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PREVIEWS & REVIEWS | DANCE
BALLET SCOTTISH BALLET: THE CRUCIBLE Theatre Royal, Glasgow, Wed 25–Sat 28 Sep; Festival Theatre, Edinburgh, Thu 17 & Fri 18 Oct. Reviewed at Edinburgh International Festival ●●●●●
It’s fair to say that Scottish Ballet has form when it comes to translating tricky texts into dance. Its version of A Streetcar Named Desire was blistering, and lit up the text in a new, red- raw light. And it’s this that Helen Pickett’s The Crucible is most reminiscent of.
The question of why bother transposing Miller’s iconic text into a mute form quickly evaporates as the dance seizes hold of the physicality of lust, dogma, and mass hysteria. Emma Kingsbury has created a discomfiting world, where the giant spread of a huge cross dominates the stage.
Prayer in this community is expressed through military
drills, interrupted by tableaux of violent, simmering passions. Meanwhile, in a forest late at night the Salem girls manipulate dolls houses and shadow puppets, teetering en pointe, thrilling with the excitement of all that is forbidden.
Miller’s story – of teenager Abigail’s affair with her employer John Proctor, which becomes entangled in mass accusations of witchcraft – unfolds with clarity, mixing in just enough descriptive movement to let us know what’s going on. But it’s when the repressed surfaces of the central characters are scratched that the real heart of the piece pours out. There’s no hiding a character’s soul in dance, and this is
most apparent in the role of Elizabeth Proctor. Aloof and proper, almost chilly in Miller’s text, here she is a fully fleshed woman whose upright dignity softens as the piece progresses. Peter Salem’s score shivers menacingly, unsettling with its unpredictable rhythms, in a production which reminds us that beneath all the flying verbal accusations of the text lie breathing, pulsing humans. (Lucy Ribchester)
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CONTEMPORARY DANCE RICHARD ALSTON DANCE COMPANY Festival Theatre, Edinburgh, Fri 27 & Sat 28 Sep
With the shock announcement last October that Richard Alston Dance Company would be folding in 2020, plans started taking shape for an appropriate send-off. Founded in 1994, the company has staged almost 30 different works, so when it came to programming a swansong, there was lots to choose from. Entitled Final Edition, each show on the tour has been tailored for that specific venue, with the Festival Theatre programme featuring Mazur, Brahms Hungarian and brand new work Voices and Light Footsteps by Alston himself, plus Martin Lawrance’s new piece, A Far Cry.
CONTEMPORARY DANCE THE CHOSEN Tron Theatre, Glasgow, Thu 19 Sep; Brunton, Musselburgh, Sat 21 Sep, and touring. Reviewed at Dance Base, Edinburgh ●●●●●
Choreographer Kally Lloyd-Jones’ piece about death and dying opens with the loud throb of a heartbeat. Six dancers sit on mirrored cubes looking relaxed, apparently unaware of the sound of life booming out of the speakers. Lloyd-Jones wanted to create a work that explores the universal, complex
reality of death, following a year where she lost four people, including her best friend. Although The Chosen is about dying, what the show mostly focuses on is how people go about living, knowing that death is unavoidably in the post.
Forced to close due to The Place (the dance centre in London where Alston is The movement is often intensely physical; athletic spins and falls follow more
based) reapportioning its Arts Council grant, the company hopes to keep a flame alive through an archive and foundation. Alston also plans to offer his existing works to other companies. stationary sections, including one sequence where the dancers tap feet, bite nails, sigh impatiently then pace the floor, as if to remind us how much of life is spent waiting for something.
‘I really believe that choreographers, like other artists, mature if they keep going,’ says Alston. ‘For the past 25 years I’ve dedicated myself to my own company, and although I’ve worked with a few other companies, mostly in America, I’ll have more time to do that now. The dancers from Glasgow-based Company Chordelia are soaked in sweat by the end, having rippled themselves through swirling patterns of ebbing water as a soundtrack of crashing waves plays, then interlocking limbs and dangling torsos off each other, with some incredible paired work.
‘I’m sure there are some people who think why on earth hasn’t Richard Alston A fast-forwarded section of twitchy, hurried actions is also impressive, another
given up? But actually, as far as I’m concerned I really want each piece to be better than the one before – and I still live in hope that I haven’t made my best dance yet.’ (Kelly Apter) reflection on the passage of time. The subject matter could have made for a maudlin piece, but instead the dancers coax out ideas about how we waste or embrace the time we spend being alive. (Claire Sawers)
1 Sep–31 Oct 2019 THE LIST 93