DANCE | Previews
E R O O M - L L E B P M A C Y O R
98 THE LIST 21 Feb–21 Mar 2013
ALL-MALE BALLET LES BALLETS TROCKADERO DE MONTE CARLO Edinburgh Festival Theatre, Fri 22 & Sat 23 Feb
While there’s no disputing how captivating Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo can be, sometimes it’s equally fascinating to watch how the audience reacts to them. A regular fixture on the dance touring circuit since their
formation in 1974, the Trocks (as they’re known) offer a guaranteed good night out at the theatre. Laughs come thick and fast during the opening act, but what’s interesting is how the reaction changes as time goes on.
Slowly, the on-stage trips, grimaces and gags become further
apart, until all you’re left with is a stunning display of classical ballet. Meanwhile, the belly laughs in the crowd are gradually replaced by expressions of awe. ‘The audience is coming into the auditorium to laugh,’ says
artistic director, Tory Dobrin, ‘but you can’t do the same kind of laughing all evening, because it becomes tedious. So the first act is our campiest and we always open with something the audience will be really familiar with. And then we try to offer something different as you go along.’ The company has a stash of ‘stock jokes’, as Dobrin calls them, that are interchangeable between works. But much of the fun is derived from the performers themselves. ‘All of the dancers have been doing comedy for a long time,’ says Dobrin, ‘and so they bring their own humour to the piece.’
Back in Edinburgh as part of a UK tour, this time the programme will feature Les Sylphides, Pas de Deux, La Vivandière and Walpurgis Night. In keeping with the Trocks show trajectory, from wit to wow, the show will close with a piece performed exactly as the choreographer intended.
‘Walpurgis Night is already so kitschy, that when we tried to add stuff in, it was too much. So I said it’s a beautiful dance, let’s just do it straight – so that’s our closer.’ (Kelly Apter)
SITE SPECIFIC CONTEMPORARY DANCE JANIS CLAXTON DANCE Kelvingrove Art Gallery & Museum, Glasgow, Sat 2 & Sun 3 Mar; National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh, Sat 23 & Sun 24 Mar
If anybody knows how to work a location, it’s Janis Claxton. All those who saw her company take up residence in an Edinburgh Zoo enclosure in 2008 and 2011 will testify to that.
Now Claxton is back, and taking over some of Scotland’s finest cultural spaces. During the course of three weekends, she and her company (embellished by five dancers from China) will surprise museum-goers in Glasgow, Aberdeen and Edinburgh with new work Chaos and Contingency.
‘I’ve created the piece with the intention that the audience can enjoy the material from above,’
explains Claxton. ‘So I’ve chosen venues that have the capacity for balcony viewing.’
Exploring the interplay between science and art, Claxton’s choreography has been inspired by mathematical rules and patterns – hence the need to view from above. But fears that we need to go along with prior knowledge of fractals or cellular automatons are, happily, unfounded. ‘No one viewing needs to understand the rules or the maths at all,’ assures Claxton. ‘It sounds
complex, but it’s really just patterns that emerge and change as a result of simple rules and variations. But people are invited to simply enjoy the wonder of patterns evolving and dissolving, with some truly glorious dancing.’ (Kelly Apter)
CONTEMPORARY TRIPLE BILL RAMBERT DANCE COMPANY Theatre Royal, Glasgow, Thu 28 Feb–Sat 2 Mar; Edinburgh Festival Theatre, Tue 9 & Wed 10 Apr
Live music has always been a key part of any Rambert performance, but on this latest tour it’s more integral than ever. Not only is the score for Marguerite Donlon’s new work sung live, but a soprano weaves her way through the dancers as the piece unfolds. A sumptuous dance inspired by, and set to, the poems and prose of women through the ages, from Sappho to Elizabeth Taylor, Labyrinth of Love talks of love longed for, won and lost. Working with the music in the rehearsal studio, dancer Dane Hurst soon began to find the emotion within it. ‘We didn’t spend much time going into the meaning of the poetry,’ he says, ‘because it’s self-
explanatory. They’re simple expressions of love that we can all relate to. But we had the sopranos singing the words in the rehearsal room with us right from the beginning. We treated them like another dancer in the space.’
Performed alongside Javier De Frutos’ Elysian Fields (inspired by the life and work of Tennessee Williams) and Tim Rushton’s emotive Monolith, Labyrinth of Love is Donlon’s first creation for Rambert, but hopefully not her last. According to Hurst, the dancers really responded to her way of working. ‘She came in like a gust of wind,’ he recalls. ‘A bundle of energy that threw out lots of ideas
and different movement styles. And because it was very free flowing and expressive, we just really wanted to get our teeth into it.’ (Kelly Apter)