DANCE

0 Axis Dance Company in ViewFrom Here Portobello Town Hall. Portobello High Street. Tel: 225 2424 ext 6623 for information and

booking. 7.30pm. £1 (50p).

EVENTS

o Meadows Festival The Meadows. See Mon 26.

o Craigmillar Festival Fayre Day Jack Kane Centre, Niddrie Mains Road. 1.30pm. Free. Festivals abound today. this one including the Radio Forth Road Show. as well as entertainment and plenty ofstalls.

FRIDAY 30 THEATRE

0 Bar and Ger Assembly Rooms. . George Street. 1.10—1.40pm. Free. A play about life in the Sixties by Geraldine Avon. Presented by two actors from the Gateway Exchange, directed by Pam Strachan.

0 Emma, Emma - Bed and Black Assembly Rooms. George Street. 8pm. £2 (£1). See Tue 27.

CABARET/FDLK/JAZZ

0 Swing ’86 Leith Community Centre. Kirkgate. 1—3pm. Free. Not a tea dance but a concert of l lot Club jazz music. two guitars. clarinet. sax and bass, from the legends in their own lunchtime.

o Drumming Workshop Assembly Rooms. George Street. Noon—1.30pm. Phone 225 2424 exts 6623/6625 for advance booking.

0 Peter Nardini, Liz Lochhead and Brian McCabe Words and Music. Assembly Rooms. George Street. 8pm. £2 (£1). Talk. stories. poems and the black humour in song of Nardini. Lanarkshire-based singer/songwriter.

ROCK

0 Rap It Up! Tollcross Primary School. Fountainbridge. 6—8pm. Free. Rapping and toasting workshops held by the extraordinary

Boogamax. For details ring 225 2424 ext 6623/6625.

DANCE

0 Dance Co 7 Drumming Workshop. Assembly Rooms. George Street. 225 2424 ext 6623. Noon—1.30pm. Free btit book. Take to the tom-toms with this group's director Carl Campbell. Good exercise for the dancers‘ rhythm. For non-dancers too. of course.

0 Dance Workshops and Classes Portobello'l‘own Hall. Portobello High Street. Tel: 225 2424 ext 6623 for information and booking. Ballet 10—11amzlazz11.30am—12.30pm; Contemporary l.30—2.30pm: Choreography 3-5pm. Take classes with members ofois Dance Company and Spring.

0 Catalyst in Chromozone Ross Open Air Theatre. Princes Street Gardens. Tel: 225 2424 ext 6623 for information and booking. 10.30pm. Free. Spring Fling is doing wonderful things for dance. This events promises to be stunning.

l.._.__ .._ .. . 16 The List 16— 29 May

up! See also Sat 31 May.

0 Dance Co 7 in Heritage Assembly Rooms. George Street. 225 2424 ext 6623 for information and booking. 8pm. £2.50(£1.50). Mayfest had Japanese dance. now Spring Fling has Afro/Caribbean. What a treat to have such yariety after such a lack-lustre winter. This particular company has wowed audiences in Greater London and is set to capture an enthusiastic audience here. Look out for them. See also Sat 31 May. (See Tue 27 May for details of the

I company‘s Assembly Rooms

1 production).

0 Spring Portobello Town Hall. Portobello 1 Tiin Street. Tel: 225 2424 ext 6623 for information and booking. 3pm. Free. Lothian Youth Dance Company takes a spring fling

SATURDAY 3 £THEATRE

0 Mr Bones Muirhouse Library.

} 10.30am. Free. Kirkgate Shopping | Centre. 2.30pm. Free.

1 0 Emma, Emma— Bed and Black

l Assembly Rooms. George Street.

3 9pm. £2 (£1). See Tue 27.

l O The Big Fling Assembly Rooms.

3 George Street. 9pm. £2.50 (£1.50). 3 The cabaret line-up this evening

1 includes Theatre International. Iron l Brotherhood. the band Volunteer. l Slavery. Nervous Circus. We Free

Kings and other acts from the local 1 community. See also Sat 24.

0 Rock and Rap at The Boss Ross

. ()pen AirTheatre. Princes Street

3 Gardens. 1pm. Free. Indie chart-toppers The Shop Assistants.

« with their Ramones and

; Buzzcocks-inlluenced pure pop.

' headline this one. with Pop Wallpaper. explorers of unfamiliar pop territory as heard in their new single Nothing Can Call Me Back.

j white reggae band Bed again. plus

weird and wonderful funksters The . New York Piglunkers plus Botany 500. g All linked by rapper Boogamax.

DANCE

j 0 Dance Co7 Dance workshop.

1 Assembly Rooms. George Street.

3 225 2424 ext 6623 for information

and booking. Free but book. An introduction to A fro, Caribbean

0 Catalyst in Chromozone Ross ()pen AirTheatre. Princes Street Gardens. Tel: 225 2424 ext 6623 for : information and booking. See Fri 30 . May.

1 0 Words and Music Assembly

l Rooms. George Street. 8pm. £2 T (£1).Thistimeit'stheturnofthe highly popular Scottish literary

-. figures Liz Lochhead and Brian McCabe. and musician Peter Nardini to present an evening of music and writing.

EVENTS

0 Meadows Festival The Meadows. All day. Today and tomorrow the Festival on the Meadows hosts masses ofopen air entertainment. including drumming. juggling. puppets. clog dancing you name

it...

Ultra-violet light-at But wrap

DANCE LIST

Performance 0 THEATRE BDYAL l lope Street. Box

()ffice 331 1234 (credit cards 332 9000) 10am—6pm Mon—Sat. Scottish Ballet in Cheri. Le Spectre de la Bose and Symphony in D Tue 20—Sat 24 My. 7.15pm. £l4—£2.50. ()AP. Under 18. half price. Student and 1 71340 standby £2.50 on day of performance. Premiered in 1081. Cheri by Peter Darrell is based on Colette’s noyel of passion. The love affair ends in tragedy. Drama is intensified by Philip Prowse‘s elegant costume and set design. Symphony in l) contrasts with a parody of classical ballet by .liri Kylian. 1.e Spectre de la Rose. Fukilic‘s‘ classic piece for the legendary Nijinsky returns the programme to the romantic. See Edinburgh for Scottish Ballet's Napoli.

' Classes

0 DOWANHILL CENTRE Four Acres Charitable Trust. 03 l lyndland Street. 33‘) 9407.

D Group 4 Mon 1‘)-—\\'ed 21 May 10am. Dance Workshop. See Mayiest 1‘) May.

Cunningham Classes Sundays 1-2.30pm. £1.50 per class. Contemporary classes with l’iona

Alderman. Adults with some dance l experience. 3 Cunningham Classes Mondays and 'l‘uesdays 10am. £1.50. For l information phone 357 1078. Catherine Harrison of D Group 4 teaches the technique at advanced leyel.

EDINBURGH

Performance

0 KING'S THEATRE Leyen Street. 22‘) 1201. Box office Mon—Sat 10am—b’pm.

Scottish Ballet in Napoli Until Sat 17 May. 7.30pm. Sat mat 2.30pm. £12—£3 ()AP. UB40. Student. Child. half price. Sat mat all seats £4. A jolly piece where loye conquers all. The heroine is plucked from the green hand of Golfo. the sea-sprite and it all ends happily ever after in the colourful fishing village.

0 MANDELA THEATRE Gateway lixchange. 2—4 Abbeymount. 661 (1982.

Catalyst llntil Sat 17 May. A company always ftill of bright ideas. They perform their latest piece Kuogo for the new Mandela Theatre. See panel. See also Spring Fling Tue 27 May.

0 LEITH COMMUNITY CENTRE Kirkgate.

Spring Youth Dance Performance Sat 17 May. 7.30pm. £1 (50p).

CATALYST’S KUDGA

Kuoga is the Swahili word lorwashing the body completely. In what Lindsay John, the founder of the group calls a ‘terment of experiment’, Catalyst have created a new work using the word both as title and inspiration.

Catalyst have the capacity to render speechless. Their combination oi visual effect and movement is uninhibited by the conventions of any technique or traditions and the results of their combined talents have solar been highly original and exciting. Formed last year for the Art on the Dole exhibition at the Gateway, Lindsay John reckoned that working as a group offered more opportunities to artists plagued by unemployment. ‘We pool ourtalents and give ourselves a showcase’ he says, at pains to emphasise the individuality of each member. For work goes on outside Catalyst. Derek, Booth and John play with Edinburgh bands, Julia, Lyn and Jan are professional dancers, Lindsay designs and choreographs, Steven lights up rock bands, David composes music and Larry is a medical student.

Perhaps it is this mix and ; cross-fertilisation of medium which ? provides the spark to Catalyst's

creations.

The group have a busy month in May and it you don’t catch them at the 5 Gateway they will be perlormlng I sections from Kuoga at the Assembly Rooms. They are also providing a unique finale to this year’s Spring Fling with an open-air performance of Chroma Zone, in U.V. light at the Boss Bandstand. Not to be missed. (Alice Bain)