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CONTEMPORARY NDT2 Edinburgh Festival Theatre, Fri 22 & Sat 23 Apr DANCE THEATRE NIJINSKY’S LAST JUMP Paisley Arts Centre, Sat 23 Apr then touring
It’s 1998 and Sol León and Paul Lightfoot’s world is about to turn upside down. The choreographic duo (and former couple) are expecting their first baby and creating ‘Sad Case’, their 17th work for Nederlands Dans Theater. ‘It was a very important work for us,’ recalls Lightfoot. ‘Often our works reflect what is going on for us at the time and we were about to become parents. So “Sad Case” was about: “what on earth are we going to get?” It’s extremely mad and bombastic.’ Both the work, and the child, have since grown. Celebrating their 25th
anniversary as NDT choreographers in 2015, Lightfoot and León decided to create two brand-new pieces, ‘Schubert’ and ‘Some Other Time’, and to re- stage, re-light and extend ‘Sad Case’ by a further seven minutes. The works are what Lightfoot calls ‘three worlds that inter-connect’ and will form part of NDT2’s Edinburgh programme. Also on the bill are Edward Clug’s fast paced ‘mutual comfort’, Hans van Manen’s masterful ‘Solo’ and Alexander Ekman’s witty crowd- pleaser, ‘Cacti’. ‘There are bound to be works you find more interesting or have a greater attachment to, because each one has its own individual character,’ says Lightfoot, who is also NDT’s artistic director. ‘But it’s an extremely diverse programme for both the audience and the dancers.’ (Kelly Apter)
As a dancer and choreographer, his work was both thrilling and tender. So it’s not surprising that 65 years after his death, Vaslav Nijinsky still holds a fascination for many. Reading his biography as a teenager, Kally Lloyd-Jones instantly felt an affinity with the troubled ballet star. And in August 2015, her lifelong admiration led to the creation of a dance theatre work, Nijinsky’s Last Jump.
‘There’s something about him that I can relate to,’ says Lloyd-Jones. ‘And through the process of researching the show, I felt I’d got under his skin and could see how misunderstood he was.’ Responsible for such iconic works as L'après-midi d'un faune and The Rite of Spring, Nijinsky sadly became almost as well known for his mental illness as his choreography. Set in a theatre dressing-room, Nijinsky’s Last Jump brings the elderly
dancer face to face with his younger self. Both audiences and critics at the Edinburgh Fringe were unanimous in their praise for this profoundly moving work, and now the show will tour Scotland for the first time. ‘I wanted to pay homage,’ says Lloyd-Jones, ‘It was wonderful that audiences got it and that it made people think, feel and go away reflecting on his life.’ (Kelly Apter)
POLITICAL DANCE 5 SOLDIERS Tramway, Glasgow, Fri 29 & Sat 30 Apr then touring
The horrors of war have been depicted for centuries, through paintings, poetry and film. But when a damaged leg forced dancer and choreographer Rosie Kay to think about injury and recovery, it led to a new way of depicting combat. Ten years in the making, 5 Soldiers is a microcosm of life in the army, from training to hanging out in the mess, fighting on the frontline and finally to rehabilitation. Gaining access to the military for research purposes was Kay’s first challenge, and it was while convincing the Major General to support the project, that she first coined the phrase ‘war choreographer’.
‘I said to him that there are war poets, war photographers and
war artists,’ says Kay. ‘But actually the medium of what you do in the army is your body: that’s what you use, that’s what you train with. There’s so much talk about weaponry and technology but it’s still the body on the frontline, the body that gets harmed. And as a choreographer, I’m going to have a different take on that from any other artist, be that visually or narratively.’ After spending a gruelling but fascinating time with an infantry
regiment and taking part in war-like situations on Dartmoor at 2am, Kay also visited hospitals where soldiers were recovering from their time in Afghanistan. All of which she poured into 5 Soldiers, a work which has been widely praised for its authenticity by army personnel, and for its emotional impact by audiences in general. ‘I wanted to humanise something which has become very
dehumanised,’ says Kay. ‘We see the uniform and the weaponry but we don’t think about the human being. But it’s our politicians who send our troops to war and we have a responsibility to engage in those decisions. It’s not an easy subject matter, but I’m a political choreographer and I want to make work that has a relevance to the world I’m living in.’ (Kelly Apter)
7 Apr–2 Jun 2016 THE LIST 97