dash about hand in hand. As the work progresses, these children seem to turn into adolescents, their bodies folding over one another, held in each other’s arms. Yet, as the piece moves on again these adolescent identities also disappear and the pair are now just bodies dancing. Agile, rippling, weaving bodies, but nonetheless just bodies moving, never stopping and here we are left, once again, with confusion and uncertainty.
Checkout Battling to reach out and clambering on hands and knees, Victor Fung Dance’s Positively Phototactic, creates an image of amoebae searching out the sunlight to power their existence. The six female dancers seem to be fuelled by the heavy beat of the score, striking out their limbs and bubbling up and down in a pool of light. But, while a few strong images such as these hold the work together, Fung’s fledgling cast grapple with a work that feels as if it’s still searching for its unique selling point. Lucy Jarvis Experienced dancers were among the more notable aspects of a variously ambitious evening that perhaps posed a few too many unresolved questions. Consider Gwyn Emberton’s creditable duet The Seamless Art of Being, loosely based on Arthur Schnitzler’s fin de siècle play La Ronde. Emberton’s opening solo boasted a fine-etched, muscular clarity that made every shape he morphed through count. The rest was less seamless, including Emberton’s relationship with Johanna Devi (clad, like him, in Aurelien Farjon’s artfully formal yet dancer-friendly garb). Was there meant to be something more going on between them than pure movement? The pair’s kinetic connection, although meatily constructed, remained un-tantalisingly under-defined. Distracting, too, was the use of artily obscure black and white film footage plus a score (by SWOD) that shifted from ambient percussion to aural fragmentation to heavy beats. In A Readiness co-creators Abi Mortimer (compact, alert and sporadically slightly seductive) and Carrie Whitaker (taller, often floor-bound and sometimes seemingly spooked) demonstrated how adeptly attuned they are to each other. Described as ‘a game of nerve’ played out on a stage bare save for some free-standing lamps, this would-be visceral duet raised more ambiguities than it knew how to help me to fathom.
open in browser PRO version
Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API
pdfcrowd.com
raised more ambiguities than it knew how to help me to fathom. Succumbing to its own ‘rabbit caught in headlights’ uncertainties, this production for Lila Dance left me scratching my head. Victor Fung’s Positively Phototactic proved both unintentionally hilarious and ultimately unexpectedly winning in its attempts to align biology and girl power. To throbbing bass and echoing pulsations six nubile, gung-ho young females simulated light-seeking organisms, a cue for occasionally sloppy canonic lunges, stealthy belly crawls, tendril-like arm-waves and much intent gazing into the void. It was when they started writhing like aspirant snakes that I finally surrendered to Fung’s unwittingly nutty, physicalised science lesson. Thereafter I had in mind nothing so much as that cherishably, unabashedly trashy mid-90s film Showgirls. And that’s not necessarily a put-down. Donald Hutera The Place 17 Duk e 's R oad London W C 1H 9PY Tick e ts: +44 (0)20 7121 1100 Adm in: +44 (0)20 7121 1000 R e g. charity no 250216
Supported by:
open in browser PRO version
Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API
Inde x C re dits: He lp Site by: Privacy Policy Tincan Acce ssbility De signe d by: Te rm s & C onditions Draught
pdfcrowd.com
Login/Register Find Us
About The Place
Channels
Blog
Supporting The Place
RSS
Share: Blog
What's on
< M
About the theatre
January T
>
W
T
F
S
S
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
Resolution! Review 2013
Interact
Book Tickets
Raquel Claudino, The Dead Can Dance Subtle Kraft Co, Cravings of Intimacy & Solitude Rosie Whitney-Fish & Company, The Femme Fatales
One Resolution! lesson Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve learned so far: fifteen - twenty minutes is too long sometimes, even for good ideas.
In This Section Resolution! Review 2013 Resolution! Review 2012 Resolution! Review 2012 Resolution! Review 2011
open in browser PRO version
Raquel Claudinoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s The Dead Can Dance had enticingly macabre overtones, opening with the two dancers clawing at their faces, arms writhing around and threatening to wring their own necks. The twitches, gaping-mouth gasps and chilling head shivers executed by Anne-Maarit Kinnunen and Ana Vilar, both in unison and tandem, effectively conjured the gothic subject matter of living bodies possessed. But there were lengthy aimless sections that came off like Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API
pdfcrowd.com
Resolution! Review 2011 Resolution! Review 2010 Archive My Tickets My Basket My Account Checkout
awkward improvisations and at times some of the moves started to look goofily reminiscent of the jazzy zombies in Michael Jackson’s Thriller video. Subtle Kraft Co.’s Cravings of Intimacy & Solitude was similarly diluted by stretches of material that seemed to be perpetually unfolding, but never arriving at much more than languid arm stretching and wistful facial expressions. This work did have graceful gentility about it, however, and while overly sentimental in places, it was also genuinely moving in others. In a piece about being alone…together – a conundrum we all face sooner or later – Kimberly Harvey and Anna Bergström conversed intimately with interconnecting fingertips, literally carrying each other, exploring the movement inherent in each of their differently-abled bodies through imitation and mutual physical dependence. Energetically dancing the evening off on a cheerful tangent, The Femme Fatales by Rosie Whitley-Fish and Company was jam-packed with overlapping solos and group work undertaken by a curious collection of hybrid Fellini-Goddard-Almodovar-Bergman type ladies and a stoic chorus of deadpan every-divas. It was a confusing and messy referential mish-mash of fragments, performed with a fair amount of skill and good natured humour, wisely taking infectious pleasure in its own silliness. A video in the middle was simple but sophisticated in its cinematography, a terrific short dance film actually, that could stand on its own. But the ending was jarringly abrupt and denying the cheering crowd a curtain call felt needlessly pretentious, even rude. Jeffrey Gordon Baker The magical spark of inspiration that conjured each of these three works into being was clear to see, albeit flickering into flames of very uneven duration. The piece that sustained the longest, with easily the most complete structure, was to be found between the two intervals as Subtle Kraft Co developed an exercise in pairing an able-bodied partner with a non-ambulant dancer. It plucked heavily on strings of sentiment, aided by stirring, emotive music pitched perfectly to intensify the cravings of intimacy and solitude that the pair set out to portray. It didn't need to garnish the sentimentality since the piece grew out of a natural empathy and connection between the performers. Captured in every touch and look, they suggested a bond that was both comfortable and powerful. It was slushy, and it slipped into an occasional lapse of momentum, but it stayed on the right side of being real.
open in browser PRO version
Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API
pdfcrowd.com
momentum, but it stayed on the right side of being real. Raquel Claudino's The Dead Can Dance started strongly through invoking imagery of terpsichorean zombies (or at least some very sick people). Both dancers cradled their arms around their heads plucking and pulling at their own faces with dementia spreading to afflict their balance, forcing twisted, grotesque and uncontrolled movement. But these excellent first few minutes faded as the choreography veered back and forth from controlled duet (with one dancer always slightly behind the other's movement) to frenetic uncoordinated actions. Rosie Whitney-Fish & Co's The Femme Fatales sounded more promising on paper than it achieved on stage. None of the characterisations of the four central women whispered even the vaguest hint of seduction, which seemed to undermine the concept. An incongruous film interlude of a girl running free within a ruined building to the scratchy recording of Mexican music, while pleasant, appeared as a random piece of unnecessary padding. The deconstructive idea that performers had rehearsed their roles independently before meeting was potentially exciting but it remained a spark that failed to ignite. Graham Watts The Place 17 Duk e 's R oad London W C 1H 9PY Tick e ts: +44 (0)20 7121 1100 Adm in: +44 (0)20 7121 1000 R e g. charity no 250216
Supported by:
open in browser PRO version
Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API
Inde x C re dits: He lp Site by: Privacy Policy Tincan Acce ssbility De signe d by: Te rm s & C onditions Draught
pdfcrowd.com
Login/Register Find Us
About The Place
Channels
Blog
Supporting The Place
RSS
Share: Blog
What's on
< M
About the theatre
January T
>
W
T
F
S
S
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
In This Section Resolution! Review 2013 Resolution! Review 2012 Resolution! Review 2012
Resolution! Review 2013
Interact
Book Tickets
Nylon Theatre, Public Displays of Affection The MyNewt Project, Time Stands Still When I Think Of You Yukiko Masui, Interval Subtle glances, smiles and stares ignite a playful sequence of movement in Nylon Theatre’s Public Displays of Affection. One dancer isolated, she looks on as two others unravel a ‘boy meets girl’ scene opposite her. She imitates hand holding and embraces, fumbling desperately about the space trying to hold on to something that just isn’t there. Ideas of solitude are evident so the interjection of speech as the dancers ask about loneliness seems unnecessary. The absence of the fourth billed dancer to this work may explain how at times the work fails to rise to expectation; possessing all the ingredients for a great short piece, the elements just don’t quite sit together in the end.
Resolution! Review 2011
open in browser PRO version
Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API
pdfcrowd.com
Resolution! Review 2011 Resolution! Review 2010 Archive My Tickets My Basket My Account Checkout
Circles and squares of light create bases for five solo choreographies in Time Stands Still When I Think of You, a work performed together for the first time this opening night. While one dancer propels herself on Pointe, another moves gently with the qualities of a marionette doll. Others explore the circle of light surrounding them, whilst one breaks free of his entirely. The MyNewt Project ran the risk of maximum calamity, but each unique sequence falls together beautifully, completing a jigsaw of sharp, humorous and unique movement. Interval is a physical duet, showcasing the strength and grace of dancers Yukiko Masui and Joseph Darby. They shift through the space, repeating and reworking the same sequence of swinging arms and bouncing on and off of stage. Hints of capoeira filter through acrobatic rolls, giving gems of sculpture as difficult poses are held. These suspended shapes abolish any mystery surrounding the programme’s promise that the dancers can “Arrest the time” as these paused moments prove the most captivating of the night. Natalia Okeke If you’re feeling lonely, the last thing you want to witness is a petting, amorous couple standing beside you. This was the topic in Amy Watson’s piece in which the public displays of affection between a man and woman, were too much for the despairing singleton who forlornly caressed the empty space around her. Curiously her partner named in the programme had not made it onto the stage for whatever reasons; but actually the juxtaposition of her heart-felt isolation with the loved-up frolics of the others, gave the piece its raison-d’être. The five dancers in Time Stands Still When I Think Of You have such distinct styles in terms of dance and appearance that you wonder how on earth choreographer Alex Newton will connect them up together. Like wind-up toys in a shop window, activated randomly, they each take their turn in the spotlight. One woman dressed like a Mediterranean granny outpours her woes in expressionistic gesticulations; another comically ditzy woman reluctantly enters her allotted space, conquers her fears and wallows hedonistically in some collective joy. A solemn-faced ballet dancer using her impressive point-work in stabbing, fragmented linear phrases, is all vertical and rigid. Her technique becomes a weapon and she remains distant from the others even as they slowly tune into one another. Random is a word that sums up this work, but within the individual contributions there is consistency and tremendous
open in browser PRO version
Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API
pdfcrowd.com
individual contributions there is consistency and tremendous commitment. Yukiko Masui and Joseph Darby, entwined mostly, zoom like a ball of thunder around the entire stage, barely stopping for breath. Dim lighting and Aphex Twin’s threatening ambient music, make the duet’s physical intensity even more profound. The muscular flow of these dancers as they lift each other, dive into the floor or leap across it is electric. I don’t want them to stop. And they don’t, until near the end where sadly, when they slow down and separate, the momentum of Interval falls apart. Josephine Leask The Place 17 Duk e 's R oad London W C 1H 9PY Tick e ts: +44 (0)20 7121 1100 Adm in: +44 (0)20 7121 1000 R e g. charity no 250216
Supported by:
open in browser PRO version
Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API
Inde x C re dits: He lp Site by: Privacy Policy Tincan Acce ssbility De signe d by: Te rm s & C onditions Draught
pdfcrowd.com
Login/Register Find Us
About The Place
Channels
Blog
Supporting The Place
RSS
Share: Blog
What's on
< M
About the theatre
January T
>
W
T
F
S
S
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
In This Section Resolution! Review 2013 Resolution! Review 2012 Resolution! Review 2012 Resolution! Review 2011
open in browser PRO version
Resolution! Review 2013
Interact
Book Tickets
Scope Dance Theatre, Velocity Erik Nevin, From The Forest Nutshell dance, People InTransit Clad in a hip suit and red tie a young man stands observing the five female performers of Scope Dance Theatre. In high tops and dramatic makeup the women in Nefeli Tsioutiâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Velocity, jar, lock and strike their limbs, while the lone man, Daniel Brill, accompanies them with cartoon style sound effects, whizzing, whistling and wurring. Yet with the skill and individuality of Brill, it felt a shame when recorded beat-box sounds kicked in and the dancers flung themselves into a conventional street style routine. Nonetheless it was at these moments when I noticed Brill still gazing at the women and a whole other story began to unfold... With the house lights still up a tall scruffy man strolls onto stage. Shirt un-tucked he could be an intruder wandering in off the street. But, as the lights remain up and he approaches the audience he stops and takes in every face with the refreshing peace and confidence of a commanding performer. His hands gradually begin to caress imaginary
Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API
pdfcrowd.com
Resolution! Review 2011 Resolution! Review 2010 Archive My Tickets My Basket My Account Checkout
obstacles; he appears to seize a bubble mid air and scratches the belly of a giraffe high above his head. This is Erik Nevin’s From The Forest, a subtle understated performance where disjointed voices and lilting piano add to the serene atmosphere. Gradually his movements built a little, but what made this work so uplifting is the cool ease with which Nevin could do nothing but could still have me on the edge of my seat. Like walking into another world Mari Frogner’s People in Transit, transported the cold, bustling atmosphere of the train station onto The Place stage. The seven multi-age dancers of Nutshell Dance glide back and forth, and in one haunting moment they appear to be on an escalator as they slink up the stairs in one long steady line. But, while the dancers began to battle and meet in chance encounters, I was left wanting to know more about the human nature behind the slavish commuter routine. Lucy Jarvis There's so much more that goes into a performance than just the steps, and choreographer Nefeli Tsiouti has got a handle on that. Interesting lighting? Coherent look? Unusual live music? Check. In the latter case it's live beatboxing, courtesy of Daniel Brill, who joins the five-strong Scope Dance Theatre on stage in Velocity. It's the dance/music partnership that drives this piece of contemporary hip hop, but while there's some clear interaction between the two elements, the relationship's not rich enough to really spark. Nutshell Dance's People InTransit is a work based on the behaviour of commuters at Waterloo station, as a metaphor for busy London. If that sounds like it's going to be a big bag of clichés I'm glad to say it's not. The mood at the outset is almost ghostly, with shimmery abstract guitar sounds rather than car horns and chaos. The dancers' gestural tics build into almost-interactions. The bodies gather and disperse, and it feels like they're going somewhere but never arriving, always en-route. Which you might say is London life right there. That other cliché of London life is its anonymity. Nobody ever looks you in the eye. Which is why it is so startling and compelling and strangely welcoming when Erik Nevin does just that. With the lights bright he comes on stage and stares straight at us, not in intimidation or expectation, but as if to say: 'Here we are.' Nevin's solo, From The Forest, is almost a non-dance. He moves a little – a hesitant rocking this
open in browser PRO version
Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API
pdfcrowd.com
Forest, is almost a non-dance. He moves a little â&#x20AC;&#x201C; a hesitant rocking this way and that, a sweeping arm motif. He certainly isn't dancerly in his gait, but he's oddly riveting as a performer. For a few moments I'm mesmerised by the extension of his long, long arm, watching his hand stroke the air, but mainly it's just about being in each other's presence. And it's a very comfortable connection. This is one performer I'd happily watch again. Or be watched by, as the case may be. Lyndsey Winship
The Place 17 Duk e 's R oad London W C 1H 9PY Tick e ts: +44 (0)20 7121 1100 Adm in: +44 (0)20 7121 1000 R e g. charity no 250216
Supported by:
open in browser PRO version
Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API
Inde x C re dits: He lp Site by: Privacy Policy Tincan Acce ssbility De signe d by: Te rm s & C onditions Draught
pdfcrowd.com
Login/Register Find Us
About The Place
Channels
Blog
Supporting The Place
RSS
Share: Blog
What's on
< M
About the theatre
January T
>
W
T
F
S
S
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
In This Section Resolution! Review 2013 Resolution! Review 2012 Resolution! Review 2012 Resolution! Review 2011
open in browser PRO version
Resolution! Review 2013
Interact
Book Tickets
Bethan Peters, Remnants Anuska Fernandez, Amores Hitchhike Dance Collective, Figurines Thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s something oddly amusing about being asked to put in ear-plugs before a performance. A frisson of amusement tittered around The Place seats, audience interest piqued: were we about to encounter an aural assault or engage in some type of sensory deprivation experiment? Sadly, the tiny bright yellow props plunged into ears proved the high point of Figurines, a stately solo choreographed by Lola Maury and gamely performed by Aurea Romero Alvarez. From dark shadow into the light Alvarez slowly spun, Butoh-like, carving assorted shapes into the air with arm gestures. But though the programme promised an eclectic list of characters, all the choreography delivered was a windmill running on low battery. There was rather more human engagement in Amores, a charismaticallyperformed piece of dance theatre that threw two men and four women into each otherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s arms in a confusion of desire and linguistic breakdown
Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API
pdfcrowd.com
Resolution! Review 2011 Resolution! Review 2010 Archive My Tickets My Basket My Account Checkout
that offered random insights, such as the difficulty in procuring giraffes in Blackpool. Choreographer Anuska Fernandez had obviously had great fun playing puppet-mistress to her sparky cast, comic vignettes spilling hither and thither across the stage. But Amores was all foreplay and no climax, its theme of communication breakdown amusingly illustrated without coming close to anything approaching a conclusion. This sense of unfocussed sketchiness was shared by Remnants, a rumination on the meaning of memory by Bethan Peters. Dancers Lucy Evans and Chloe Horrell offered up scraps of a relationship that danced around the edges of meaning without the back-story we needed to get a grip on where they were coming from. It was like stumbling in on a foreign language film half-way through, without the benefit of subtitles. Nothing, from the disparate soundtrack to the hard-to-read gestural choreography quite hung together. Keith Watson Memory is a tricky concept, difficult to pin down in movement or words, so kudos goes to Bethan Peters for attempting it with Remnants! The strength of this piece is in the connection between its two performers, which is sweetly articulated through the nuanced gestures they subtly feed to one another at the beginning, and more darkly displayed in the visceral contact sequences later on. A lack of conviction characterising some of the movement undermines the piece’s complexity, although there were striking, animalistic sections communicating mental breakdown. The lines of something profoundly moving glimmered here, but stronger content was needed to fill them out. The constant refrain in my mind while watching Anuska Fernandez’s Amores was ‘What is going on here?’ Six performers appear on stage in their underwear; they all speak, one of them sings; there are dance sequences with flavours of Bollywood, flamenco and jazz. High-spirited japes ensue. The dancers certainly enjoy themselves and perform with gusto, but: What is going on here? Billed as ‘…a trip through life with its fun and painful contradictions’, Amores makes the mistake of trying to say something about everything, but ultimately fails to say much at all. Lola Maury’s Figurines makes innovative use of lighting, and earplugs, to create an audio-visual illusion that transforms dancer Aurea Romero Alvarez into something like a music-box figurine. Alverez’s masterful performance, involving seamless segues between pastiches of
open in browser PRO version
Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API
pdfcrowd.com
performance, involving seamless segues between pastiches of recognisable movement, gives the impression that we are watching a mechanical approximation of a human. A sequence of stylised facial expressions towards the close appears to bring the individual behind the figurine to the fore, something that only happens once the nimbus of blue light brightens to yellow, revealing the performer, unadorned, in quietude. An accomplished piece that makes an impression - literally; as the lights fade to black, we experience an outline of the dancer, a ghost of the mechanical human, burned onto our retinas. Rachel Donnelly The Place 17 Duk e 's R oad London W C 1H 9PY Tick e ts: +44 (0)20 7121 1100 Adm in: +44 (0)20 7121 1000 R e g. charity no 250216
Supported by:
open in browser PRO version
Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API
Inde x C re dits: He lp Site by: Privacy Policy Tincan Acce ssbility De signe d by: Te rm s & C onditions Draught
pdfcrowd.com
Login/Register Find Us
About The Place
Channels
Blog
Supporting The Place
RSS
Share: Blog
What's on
< M
About the theatre
January T
>
W
T
F
S
S
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
Resolution! Review 2013
Interact
Book Tickets
First Floor & Third Floor Dance Company, Algorithm RiePete Dance & Music, I, Only Me TLDT, Ambiance Inn
The pleasure in watching Kai Downham and Joe Darby carve up the space in patterns of mathematical complexity, while surfing over one anotherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s bodies is immense. Here they occupy a tight spotlight, over
In This Section
there a generous rectangle. Often they seem joined at the waist as they
Resolution! Review 2013
wrap around each other in acrobatic weight-sharing before rolling off a
Resolution! Review 2012 Resolution! Review 2012
open in browser PRO version
shoulder or a thigh into back-flips and leaps. All liquid grace and athletic prowess, both men are touched with the Russell Maliphant effect, but it is their symbiotic relationship which is mesmerising. How can two people Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API
pdfcrowd.com
Resolution! Review 2011 Resolution! Review 2010 Archive
be so physically in tune? A male duo at its best. The impressive ensemble of musical instruments, harp, double-bass, guitar and percussion in RiePete Dance & Music promises a professional
My Tickets
exercise in collaboration. Technical aptitude is undeniable on both sides.
My Basket
aural accompaniment and fails to develop in any interesting fashion. One
However the choreography is unimaginative in spite of its flamboyant
My Account
male dancer embodies a narcissistic physicality, his special gift, which
Checkout
the other three attempt to wrestle off him. They succeed through a variety of interventions, some gentle, some violent. While there are glimmers of intensity, the otherwise stilted action and too many baffled expressions make I, Only Me drag on. There’s a seedy, smoochy yet groovy feel to Ambiance Inn contributed by floor lighting, dry–ice and Ashley Lansiquot’s music. The dancers lounge against the stripped back wings before shuffling into action. Bob Fosse style and attitude reign here: men ooze from pelvic undulations, the women strut sluttishly, exchanging bowler hats and other body revealing accessories. Bursts of Drum n Bass propel the group into frenetic, head-banging activity and half way through, there’s a satisfying assemblage of a chorus line. Otherwise, the initially slick atmosphere becomes jaded as the dancers rely too much on pushing the same old clichéd buttons. Josephine Leask Two confident works showcasing some fine dancers bookended Saturday night at Resolution!, with a worthy but dull collaboration squeezed in between. First up was Algorithm , a satisfying and methodical male duet with echoes of Russell Maliphant's work. Joe Darby and Kai Downham were nicely attuned as they carved through the space with almost mathematical precision, fluently wheeling and weaving around each other to hypnotic effect. Some beautifully executed lifts and welljudged lighting set the whole thing off nicely.
open in browser PRO version
Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API
pdfcrowd.com
A silky opening solo, and RiePete Dance & Music's I, Only Me seemed set to give us more soft fluidity. However there was little development or dynamic variation from this point on, and as a result the piece felt flat and one dimensional - something noted by the increasingly fidgety audience. The presence of live musicians reminded us this was a collaboration between a composer and choreographer, as they provided discordant but forgettable accompaniment from a slightly awkward position upstage. Three additional dancers were disappointingly underused, with little to do but approach and be knocked back by the soloist in a repetitive depiction of his isolation. This cycle trudged on towards an ending that aimed for poignancy, but hadn't done enough to earn it. Topping the evening off with a serving of slick, high energy fun was TLDT with Am biance Inn. Nothing groundbreaking or profound here, just unabashed, raucous grooving; a night in a dingy jazz bar conjured in a riot of clicks and wriggles. Equipped with braces, fur coats and suitably retro sneers, the ever increasing number of dancers strutted and whipped their hair around with uninhibited, even mildly alarming energy. It was over in a glitzy, breathless flash, and the audience loved it.
Misa Brzezicki
The Place 17 Duk e 's R oad London W C 1H 9PY Tick e ts: +44 (0)20 7121 1100 Adm in: +44 (0)20 7121 1000 R e g. charity no 250216
Supported by:
open in browser PRO version
Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API
Inde x C re dits: He lp Site by: Privacy Policy Tincan Acce ssbility De signe d by: Te rm s & C onditions Draught
pdfcrowd.com
Login/Register Find Us
About The Place
Channels
Blog
Supporting The Place
RSS
Share: Blog
What's on
< M
About the theatre
January T
>
W
T
F
S
S
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
In This Section Resolution! Review 2013 Resolution! Review 2012 Resolution! Review 2012
Resolution! Review 2013
Interact
Book Tickets
penny & jules dance company, Greyscale TYDC, Breaking Point James Loffler, LFO Two upturned palms are often a symbol of exasperation, and this features prominently in penny & jules dance company’s Greyscale. Choreographers and performers Lisa ‘penny’ Gillam and Kate ‘jules’ Szkolar were committed in their portrayal of a deeply found exasperation with life that is devoid of meaning and joy – life without colour. They look heavenward, seemingly seeking divine intervention, and curl up tightly, closing themselves off from the world. Both dancers are on different paths to the same destination, yet when they turn to each other for support in their increasing frustration, they find temporal comfort in each other’s embrace. However this is to no avail, as they eventually surrender in resignation to their grave decision.
Resolution! Review 2011
open in browser PRO version
Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API
pdfcrowd.com
Resolution! Review 2011 Resolution! Review 2010 Archive My Tickets My Basket My Account
In more ways than one, Tomos Young’s choreography reaches Breaking Point, and surpasses it. An extreme test of physical and mental stamina, Young has five female dancers on stage for most of the piece, performing countless repetitions of highly physical sequences. As a result, the work began to feel overlong as it came undone amidst valiant gasps of breath and weakening bodies in surrender to the sheer exhaustion. The glitchy 80’s style soundtrack did not serve to drive the dancers, not even if it had the most motivational aerobics' instructor doing a voice-over.
Checkout From afar, the dancers in James Loffler’s LFO might look like a bunch of teenagers bopping to music playing on their iPods. Look closer and discover that these extremely athletic dancers are pulsing and jerking with remarkable precision, allowing the cacophony of sounds on Loffler’s soundtrack to inform their internal rhythm, while retaining their individual identities. They vibrate as though they are the air particles through which a sound wave passes. Loffler effectively depicts various situations from the aural perspective, visually reproducing the tension and inflection of the voices at play. Germaine Cheng A strange, random connection threaded through this programme, creating an unusual, frequently compelling triptych. The dice fell kindly since this holistic bond would not have worked if performed in any other order. An intimate duet about the thought patterns leading to suicide segued into a work about reaching 'breaking point' through exhaustion and the programme ended with another ensemble piece exploring the idea of frequency (illustrated by pulsating screen shots of flickering thought patterns) as the choreographic impulse. Craft and ingenuity was shown in expressing each concept well - without need of extraneous explanation - and creating a symbiotic collaboration between choreography, well-chosen music and diverse lighting effects. Greyscale was conceived and performed by former LCDS students Kate Szkola (aka Jules) and Lisa Gillam (Penny), returning to their alma mater for a second successive Resolution! There were strong moments, especially in their floor work and in a quasi-contest where they danced consecutively within a mosaic pattern of light, and the work sustained well through fifteen minutes of introspective movement analysis of such a sombre subject. It failed only by ending so unconvincingly that the audience took a while to realise it was done.
open in browser PRO version
Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API
pdfcrowd.com
audience took a while to realise it was done. TYDC's Breaking Point also unravelled towards the end but it seemed to be the point as the five dancers repeated simple actions in complex patterns until reaching the point of exhaustion, harried along by the insistent beat of Chris Huntley's retro score. Music that was hard to get rid off on the way home. The best of the trio was James Löffler's sophisticated LFO, enhanced by an ensemble of excellent dancers from diverse professional backgrounds. Löffler also mixed a powerful score and engaged his seven dancers in varied combinations, maintaining a high energy for the full 24 minutes. Royal Ballet School graduate, Sonoya Mizuno – dressed as a dancing Lara Croft – concluded LFO with a riveting solo, showing that Löffler not only understands how to pace a work but how to end it in style. Graham Watts The Place 17 Duk e 's R oad London W C 1H 9PY Tick e ts: +44 (0)20 7121 1100 Adm in: +44 (0)20 7121 1000 R e g. charity no 250216
Supported by:
open in browser PRO version
Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API
Inde x C re dits: He lp Site by: Privacy Policy Tincan Acce ssbility De signe d by: Te rm s & C onditions Draught
pdfcrowd.com
Login/Register Find Us
About The Place
Channels
Blog
Supporting The Place
RSS
Share: Blog
What's on
< M
About the theatre
January T
>
W
T
F
S
S
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
In This Section Resolution! Review 2013 Resolution! Review 2012 Resolution! Review 2012
Resolution! Review 2013
Interact
Book Tickets
Justine Reeve Dance, Someone else’s perception of perfection Kirstie Richardson, At the age of forty I decided to be honest Daniel Somerville, Mad Scene High promises of obsession, compulsion and narcissism, set out by the programme, fall short in Someone else’s perception of perfection. Despite a lack of cohesion and dedication to the prescribed idea, there are some gems keeping the piece together. Simple, creative staging sees a solitary, low-hanging light bulb suspended over the stage, illuminating movement, in one instance highlighting the dipped back and pursed hands of a dancer, an intertextual cry to Davies’ Carnival Swan. The male duet shows the most promise, as the dancers playfully weave in and out from under each other’s arms with ease and flair.
Resolution! Review 2011
open in browser PRO version
Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API
pdfcrowd.com
Resolution! Review 2011 Resolution! Review 2010 Archive My Tickets My Basket My Account Checkout
At the age of 40 I decided to be honest opens confidently; the strut of heeled boots, the dramatic rolling of a wedding ring across the stage. This strong start fades quickly, when she introduces speech to explain herself (“I’m married...I’m not supposed to be”). When she ferociously shakes her left hand, arm, then her whole body, the message about marriage is clear rendering the flailing moments of speech unnecessary. The unspoken moments of the piece are the most eloquent; the reverent sequence in front of the slides of family photos, restricting herself within her own construction of a masking tape outline of a human body. Some things are better left danced, not said. Theatricality prevails in Daniel Somerville’s Mad Scene, dominated by which is the presentation of the brides. In full length veil, a dancer slowly advances forward, closely followed by a performer ruffling her dress. The result of this display is a stunning cross between the ghostlike Miss Havisham and Lady Gaga’s living dress. Elegantly stumbling backwards expressing all the qualities of a fractured marionette doll, a third performer gracefully staggers about the stage, until she collides with her fellow dancers. The highly operatic song from the mad scene of Lucia di Lammermoor, is danced to with precise musicality in this spectacle of a piece. Natalia Okeke “Disjointed” is the word that springs to mind, though not necessarily in a bad way. Justine Reeve’s Someone else’s perception of perfection is a series of non-sequiturs, each scene displaced by the next. Its dance style is also discontinuous, full of hitches and wrong-footings. Emma Gogan executes some off-kilter callisthenics, then a puppet-limbed man builds up a sequence of swizzles; another man lurches about with ragdoll tumbles and swaggers. The men form an oddball twosome in the one section that’s sustained enough to become weirdly compelling, before Gogan returns in heels and posh frock, her hair untrammelled. Very baffling, but sometimes tantalisingly so. Kirstie Richardson’s At the age of 40 I decided to be honest is a confessional piece. Richardson throws a ring onto the floor. She parades up and down, hand outstretched to show it now on her finger. Her hand shivers, then shakes, but the ring stays on. She lies inside the outline of a human figure that she’s made from tape, then slithers away. She gets hooked on some sassy poses, caresses her own hands, flounders on the floor, and finally she roams restlessly in the dark in front of projected
open in browser PRO version
Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API
pdfcrowd.com
the floor, and finally she roams restlessly in the dark in front of projected images of a man, two children. “I’m married,” says Richardson near the beginning, but she needn’t have spelled it out: the solo speaks for itself as a collage of evocative actions and images. Daniel Somerville’s Mad Scene is built on evocative imagery. A dapper Somerville appears with shirt splattered red, sidling forward wanly like a recently shot duck. With a theatrical flourish, he sweeps back the curtains to reveal our cast of characters: a corpse bride in diaphanous white with crimson lips; a white-faced man in a singlet, part pierrot, part ghostly b-boy; a wild, dark-haired woman who flings about her bouquet and veil. Shame about the action, then: having set up the imagery brilliantly, the choreography itself serves mostly to fill out the swooning strains and quivering coloratura of its operatic score. Sanjoy Roy The Place 17 Duk e 's R oad London W C 1H 9PY Tick e ts: +44 (0)20 7121 1100 Adm in: +44 (0)20 7121 1000 R e g. charity no 250216
Supported by:
open in browser PRO version
Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API
Inde x C re dits: He lp Site by: Privacy Policy Tincan Acce ssbility De signe d by: Te rm s & C onditions Draught
pdfcrowd.com
Login/Register Find Us
About The Place
Channels
Blog
Supporting The Place
RSS
Share: Blog
What's on
< M
About the theatre
January T
>
W
T
F
S
S
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
In This Section Resolution! Review 2013 Resolution! Review 2012 Resolution! Review 2012 Resolution! Review 2011
open in browser PRO version
Resolution! Review 2013
Interact
Book Tickets
FloJo Dance, No More Drama Sophie Duncan White|Label, UNSOUND Evangelia Kolyra, Laugh & Cry With the kind of unexpected serendipity that can occur amidst the often haphazard Resolution! programming, Thursday’s strong set of pieces shared a common thread: narrative. Five dancers playing individual, slow-motion games of charades set up FloJo Dance’s No More Drama, a series of abstract scenes juxtaposed against a film-quoting voiceover and an intermittent, chirpy soundtrack. Fleeting connections between movement and score created a game of spot the (dis)association, allowing the audience to assemble their own interpretation. A detailed movement language was delivered with gratifying precision by the cast, and Floengard-Jonsson’s keen eye for spatial arrangement and pacing kept things tight. All that was lacking
Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API
pdfcrowd.com
Resolution! Review 2011 Resolution! Review 2010 Archive My Tickets My Basket My Account Checkout
was a touch more gusto in the theatrical moments. Sophie Duncan made a lasting impression in UNSOUND, a text-heavy solo that was frequently confusing but never dull. Completely inhabiting her role as the fast-talking Ruby Duke, a Hunter S Thompson inspired creation on a quest for the American Dream, Duncan displayed comic and physical deftness. Gloomy lighting was added to by a flickering TV and lamp which was used to great effect, one moment a torch shedding ghostly light on her face, then a car headlight suddenly and surprisingly turned on the audience. There were plenty of other neat touches; Duncan awakening in a suitcase bed, a coat hanger swinging across the scene as a trapeze, but the speech was sometimes difficult to hear. With a physicality easily strong enough to evoke her tale, perhaps Duncan could have talked less and moved more. Evangelia Kolyraâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Laugh & Cry skilfully trod the line between humour and pathos. Extreme facial expressions were offered to the audience and gradually turned on each other, hinting at shared memories or scenes from a story. Always aware of being watched, and of what they may be disclosing, the three performers simultaneously invited the audience in and made us feel like intruders. A petulant struggle became disconcertingly violent until one dancer took charge, manipulating and arranging the others with sinister intent. Brief, but incisive. Misa Brzezicki On a mission to embrace the random and the silly - a catch-all brief if ever there was one - choreographer Karin Floengard Jonsson gave her five-strong FloJo Dance group a rather intangible task in No More Drama. Very loosely inspired by disparate cinematic quotes and scenes, here was a dance in desperate need of a connecting theme. As an irritating voiceover trotted out scraps of dialogue, the performers aped a bit of Tarantino here, possibly a scrap of Scorsese there. Paul Simon and T.Rex put in an appearance, no idea why. It ended in slow-mo, leaving me baffled and slightly bored. Sophie Duncan, performing under the tag White|Label set herself quite a task in Unsound: a one woman deconstruction of the American Dream, told through the character of journo Ruby Duke. Evoking the gonzo ghost of Hunter S. Thompson Duncan gamely flitted between Jimi Hendrix and the flying trapeze - an archly symbolic representation of getting high - and successfully created a mood of dissolute genius as
open in browser PRO version
Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API
pdfcrowd.com
getting high - and successfully created a mood of dissolute genius as newsreels crackled away on a TV behind her. But there was a sense that, as a character, Duke hadn’t quite bedded down. The story was told in a rush, leaving little time to read between the lines and Duke was too eager to please when she should have been giving the audience the finger. From frolicking to fighting and all the moments in between, the freeze frame moments caught by the trio of performers in Evangelia Kolyra’s Laugh & Cry ran the gamut of human emotions. In essence this was a less ambitious piece than the two which had proceeded it, the dancers tasked with providing what amounted to a photo album of emotions, highlighting the contrast between our inner and outer personae. But Kolyra’s canny eye for detail brought her characters alive, their joys and sorrows believable, amusing and moving. Sometimes less is more. Keith Watson The Place 17 Duk e 's R oad London W C 1H 9PY Tick e ts: +44 (0)20 7121 1100 Adm in: +44 (0)20 7121 1000 R e g. charity no 250216
Supported by:
open in browser PRO version
Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API
Inde x C re dits: He lp Site by: Privacy Policy Tincan Acce ssbility De signe d by: Te rm s & C onditions Draught
pdfcrowd.com
Login/Register Find Us
About The Place
Channels
Blog
Supporting The Place
RSS
Share: Blog
What's on
< M
About the theatre
January T
>
W
T
F
S
S
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
In This Section Resolution! Review 2013 Resolution! Review 2012 Resolution! Review 2012
Resolution! Review 2013
Interact
Book Tickets
Impermanence Dance Theatre, Blanched Stories Exzeb, Artism Simonetta Alessandr, Dog Roses The original intention for Impermanence Dance Theatreâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Blanched Stories was to be inspired by the birth of a first child. But what choreographer Josh Ben-Tovim opted for in light of artistic differences in the ranks of the company, an apparent impasse between intention and result, was (accidentally?) fascinating, in moments even quite touching. A kind of self-reflexive talent show, in which the multi-disciplined crew shared in turn, sequences of release-style phrasing to live beat-boxed melodies, a song remembered from childhood, a timely elegy; the axis of which was a debate between the choreographer and one of the dancers about the tensions involved in making the piece, carried out even as they were giving birth to it in front us.
Resolution! Review 2011
open in browser PRO version
Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API
pdfcrowd.com
Resolution! Review 2011 Resolution! Review 2010 Archive My Tickets My Basket My Account Checkout
In a work that even more deftly struck the balance between its component parts, Artism by Exzeb was a razor-sharp meditation on the personhood of the dancer. Outlining the exploitation of the performing body in heavy-duty philosophising language, using dance as example medium par excellence by which to ponder whom the subjects and objects of art really are. Held within an airtight stage design – lighting, projection and music deployed in pitch-perfect measure – we never got lost in the thoughts, but were seamlessly lifted into an exhilarating final sequence in which dancers David Gellura, Merel Corne and Sophia Preidel fulfilled the promise of the work; ‘disappearing’ into sheer movement to sublime effect. In a more playful but no less passionate register, the cast of Simonetta Alessandri’s Dog Roses, using bodies and voices, were equally astonishing in their ability to develop and inhabit the personality of the performer. The joyous splashing of their loose-limbed hops, sweeps, smiles, gasps, bounces, shrieks and sputters; aesthetically complemented by the summer colours of their costumes, making me think about citrus sorbet and juicy nectarines on a hot night. Giuliana Majo, Stephanie McMann and Flora Wellesley Wesley barked and howled divinely, winding up the most pleasurable Resolution! programme I’ve reviewed so far. Jeffrey Gordon Baker A group hug never feels far off in Impermanent Dance Theatre’s Blanched Stories. Like an extended family in a commune, the cast of dancers, musicians and one actor hang out together, sometimes getting up to do their thing: dance (go-with-the-flow stuff, nothing harsh), play, act. We’re told that the piece is about new motherhood, but that’s hard to see. Rather, the baby being brought up here is the performance itself. So, alongside a Shakespeare sonnet, a swoopy solo and a song for a dead grandmother, we hear about ideas and disagreements and compromises. Apparently, it did all start with workshops about new mothers, which just goes to show that creative concepts, like babies, turn out different from how you expect. If Blanched Stories has an open-hearted, raggle-taggle charm, Exzeb’s Artism is tense, dense and darkly ironic. Three dancers limber up as one (David Gellura) appears on screen, the bleached monochrome film imparting a cadaverous cast to his deadpan talk about dancers’ routines, adrenalin hits, post-performance depression. Above all, about
open in browser PRO version
Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API
pdfcrowd.com
routines, adrenalin hits, post-performance depression. Above all, about choreographers, who, he contends, are neither good enough dancers to appear on stage nor bad enough to be kept off it, and who feed off dancers’ artistry to resell as their own. This bitter observation is followed by a sharp, technically complex trio on stage, brilliantly executed – and tautly choreographed. The dancers are Gellura, Merel Corne and Sophia Preidel; choreography is by “Exzeb”. In Simonetta Alessandri’s weird, sporadically wonderful Dog Roses, three women get in touch with their inner dog, yapping and yowling as they tussle and scarper about. Thankfully, you don’t see portrayals of dogs; you see animal energies in action. Far more than Artism, Dog Roses relies on its performers to carry it off, as you realise whenever the outstanding Stephanie McMann appears. Not that Giuliana Majo and Flora Wellesley Wesley are bad, but McMann turns performance clichés – about presence, inhabiting the role, being in the moment and so on – into truisms. She owns this piece. Sanjoy Roy
The Place 17 Duk e 's R oad London W C 1H 9PY Tick e ts: +44 (0)20 7121 1100 Adm in: +44 (0)20 7121 1000 R e g. charity no 250216
Supported by:
open in browser PRO version
Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API
Inde x C re dits: He lp Site by: Privacy Policy Tincan Acce ssbility De signe d by: Te rm s & C onditions Draught
pdfcrowd.com
Login/Register Find Us
About The Place
Channels
Blog
Supporting The Place
RSS
Share: Blog
What's on
< M
About the theatre
January T
>
W
T
F
S
S
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
In This Section Resolution! Review 2013 Resolution! Review 2012 Resolution! Review 2012
open in browser PRO version
Resolution! Review 2013
Interact
Book Tickets
Percussive Customer, Modern Mammal Enigma Dance Company, The World In Which We Exist Indeed Dance Company, Wallflowers On a scale of staid to adventurous, last nightâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Resolution! started out at the top end, before sliding quietly into the predictable. Working from bottom to top, the final contribution of the evening, Indeed Dance Companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Wallflowers, was aptly named for its presentation of a pretty spectacle that never really exhibited any depth. With a whimsical stage-set recalling American Beauty, the only accent that provided anything to hang onto in this untextured piece was the hint of a contentious relationship between two of the dancers, implied through pained facial expressions. This could have been developed
Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API
pdfcrowd.com
Resolution! Review 2011
further, however, to give more purchase to a performance that tended towards the meandering.
Resolution! Review 2010 Archive My Tickets My Basket My Account Checkout
Similarly exhibiting a lack of complexity in its central concept, Enigma Dance Company’s The World in Which We Exist was nevertheless bolstered by taut choreography and assured performances from its five dancers. A drawn-out opening gave way to some impressively synchronous dancing, performers changing gear from sharp movements, to robotic slow-mo, at an identical pace. Unfortunately, issues of free will and conformity have been mined exhaustively, in most mediums, and this offering didn’t shed any new light on the matter. The most ambitious piece of the night, Modern Mammal was part dance, part choreographed musical performance. Satirical in tone to start, with arch facial expressions and announcements of ludicrous, animal names for a range of dance poses (‘Bear’, ‘Forward Stag’), the piece progresses through a Tom-Cruise-as-indomitable-guru-in-Magnolia-esque sequence, soundtracked by George Carlin’s Modern Man, to culminate in a breakdown of the carefully controlled rhythm via malfunctioning instruments. Choreographer and dancer Christopher Owen used a looper pedal with these instruments to execute a live musical arrangement, but the problem was that this musical complexity, with all its attendant paraphernalia, upstaged the dancing itself. Consequently, the choreography felt somewhat pegged on to the concept, giving an overall impression of fragmentation, although, as a commentary on ‘modern man’, this is perhaps what Owen was aiming for. Rachel Donnelly Some works walk a tightrope between awful and inspired, like Modern Mammal, an intriguing sound/dance solo where Percussive Customer (aka Christopher Owen) shows off his mastery of the loop pedal to create a live soundtrack. The central point of the piece sees Owen dancing to American comic George Carlin's whip-smart stand-up routine Modern Man, but Owen's simplistic shapes can't match the inventiveness of Carlin's virtuosic wordplay. It seems like a misjudged combination, but there's more going on here than first appears. We veer off into what threatens to be self-indulgent musical noodling, but Owen starts shouting his own version of the Modern Man poem through a megaphone against a paranoid soundtrack. Is he showing us the real modern male psyche – confused, gadget-obsessed, slightly adolescent? It's one of those pieces you could debate at length. And that's a
open in browser PRO version
Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API
pdfcrowd.com
those pieces you could debate at length. And that's a compliment. There's more paranoia afoot in Enigma Dance Company's The World in Which We Exist. An institutionalised, zombified society is the setting, personal freedom the theme and the dance moves all short, sharp shocks. You have to be a tight ensemble to pull this stuff off, and the six-string group are just that. Dancer/choreographer Botis Seva is the only one to buck the system, as his free will strains to break out in krump-ish eruptions. The concept's a bit elementary and the content slim, but it's all very well executed. Scenographer Gemma Craddock deserves a shout out for her very pretty set for Indeed Dance Company's Wallflowers, a cascade of pink leaves that sets a girly tone for this all-female trio. Who are these girls, though? Their repetitive motifs bring to mind Belgium's Rosas in pastel party dresses. The material's a bit of a dead end, but what's interesting is the confusing, almost disturbing hybrid of toddler tantrum and grownup sexuality, mixing daydreamy childishness with sensual expressions, legs-spread poses and the women thudding their own fists into their wombs. Like Alice gone down the wrong rabbit hole. Lyndsey Winship The Place 17 Duk e 's R oad London W C 1H 9PY Tick e ts: +44 (0)20 7121 1100 Adm in: +44 (0)20 7121 1000 R e g. charity no 250216
Supported by:
open in browser PRO version
Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API
Inde x C re dits: He lp Site by: Privacy Policy Tincan Acce ssbility De signe d by: Te rm s & C onditions Draught
pdfcrowd.com
Login/Register Find Us
About The Place
Channels
Blog
Supporting The Place
RSS
Share: Blog
What's on
< M
About the theatre
January T
>
W
T
F
S
S
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
In This Section Resolution! Review 2013 Resolution! Review 2012 Resolution! Review 2012 Resolution! Review 2011
open in browser PRO version
Resolution! Review 2013
Interact
Book Tickets
RedTape Dance Company, Sync in Progress Le Petit Mort Dance Company, Cabaret Voltaire HINGED, The Soloist Whirling around headphone wires and whipping out their mobiles, the four performers of RedTape Dance Company explore our antisocial cyber society in Maria Cassar’s Sync in Progress. Heads down and phones out, even mid embrace the dancers ignore the bodies before them for the screen beyond. But just like in real life the phone flashing soon became grating and, although the four dancers performed with conviction, sadly they brought nothing new or inspiring to rather difficult subject matter, which unfortunately for them was all too easily compared to Protein Dance’s LOL. George Adams, of Le Petit Mort Dance Company, provided a witty interlude to this evening’s proceedings. Emcee to his own vaudeville style show, Adams struts recklessly about the stage quaffing whisky, mocking his fellow performers and throwing in the occasional mischievous jab at the dance world. ‘Use your centre!’ he reminds us as
Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API
pdfcrowd.com
Resolution! Review 2011 Resolution! Review 2010 Archive My Tickets My Basket My Account Checkout
we step-clap side- to-side, in a moment of audience participation that he compares to Big Dance and ‘that kind of Olympic @#!*% ’. Adams has all the brass and sarcasm of a stand up comedian. His ‘Sexuality Dance’, aptly named as he tempts us with his wiggling bottom, was one of many mini acts within the show. Yet, due to time constrains his three other supporting acts were slightly less successful; perhaps Adams would be better suited, in his 25 minute slot, to a one man show. The final work of the evening, HINGED’s The Soloist, was without doubt the most complete group performance of my Resolution! experience. Performed by choreographer Taira Foo’s mammoth cast of twelve dancers, this narrative work was attacked with dynamism and crisp precision. Power relationships flit back and forth as the protagonist, a violin player, seemingly conducts the chorus’ every move through the swish of his bow and ripple of his body. The performance was textured, complex, chaotic, pulsing, thrusting, bubbling and explosive… but with so much going on it did become rather brain frazzling! Lucy Jarvis With the auditorium bursting at the seams on this Valentine’s Resolution! a promising opening kicks off with RedTape Dance Company, whose members are planted in the audience, engaged in a symphony of disjointed conversations. Soon the techno junkies appear on stage plugged into their phones, relentlessly whipping them out of their pockets, scrutinizing them, texting, giggling, muttering as they pace around. While society’s irritating obsession with technology is obvious through spoken text and gesture, the choreography tells a whole other story. Explosive actions and flailing arms, while astutely crafted confound me with their disconnection to the central theme; which soon fizzles out just like the initial excitement of new technological toys. Audience participation works in Cabaret Voltaire, although I’m glad it wasn’t me who had to dance ‘sexily’ on stage. The comedian/choreographer/compere/dancer George Adams, is effective in his crowd control, cruel in his mocking parody of virtually every art and dance style and sometimes wickedly funny. But whether he really is as inebriated as he claims to be on his single malt whiskey, or just hamming it up he doesn’t know when to stop. Like his diarrhoetic commentary, Adams attempts to cram too much in: Jazz, live music, live art, stand-up comedy, grotesque imagery – how can you do them all justice in 25 minutes? It’s a shame because the performers are brilliant,
open in browser PRO version
Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API
pdfcrowd.com
justice in 25 minutes? It’s a shame because the performers are brilliant, but they’re swamped by an excess of under-cooked content. HINGED cover every inch of the stage and as they mainly dance in unison, it’s an impressive sight. The Soloist is an ambitious dancedrama of the Matthew Bourne ilk which tells the story of the relationship between an American journalist and a homeless violinist. As with the preceding work, The Soloist is constrained by its 25 minutes, and would benefit from a greater variety of dynamics within its numerous flat-out danced sequences. However it is a successful work in its coherence and integrity, not to mention the infectious commitment and energy from all twelve dancers. Josephine Leask The Place 17 Duk e 's R oad London W C 1H 9PY Tick e ts: +44 (0)20 7121 1100 Adm in: +44 (0)20 7121 1000 R e g. charity no 250216
Supported by:
open in browser PRO version
Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API
Inde x C re dits: He lp Site by: Privacy Policy Tincan Acce ssbility De signe d by: Te rm s & C onditions Draught
pdfcrowd.com
Login/Register Find Us
About The Place
Channels
Blog
Supporting The Place
RSS
Share: Blog
What's on
< M
About the theatre
January T
>
W
T
F
S
S
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
In This Section Resolution! Review 2013 Resolution! Review 2012 Resolution! Review 2012
Resolution! Review 2013
Interact
Book Tickets
Joon Dance, Pillar to Post Tara Pilbrow, Waltzing Words MurleyDance, Laissez-moi danser (Let me dance) If a microphone had been placed centerstage at Resolution! last night, we would have heard a cacophony of voices – relentless, resolute and eloquent, all of which were stifled by the environment we live in. Each of the three pieces sought to project a voice, both silent and spoken, through material that was confidently executed. MurleyDance’s offering for the night had the biggest cast I have seen on the Resolution! stage yet. Flanking five central characters, the corps de ballet dancers could easily have been picked off a classical production of Swan Lake, sans pointe shoes and tutus. While they impressed with their balletic grace and flexibility, they looked ill at ease strutting on in heels and shaking their hips. A boy’s cries of Laissez-moi danser (Let me dance) were met with his parents’ disapproval, understandably, as he aspired towards a pared-down, bland Madonna.
Resolution! Review 2011
open in browser PRO version
Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API
pdfcrowd.com
Resolution! Review 2011 Resolution! Review 2010 Archive My Tickets My Basket My Account Checkout
Laissez-moi danser made reference to a singing voice, whereas Joon Dance’s Pillar to Post amplified the angsty voice of today’s youth culture. The work’s thrilling physicality was undeniable as the boys launched into daredevil break-dancing moves, and the girls did well to match the boys in agility and vigour. Tracing their bodies with their fingers mimicking the legs of a spider, the quartet’s hands seemed to portray society’s negative image of youth eating away at its very subjects. The language of the body in movement is dance itself, and Tara Pilbrow’s solo did not require any Waltzing Words for her sensual interpretation of this language to come across to the audience. Her seemingly improvised movements melded into a seamless, at times onedimensional, flow that was lost amidst the dissonant voices of various languages. However when the noise faded away to reveal the euphonious strains of Chopin, Pilbrow came alive, her muscular back just as arresting as her eyes. She danced as a woman, reminding me of a modern day Isadora Duncan as she clutched her solar plexus while the lights came down. Germaine Cheng Urbanism was a dominant theme biting into two thirds of this programme, beginning with an outward look from the adversity facing young people on inner-city streets, with a sideswipe at Austerity Britain's cuts in youth support; and continuing into Tara Pilbrow's quest for space in the confusing melee of sound and imagery that rule today's metropolis. Zosia Dowmunt's choreography for Pillar to Post began promisingly as Kim Noble slithered and folded her way towards a beam of light slicing diagonally through the space, then joined in a reptilian duet by Rebecca Williams. Although well structured and jauntily paced, not all of the several sections worked consistently but none outstayed my interest. Beyond the opening sequence, the best was an exhausting b-boy solo by 'Didge' (Daniel Ovel) that was expertly flattened into a contemporary style. Assimilating street moves into this contemporary format gave the work a relevant and unusual hallmark and the material was bumped up a notch by four excellent dancers: Ovel and Noble (surely the name of a 70s detective series?) have a particularly promising future and Dowmunt should also be in for the long haul. Tara Pilbrow's self-designed solo opened with a scattering of random
open in browser PRO version
Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API
pdfcrowd.com
Tara Pilbrow's self-designed solo opened with a scattering of random geometry on the screen and a jumble of mixed languages in the soundtrack, all effectively representing the cacophony of modern city life. Her improvised movement sought to carve a personal niche within this chaos reaching its apotheosis in her sensual interpretation of a Chopin Piano Concerto. Held in the embrace of an invisible partner, she replaced the tumult with a strange erotic calm. David Murley's Laissez-moi danser was a rare outing for an endangered species at Resolution! A narrative-based work (with a cast list of named characters) into which he managed to inject fun and effective characterisation (with perhaps a nod towards Matthew Bourne) while referencing iconic ballet imagery from Swan Lake and La Bayadère. His ensemble of fifteen dancers clearly had fun, lapping up a sexy routine to Lady Gaga's Bad Romance. Innovative choreography was not much in evidence, but the style and humour of the work was Murley's calling card. Graham Watts The Place 17 Duk e 's R oad London W C 1H 9PY Tick e ts: +44 (0)20 7121 1100 Adm in: +44 (0)20 7121 1000 R e g. charity no 250216
Supported by:
open in browser PRO version
Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API
Inde x C re dits: He lp Site by: Privacy Policy Tincan Acce ssbility De signe d by: Te rm s & C onditions Draught
pdfcrowd.com
Login/Register Find Us
About The Place
Channels
Blog
Supporting The Place
RSS
Share: Blog
What's on
< M
About the theatre
January T
>
W
T
F
S
S
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
In This Section Resolution! Review 2013 Resolution! Review 2012 Resolution! Review 2012 Resolution! Review 2011
open in browser PRO version
Resolution! Review 2013
Interact
Book Tickets
LeNa Dance Company, What’s In The Box Joe Lott, Tender Dynamic Eclipse Arts, Forever And A Day – In Loving Memory Of…. This Resolution! bill takes us deep into the human mind, heart and soul. A look into the recesses of our subconscious mind is followed by a trio dispelling hero stereotypes. The night ends with an ensemble piece depicting the never-ending relationship between two souls that resonate with each other. Forever And A Day – In Loving Memory Of… begins with the Max Richter strings that many companies have taken to this season, and has its ensemble of ten dancers perform affective reaches and contractions in unison. The central couple joins in the terpsichorean emoting, portraying a difficult yet determined relationship. Then, in a turn of events, the performers start popping, locking, and jamming, looking much more at ease and lighting up the stage with a refreshing effervescence. Nothing can separate this tormented couple, reunited amidst the flurry of elbows
Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API
pdfcrowd.com
Resolution! Review 2011 Resolution! Review 2010 Archive My Tickets My Basket My Account Checkout
and dizzying footwork. Like a benign tumour, the piece made an impression - a mild, insignificant one. Superman was simply Clark Kent, and Cinderella was the most ordinary of girls. Yet they are regarded as heroes. Joe Lott’s Tender asks the question: what lies beneath their steely exteriors and porcelain faces? The trio of dancers executed angular movement sequences, paying tribute to Spiderman as their fingers crept across their bodies. Bookended by video clips of a free-spirited girl in an open field, Tender is a reminder that even heroes have the right to dream. The information in an aircraft’s black box cannot be easily erased, and is hugely valuable in investigations. Our minds are our black boxes, and LeNa Dance Company unleashes the wild thoughts that are hidden in them. Cornelia Voglmayr and Flora Barros play the thoughts in our mind in a translucent black cube on stage. Restricted and suppressed, they eventually erupt in aggressive tantrums and uncontrollable fits of laughter. The pair reflect the inner turmoil of the performers outside the cube, whose occasional twitch and look of distraught exposes their discomfort within their own skin. Germaine Cheng As we wait for the lights to go down, we’re plunged into an aural environment of neurotic, foreign-accented female voices. When they finally do, it’s startling to see the owners of the voices, trapped upstage, in a black transparent cube. The two women in white vests and shorts menacingly pace about their restricted cell, muttering streams of consciousness, which range from observations about the mundane to disconcerting screams of hysteria. Are they off their faces on magic mushrooms or do they embody our subconscious fears and desires? Dancers outside the box glide in fluid dream like sequences, their physical language in sharp contrast to the impulsive, stunted dynamics of their damaged psyches. Leonie Nadler’s exposition of our fragile mental condition is torturous, gripping and unnervingly convincing. Joe Lott’s Tender takes on the subject of ‘the hero’, inspired by Joseph Campbell’s non-fictional book The Hero With a Thousand Faces. The patterns of hero behaviour, emotions and action are traced through abstract choreography performed efficiently by a woman and two men. It’s an inspired idea to use a juicy topic, but hard to compete with such a ground-breaking text. While the roles of the first male and female
open in browser PRO version
Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API
pdfcrowd.com
ground-breaking text. While the roles of the first male and female ‘heroes’ are clear as they battle through adventures, that of the third male is puzzling, even redundant. A refreshing film of water-logged fields and forests adds a picturesque back drop, but nothing more, and overall the potential inherent in the theme is lost. In spite of the distracting whoops and cheers from Dynamic Eclipse Art’s supporters, I’m soon won over by this large and youthful company. Dancing is consistently strong and conveyed with heaps of enthusiasm. Comparing life-sucking tumours with clawing human emotions, Forever And A Day – In Loving Memory Of…propels its performers melodramatically through a sea of clichés: a tragic love story, a fight against good and evil, death and resurrection. There’s also too much schmaltzy music but it’s great entertainment and a welcoming finish to a pretty intense evening. Josephine Leask The Place 17 Duk e 's R oad London W C 1H 9PY Tick e ts: +44 (0)20 7121 1100 Adm in: +44 (0)20 7121 1000 R e g. charity no 250216
Supported by:
open in browser PRO version
Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API
Inde x C re dits: He lp Site by: Privacy Policy Tincan Acce ssbility De signe d by: Te rm s & C onditions Draught
pdfcrowd.com
Login/Register Find Us
About The Place
Channels
Blog
Supporting The Place
RSS
Share: Blog
What's on
< M
About the theatre
January T
>
W
T
F
S
S
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
In This Section Resolution! Review 2013 Resolution! Review 2012 Resolution! Review 2012 Resolution! Review 2011
open in browser PRO version
Resolution! Review 2013
Interact
Book Tickets
Yuyu Rau, Beloved Emoh Divo Company, Angoscia Seke Chimutengwende & Friends, Mr Lawrence The characters of Yuyu Rau’s Beloved Emoh seemed to be crawling through the garden grass, climbing the trees and swimming in the seas of their personal histories. Dancers Angelina Jandolo, Marie Chabert and Raul Ibanez conjured the objects and activities of home-life present and past, with crisp gestures infused with the forms and rhythms of classical Chinese dance. Accompanied by reminiscent spoken narratives, this memory play was more polite and sentimental than moving, and the combination of live musician with recorded tracks was overbearing at times. But nevertheless, Rau is obviously a promising craftsperson in the making. The night’s most…therapeutic event was Angoscia by Divo Company, in
Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API
pdfcrowd.com
Resolution! Review 2011 Resolution! Review 2010 Archive My Tickets My Basket My Account Checkout
which a metaphorical balance was struck between ideas and action. The pair of dancers trembled, ambled along as though on a Prozac downer, getting right up close, even touching each other at times, always just avoiding any meaningful contact. Complete with turtleneck jumpers, flat facial expressions and an archly ironic voiceover text by Mary Ann Hushlak and choreographer Olga Masleinnikova, the piece kept threatening to deliver us into the clutches of the Tyranny of the AvantGarde. But thankfully they merely flirted with pretension. ‘Please control your face’ implored ‘Angoscia’ repetitively – from the Italian for anxiety, the title also the name of our pathologically solipsistic narrator – hinting at a self-conscious, wry and witty awareness of the work’s own uptight-ness. From neurosis to narcissism; last up Seke Chimutengwende & Friends presented Mr Lawrence, a prepared improvisation about an upper class in-crowd, made by seven bright young things, all maniacally bushy-tailed and up for it. Decked out like the cast of a screwball comedy set at the racetrack, the group mugged and strutted ably within tightly scored scenes, shouting out non-sequiturs and putting on faux-haughty accents and airs. The performers had a blast and clearly thought themselves adorable. But the framing device ran out of steam halfway and cute as these kids were, it was ultimately hard to care much about them. Jeffrey Gordon Baker The seasonal curtain came down on an evening that was in the main strong, considered and well performed by casts dedicated to serving disparate creative visions. You could sense the care Yuyu Rau brought to Beloved Emoh, a budding study of cultural identity featuring movement influenced by – but not restricted to – classical Chinese forms. It was evident in the curvilinear yet mimetically precise dancing of Angelina Jandolo and Marie Chabert; in Raul Ibanez, notable for his long, spiralling frame and springing jumps; and in the over-all tone of calm enquiry. Not that there weren’t imbalances in the staging and a score grafting recorded music to luteplaying Cheng-Ying Chuang’s live vocals. Ideas about place and belonging gently driving the work might’ve also been sharpened and clarified. But by trusting those onstage (including Rau herself as a lowkey interloper) I felt at least partially rewarded.
open in browser PRO version
Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API
pdfcrowd.com
The nuanced, obliquely affecting elements of Angoscia just about kept any self-conscious literary pretensions at bay. Divo Company’s collaborative experiment was pinned to choreographer Olga Masleinnikova and dramaturg Mary Ann Hushlak’s smartly ironic (not to say neurotic), confessional voice-over text. A bare stage was parenthetically backed by the image of a small dark figure in a blurred yet epic architectural landscape – a picture, we were told, of the female narrator’s mind. Were dancers Yukiko Masui and Anne-Gaelle Thiriot perhaps meant to embody the split psyche of this unseen speaker whose titular name derives from words signifying anxiety and angst? The pair shifted adeptly through covert, personal patterns of motion but always with an awareness of the other. The night ended with Mr Lawrence, a lemming-like lark by Seke Chimutengwende & Friends – seven dancers, that is, comprising a virtual who’s who of young indie talent. Sidling centrestage in motley garb they began by eulogising a deceased writer in halting words and gestures delivered like a wacky collective monologue. They then flipped into a frantic game of improvisatory ‘tag’ before climaxing in a scene of impulsive kinetic chaos set to a track by krautrock band Neu! Willfully eccentric, antic, arch and both annoying and vaguely amusing, it certainly tickled some funnybones. Donald Hutera The Place 17 Duk e 's R oad London W C 1H 9PY Tick e ts: +44 (0)20 7121 1100 Adm in: +44 (0)20 7121 1000 R e g. charity no 250216
Supported by:
open in browser PRO version
Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API
Inde x C re dits: He lp Site by: Privacy Policy Tincan Acce ssbility De signe d by: Te rm s & C onditions Draught
pdfcrowd.com