DANCE | Previews 92 THE LIST 12 Jun–10 Jul 2014
DANCE THEATRE GUIDE GODS Greater Easterhouse Supporting Hands, Glasgow, Thu 12 Jun, then touring
As a dancer who performs on crutches, Claire Cunningham has explored her disability via a number of entertaining and thought-provoking shows in recent years. But it was a chance encounter in Cambodia that made her stop, think, and create a brand new show taking that exploration still further. ‘I met a disabled man who was a Buddhist,’
she recalls, ‘who told me that he attributed his disability to having done something bad in a previous life. I didn’t know how to engage with his belief, because it was so different from my own perspective on disability. It caused me to reflect on how much a product of my own society and upbringing I am.’ Inspired by her Cambodian encounter,
Cunningham went on to meet with people from a range of different faiths to discuss their views on disability. The resulting conversations led to Guide Gods, a blend of live music, movement and text. All those who heard Cunningham sing in her 2012 work, Ménage à Trois, will welcome the opportunity to hear those operatic tones again. ‘I miss singing,’ she says. ‘That was how I started as a performer. But I’m also singing because it’s my only relationship with religion. I don’t follow a faith, but was often given Christian songs to sing when I was training, and I find so much of the music incredibly beautiful. So I’m trying to understand what it means to sing this music as someone who isn’t religious.’ (Kelly Apter)
AUSTRALIAN FESTIVAL HOT Tramway, Glasgow, Thu 3 Jun–Thu 3 Jul
Sitting at his desk at the University of Melbourne, Robert Walton is over 10,000 miles away from Glasgow's Tramway when I speak to him. But in his mind’s eye, the spaces, atmosphere and audiences at the venue are all crystal clear. Prior to his relocation to Australia in 2011, Walton was a practising artist and teacher in Glasgow, whose own work was performed at Tramway. So when the venue’s programme manager, Tim Nunn, was looking for somebody to co-curate the upcoming festival of Australian dance and performance, it was Walton he called. ‘Tim wanted to do something for the Commonwealth Games which focused on one country,' explains Walton. And so the planning began. Walton spent the next year attending dance festivals, watching videos and communicating with Nunn across the miles (‘we exchanged a lot of emails,’ he laughs).
The result is HOT, a month of shows and film screenings which, says Walton, give us ‘a flavour of what is most interesting about contemporary Australian practice'. Featuring the work of six companies, the festival takes us from performance installation to dance theatre to laser show.
According to Walton, it’s a chance to view the cutting edge next to movement that literally dates back centuries. ‘We’ve tried to celebrate the extraordinary richness of the oldest continuous culture,' he says, 'with the emerging multiculturalism of one of the most culturally diverse places in the world.’ (Kelly Apter)
FESTIVAL COMMONWEALTH YOUTH DANCE FESTIVAL Tramway, Glasgow, Thu 10–Sat 12 Jul
Faced with 115 applications, and just 36 slots in the Commonwealth Youth Dance Festival available, Anna Kenrick had her work cut out.
As artistic director of YDance, it was her job to say yes or no to young dancers from around the world, all keen to be part of this summer’s celebration. Taking place over three nights, the Festival had to be diverse, have a good geographic spread – and give a few unknowns a chance. ‘We were looking for choreographic excellence,’ says Kenrick. ‘But also different styles of dance from across the Commonwealth countries, so it wasn’t a purely contemporary dance festival.’
To that end, Kenrick has invited dancers from 10 different nations, including a ‘phenomenal’
Bharatanatyam company from India, the national youth dance companies of England, Scotland and Wales, all-male jazz company Khronos from the BRIT school, and a company from Namibia, to name but a few. Some youth groups linked to prestigious dance schools and centres, will have been surprised
by Kenrick’s knock-back. But as she says, ‘we just felt that some other groups needed a chance to get their foot in the door.’
‘You’re going to see excellence in youth dance,’ she says, ‘and the power and energy that young people bring. The aim with all the work we do, is that people see dance which just happens to be performed by young people – rather than young people who dance.’ (Kelly Apter)