Dance PREVIEWS
CONTEMPORARY DANCE BATSHEVA ENSEMBLE Edinburgh Festival Theatre, Tue 30 & Wed 31 Oct
In the past few years, companies such as Nederlands Dans Theater 2, Ailey 2 and Juilliard Dance have shown Scottish audiences just how intoxicating young dancers can be. What they lack in maturity, they more than make up for in youthful vigour and unbridled enthusiasm.
The latest company to send its youth wing our way is Israel’s Batsheva Dance Company, last seen at this year’s Edinburgh International Festival with the superb Hora. Comprised of a talented group of 18–24-year-olds, the Batsheva Ensemble acts as a bridging ground between dance training and the main company.
Sharing the same building – and most days the same class – as the dancers in Batsheva, the Ensemble members are surrounded by role models. Artistic director Ohad Naharin’s unique movement style, Gaga, is a unifying force for both companies.
‘It’s really inspirational to see the main company members when we have class together,’ says 20-year- old Or Schraiber, who joined the Ensemble in 2010. ‘But then everything is really inspiring here. When you come into the building in the morning, and do the Gaga class, it gives you an amazing energy for the rest of the day.’
On this, their first UK tour, the
Ensemble will perform Deca Dance, a collection of short works Naharin first created in 2000. Each time it’s performed, however, the work grows and evolves – aided by the Gaga technique that underpins it. ‘Gaga helps you develop your
imagination and creativity,’ explains Schraiber, ‘and it allows you to do whatever is right for your body. So with Deca Dance, everybody has their own individual qualities and ideas on how to interpret the movement.’ (Kelly Apter)
118 THE LIST 18 Oct–15 Nov 2012
HIP HOP DANCE ZOONATION: SOME LIKE IT HIP HOP Edinburgh Festival Theatre, Tue 6 & Wed 7 Nov
As anyone who’s seen her company ZooNation in action knows, Kate Prince is one of the UK’s savviest choreographer-directors. But it wasn’t easy to find the right follow-up to Into the Hoods, the company’s fairy tale-based smash hit and a bona fide hip hop dance theatre classic. As Prince admits, ‘There was so much pressure to
create another show with the same “winning formula”. It took us a long time, but I wanted to make sure what we did was very different while still keeping the high entertainment and comedy value.’
ZooNation has struck gold again with their loose adaptation of Some Like It Hot, a cinematic great converted into a zingy song and dance story of love, almost Shakespearean mistaken identity, and revolution. ‘The show’s turned into something much bigger than how it started out,’ says Prince. ‘It has a
huge heart and some deeper political messages, along with being a metaphor for hip hop culture and music – the good and the bad. I’m proud of the fact that in one performance we’re able to make the audience both laugh and cry. And it’s proved we’re not just a one-hit wonder.’ As well as ensuring audience enjoyment, Prince
has also helped the performers in ZooNation grow and develop, some of which is down to her working methods. ‘Once we’ve created the music [an original score by DJ Walde and Josh Cohen] and book [by Prince and Felix Harrison], we’re in the rehearsal room. There, the story content, structure, characterisation and themes always come first, before being coloured in with layers of intricate choreography and dance.’
Asked what she’d like prospective audiences to know before seeing the show, Prince is quick to answer: ‘If you like what you see, make some noise. Going to see a ZooNation show shouldn’t feel like a stiff event.’ (Donald Hutera)
CONTEMPORARY TRIPLE-BILL RICHARD ALSTON DANCE COMPANY Edinburgh Festival Theatre, Tue 23 Oct; Theatre Royal, Glasgow, Thu 1 Nov
For years, the only person who created work for the Richard Alston Dance Company was Alston himself. More recently, we’ve come to expect regular contributions from talented heir apparent, Martin Lawrance, the latest of which is Madcap. Set to an arresting soundtrack by New York’s Bang on a Can, Madcap comes hot on the heels of Lawrance’s energetic work for Scottish Ballet, Run For It. But after working with pointe-shoed ballerinas, he felt it was time for a change. ‘I wanted to do something very different,’ says Lawrance. ‘I used quite
a classical language with Scottish Ballet, but Madcap is all quite earth- bound, rougher and more raw than my usual work.’ Although essentially abstract in nature, Lawrance’s work usually has
a narrative starting point – even if it’s only in his head. With Madcap, however, he expects the audience to follow his train of thought.
‘I’m not portraying a story ballet, but there is a narrative thread running through it which should be clear enough,’ he says. ‘There’s a story about relationships that could go sour, and one of the characters is a kind of dark force that comes out of nowhere and tries to change things.’ Madcap sits alongside two Alston works, Shimmer and Devil in the Detail, both of which Lawrance has worked on in his role as rehearsal director. ‘I love seeing a master like Richard at work, and then as rehearsal director looking after his works and digging deeper into them.’ (Kelly Apter)