Theatre
CON TEMPORARY DANCE RICHARD ALSTON DANCE COMPANY
Edinburgh Festival Theatre, Mon 1 Dec
For almost a decade, there’s been one thing on the menu. Since forming his self-titled company in 1994, Richard Alston has presented work by a single choreographer - himself. Having spent six years at the Rambert helm commissioning other people, Alston had decided that his time was now. And in the absence of outside influences, he has forged a group of dancers who perform his work beautifully, inhabiting his moves like a second skin.
But now it’s time for a change. For the first time ever, Alston is offering us something else to feast upon. Sandwiched between Overdrive, Alston’s latest fast- paced offering, and a revival of his uplifting Brisk Singing, comes Martin Lawrance’s Grey Allegro. An Alston dancer since 1995, Lawrance’s close working relationship with his boss was compounded earlier this year when he was made rehearsal director for the company. But it was during a
trip to Athens in 2002, where he was
working with students from the State School of Dance, that Lawrance’s choreographic talents
DANCt'
AS IF YOUR DEATH WAS YOUR LONG-EST
SNEEZE EVER
Tramway, Glasgow, Thu 4—Sat 6 Dec
There's a Quickl ime movre you can find on the internet Willi a couple of extracts from Hooman Sharili's latest shoW. It's the strangest thing. The audience is seated, not together in a fixed bank. but scattered all over a dance studio facing in every direction. In and around them Sharifi's three dancers perform jerky rhythmical movements. Next minute everyone's on their feet standing in the dark while the dancers brush past. snuggle up and generally disconcert.
It's all part of Sharifi's aim to create a direct relationship With his audience. A politically driven choreographer. he's concerned With the ideals of equality. sincerity and directness and would rather play to a room full of indiVIduals than to a homogenised crowd.
came to the fore.
‘I made a piece with the students and Richard really liked it, so he asked me to teach it to the company,’ explains Lawrance. ‘And then this year he decided to put it into the repertoire — which has been great, because the dancers are obviously ten times more technical than the students, and it’s taken the work in a completely different direction.’ Originally inspired by an Otto Dix painting, Grey Allegro has
Born in Iran. he emigrated on his own to Norway at the
age of 14. got interested in dance by 21 and eventually developed a distinct choreographic style based on hip hop. ballet and JZl/X With theatre and Visual arts thrown in for good measure. By bringing his dancers into such close contact With the audience. while doing away With anything as fancy as a set design, he aims to create a rare relationship of warmth and freedom. He also knows a good
title when he sees one. (Mark Fisher)
72 THE LIST Qi' New ’1 Dec 2003
Up close and personal
lNS lAl lAl ION
LIVING CITIES Lowcost supermarket, Toryglen, Glasgow, Fri 28 & Sat 29
From Reich to Scarlatti
undergone a number of changes since its Greek premier. Despite being choreographed to an electric guitar score by Steve Reich, the finished work is actually performed to a vastly different piece of music - Scarlatti’s Piano Sonata. ‘The music is very fast and beautiful,’ says Lawrance. ‘And because a lot of the piece was made to this heavy electric guitar, the movement really pushes against the music in an edgy kind of way.’ (Kelly Apter)
A collage of experiences
They've turned Jerry Springer into an opera. so hoW long before they make a musical out of Dale Winton's Supermarket Sweep? It's bound to happen. Though probably the company to do it Will not be the Working Party. the GIEngO‘J."DiiSOd
multinational group of theatrical experimenters Whose aims are
altogether less flippant.
lean‘ing up With local people. the (I()li‘l)£lll\, is moying in on the disused Lowcost supermarket in Toryglen's Prospectnill Square to create a hybrid installation performance event that Will be free to the public. Directed by Edinburgh University graduate Benno Plassiitann ll‘. collaboration With Turin's Stalker Teatro. it Will feature a soundscape by Giles Lamb and a host of responses by Toiyglen residents to the question of What makes a 'liVing city'.
The audience Will be guided around the old supernzarket where they'll come across a collage of experiences. \‘xhether they be accounts by refugees and asylum seekers. paintings by children or a teenager's yideo diary Inspired by the city councils social inclusion policy. the event comes at the start of a three-year scheme to make creative connections between (Slasgox'i and Turin.
Don't bother With your Nectar card and don't try asking for cash back. {Mark Fisheri
CLASSIC
OUR TOWN Gilmorehill G12, Glasgow, Wed 3 — Sat 6 Dec
You know the trick about Invascn of the Body Snatchers? The 50s SCI- fi B mOVIe classic has been seen by some as a highly conservative piece of work. anti communist to the pOint of scariness. and generally a bolster to the most reactionary version of America before the Dubya era. But is it really? Other critics have seen it as a satirical attack on these values. In it. the people of a small. white picket fence middle class town are taken over by unfeeling. unemotional vegetables from Outer space. And nobody notices. Geddit’?
Who’s town?
Steve Bottoms. who's made a name for himself directing such pieces as the Pericles for Shakespeare in the Botanics and the more recent Toni Paine over the last couple of years has a similarly ambivalent text on his hands in Thornton Wilder's 1938 American classic. With a student company to work With. Bottoms has taken the radical path. examining Wilder's small toWn American milieu from the point of view. not of its comfort and reassurance. but its stultifying conformity and dullness. Bottoms intends to focus on the minutiae of this kind of life to expose its hypocrisy. With multimedia techniques and a monochrome set designed by Ell/iilXI‘lll Schuch, this looks an intriguing night. iSteve Ci'ainerl