list.co.uk/festival Dance Base | FESTIVAL DANCE
LORDS OF THE DANCE Artistic director of Dance Base, Morag Deyes, tells Kelly Apter what international goodies she has in store for us during this year’s Fringe
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‘W here Scotland meets the world’ says the slogan across Edinburgh Airport. A tagline that could just as easily hang across the doors at Dance Base this August. For in one small venue, artistic director Morag Deyes has brought together dance makers and performers from over 15 different countries, plus a huge range of work grown on home turf.
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Shows such as Your Majesties from Austria, inspired by Barack Obama’s Nobel Prize-winning speech, which Deyes describes as ‘one of the cleverest shows I’ve ever seen – absolute genius’. Or Hari Ho Gati Meri by Gauri Diwakar who, says Deyes, is ‘the best classical Kathak dancer in Northern India right now’. Then there’s the ‘fantastic biographical solo’ Red, by Carl Knif, who grew up in a no-man’s land between Sweden and Finland. Deyes also speaks of her pride at having Palestinian o dance company El-Funoun, who have battled the odds to r present their take on the socio-political landscape of their homeland in The Rooster.
6 With all this, and much more, in the Dance Base 2016 e Fringe programme, is Deyes hoping people will get a sense of what’s happening in the world? ’ ‘There’s no point in saying we’re here to educate audiences,’ e she says. ‘No, we’re here to entertain people – and make k them think. Because the dance community produces work g that rel ects society, and the real grit of being a human being is coming through a lot at the moment.’
e Over 30 dance works will be presented during the three e weeks, and Deyes has strived to give the Dance Base d programme a broad appeal. So whether you eat, sleep and s, breathe dance, or just fancy snacking on it between meals, she’s found you something to savour. e ‘I’m not programming a dance festival where people are or coming just to see dance,’ says Deyes. ‘I’m programming for of a mix of dance experts and people who just want to i t a bit of if dance in between a comedy gig and a piece of theatre. And if ke they want to tick the “dance” box on their Fringe list, I’d like to them to see something at Dance Base – and I don’t want it to be something that’s too alienating.’
so As well as its wide geographic spread, Deyes’ choices also ry echo the diversity of today’s dance scene. From contemporary en to modern ballet, dance theatre to hip hop, work for children at to comedic pieces, there’s no shortage of styles. Was that important to her? he ‘Yes, it was really important because dance is about using the to body to express yourself,’ says Deyes. ‘And you don’t need to re be en pointe or in a pair of tap shoes to do that, and there are g. ways of moving which don’t necessarily need formal training. g I ‘For example, the South African company that’s bringing I to, Am Rhythm – their training happened on the streets of Soweto, in learning from each other. And yet they’ve got more dance in be their bodies than quite a lot of dancers. So I think we need to be .’ a bit more tolerant with our preconceptions of what dance is.’
Dance Base, 225 5525, 5–29 Aug (not 8, 15, 22), times and prices vary. For full programme, see dancebase.co.uk/festival-2016
Your Majesties
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