Tanya Khabarova as nurse-shaman
DEREVO - TANYA KHABAROVA: REFLECTION Silent magic from the high priestess of dance
Derevo is the Russian word for tree. It's also the name of one of the most renowned theatre companies to play the Fringe in recent years. Based in Dresden. they're a tight-knit troupe of wiry. shaven-headed androgynies who practice a brilliantly wordless brand of stage magic. Founding member Tanya Khabarova now brings us her striking solo performance Reflection. a mystical, hour-long dance fable dedicated. she says. to her teachers and to the sky. In it, she comes across like a quick-change nigh priestess conducting a private. self-explorat0ry ritual. And we are her privileged witnesses.
Khabarova starts out as a nurse-shaman methodically setting props (egg. book. candle, hammer) on a table. She then plunges into a slew of historically suggestive guises and physical states — animal, human. saCred. profane. Whether she's a Caligula- Iike tyrant whose expressions slip from disgust to treachery to leering, or a tottering- heeled catwalk reject. Khabarova brings the exquisite eloquence and focus of a silent film star to her iconic performance. (Donald Hutera)
I Aurora Nova @ St Stephens, 558 3853. 7—30 Aug (not 70.
77—27, 24) 70.45pm,
E 70 (E8). Preview 6 Aug, £6 (£5).
STORMFORCE
African beats, Irish feet
When the Irish ambassador gives your slip jigs the thumbs up. you must be doing something right. Asked to produce a St Patrick's Day show for a corporate audience at Canary Wharf, Rophin Matley decided to look beyond
I the usual Riverdance- style line-up. Instead. she
drafted in African drummers and dancers to complement the heavy shoes and straight arms of the Irish. The result was Stormforce, a tale of chaos and energy battling for control of Mother Nature. The audience — including the aforementioned ambassador — loved it. so now the London- based company is heading for Edinburgh. ‘The show starts with pure Irish and pure African dance. everything
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is very traditional,’ says Matley. 'When you first see the Irish dancers. they're in green velvet and the Africans are in bright colours. But by the end, they're in a mix of the two. performing a fusion of both types of dance.’ (Kelly Apter)
I Purple Venues @ L’Attache, 0870 747 9837, 8— 73 Aug. 6.40pm, £6.50 (£4.50).
SHAKTI: THE SHAMAN/ 1 00 1 NIGHTS
Fringe stalwart awakens the dead
In August 2003. Shakti. indestructible Fringe veteran and ace overseer of the Garage venue. writhed through a staggered — and staggering — SChedule of SIX shows. This year finds the savvy, spiritual lndo-Japanese dancer in only a slightly mellower mood.
Shakti has concocted
two new works which will E
be performed back to back, and the first of these is The Shaman (The Winds of Bon). Bon is the season in Japan when the spirits of the dead come back to life, something Shakti facilitates by becoming temporarin possessed by spirits herself. The soundtrack includes flute. samisen (Japan's three-stringed zither, played by the superb Chikuzan) and Pachelbel's familiar Canon. Almost immediately after comes a four-part take on 7007 Nights. Here Shakti promises a dynamic blend of fantasy. anguish and sacrifice. ‘The voyage is within.‘ she explains. ‘The more I go
3 THE LOVE THAT DARED NOT SPEAK ITS NAME: I BALLET RIMBAUD &
g POSSESSION 99m in "fetish.
: Literary history is replete with torrid love affairs, but few match the
intensity of 19th century French
poets Arthur Rimbaud and Paul
Verlaine. It’s hard to know who fared
worse - the young, prodigy
_ Rimbaud, who left the relationship so scarred at the age of 20 that he
never wrote again; the alcohol-
soaked Verlaine. who underwent
invasive procedures to determine
3 his sexuality and was subsequently
i imprisoned; or Mathilde, Verlaine’s
teenage wife who was treated with
1 untenable cruelty by both her
husband and his young lover.
All terribly tragic, but perfect 3 fodder for the stage and screen. Leonardo Di Caprio and David Thewlis : have already captured the poetic pair in 1995’s Total Eclipse, and now ' j London-based dance company Balletomania is set to do it on stage. Ballet é Rimbaud forms one half of a literary themed double bill, choreographed by former Royal Ballet dancer, Sheila Styles. The brainchild of Styles’ friend, Polly Fowler, the piece started life as a presentation for Fowler’s Masters ; degree on Rimbaud. But when Fowler handed Styles a pile of Doors 008 to ; choreograph to, she was understandably confused. ‘When you think Victorian, you don’t really think the Doors, so I was a bit staggered,’ admits Styles. ‘But when I listened to the words of the songs, it actually made perfect sense. And Jim Morrison was a great fan of Rimbaud. He used to ' carry round a collection of his poems.’
In need of a sister piece to complete Balletomania’s Fringe programme,
Fowler and Styles came up with Possession. Set in the Parisian apartment of American author Gertrude Stein and her paranoid lover, Alice Toklas, the piece features a cast of colourful characters. ‘They were quite famous for
; their soirées,’ says Styles. ‘80 the guests at this particular gathering are
Picasso, Ernest Hemingway, Collette and Scott Fitzgerald.’ (Kelly Apter)
I C, 0870 707 5705, until 30 Aug (not 70, 75, 23), 3.55pm, £8.50 (£7.50).
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into it. the further and deeper it‘s developed.‘ The secret of Shakti‘s incredible energy is not. as she half-jokes. ‘raw meat and red wine“. There are philosophical underpinnings. ‘It's all about believing in it fully and giving into it like
there's no tomorrow. If I
can't dance. or live. like
that. it's time to stop.’ (Donald Hutera) I Garage, 227 9009.
; 8—30 Aug, The Shaman,
7.45pm; 1001 Nights.
3 9pm, both £70 (£9).
2FACED YOUTH DANCE CO:
‘ SLAMMIN’
' Teenage Slicks
. Attracting teenage boys
to dance is no mean feat. even in these progressive times. Which is why
Tamsin Fitzgerald. artistic director of 2FaCeD Youth
Dance Company. chose street dance as her means of introduction. Ranging in age from 14—17, the boys in her company started life on a strict diet of breakdance. ‘I didn't do any ballet or contemporary with them for about a year, then gradually Introduced it.‘ explains Fitzgerald. She
E also brought in
professional
, breakdancers to
communicate the importance of studying
I other forms of dance.
‘Then the boys realised how important it was. to help with their
breakdancing and
increase their flexibility
: and strength Ievels.'
With over 100 members in the company. Fitzgerald has formed an elite branch of nine dancers who regularly perform live shows. including a recent collaboration with So
5 Solid Crew. Making its
Fringe debut with Slammin', an energetic show set to everything from Jim Hendrix to breakbeats. Fitzgerald's original plan to get boys interested in dance has certainly born fruit. ‘I didn't realise it would go this far, or that we w0u|d
get to this Ievel.‘she I says. ‘They've all got very
into it, and lots of the
boys now want to go off
i and train as dancers.‘
(Kelly Apter) I C. 0870 707 5705.
5 until 74 Aug, 7.30pm, E7.50(£‘6.50).
5—12 Aug 2004 THE LIST FESTIVAL MAGAZINE 45