Dance, Contemporary dance

Richard Alston Dance Company

Music has always played a huge part in Richard Alston’s work, but these days he’s having fun with lyrics, too. Last year’s Shuffle It Right introduced dance audiences to the witty words of late American jazz singer, Hoagy Carmichael. ‘Hoagy was an…

Phoenix Dance Company

Most mixed bills throw two or three pieces your way, but not Phoenix. The Leeds-based company is presenting no less than five diverse works for your delectation. Artistic director, Javier De Frutos contributes his visually striking Blue Roses inspired…

Janis Claxton Dance Company

CONTEMPORARY DANCE The last time we saw Janis Claxton, she was looking rather sodden in a rainy enclosure at Edinburgh Zoo. Not that the weather dampened her spirits – Claxton’s group show, Enclosure 44 – Humans was a huge success at this year’s…

Matthew Bourne's Dorian Gray

Effective storytelling makes for an adaptation with impact

In the closing moments of Dorian Gray, a bright light shines out into the audience, temporarily blinding us. Something most people aren't used to, but those who spend their life in the spotlight are all too familiar with. It's this -- the trappings of…

5 Questions - Rosie Kay

5 biggest influences as a choreographer: Charlie Chaplin and Fred Astaire films. Artist Otto Dix and the Weimar Republic period of German history. Merce Cunningham. Pina Bausch. My old history teacher, Philip MacKenzie, at the Royal High School. 4…

A Night at the Movies

Classic scenes from the silver screen

Golden moments from classic Hollywood films are the inspiration for this patchy production from US choreographers Gallimaufrey & Greene. While the intention is to provide an accessible entry point for theatregoers who are less familiar with contemporary…

Holdin' Fast

The mathematics of sexuality

As we file into the UK debut by the Czech Republic’s only professional contemporary dance company, we’re confronted by the body of a young man, draped over a blackboard covered in mathematical equations. Upstage, under a half-raised curtain, running…

Nycht-Hemeron

Poetry and motion

Despite Outside In’s good intentions – they help young performers gain experience – neither the bland choreography nor the mediocre dancers’ technique rescues Nycht-Hemeron from its difficult early morning slot. Putatively exploring the passage of a…

State of Matter

Breakdance/contemporary fusion hits the spot

Following last year’s pattern of hip hop informed acrobatics, ragged yet stunning male ensemble dancing and spectacular solos, 2FaCeD DaNcE Company has tightened up its structure and enhanced the showmanship. It remains a forceful display of masculine…

The Judgment of Paris

Can Can, corsets and high camp

With sculpted, Harlow-platinum wigs, gorgeously gilded corsetry and tongues in cheeks firmly set to ‘high camp’, this riotous piece of dance theatre by Company XIV merges Baroque dance forms, Can Can and contemporary ballet to music by Offenbach and…

Damned Beautiful

Dorian Gray does discordancy

One of many pieces pivoting on The Picture of Dorian Gray at this year’s Fringe, this duet pares down the complexities of Wilde’s novel to focus on the obsessive sexual relationship between Basil Hallward and his beautiful boy. There is some beautiful…

Flamenco, Flamenco!

Spanish flavour at the Fringe

While they have a shared heritage, these two shows take radically different approaches to Spain’s national dance. Ricardo Garcia’s Flamenco, Flamenco! features four virtuosos, with the emphasis as much on music as on dancing. Ricardo’s acoustic…

Comedy Shuffle - New Art Club

Edinburgh Festival Fringe

New Art Club are aiming to stretch beyond their usual crowd by injecting some daftness into dance. Kelly Apter finds out how steps and stand-up can go hand in hand.

The Judgment of Paris

Edinburgh Festival Fringe

Brigitte Bardot, Marlene Dietrich, Helen of Troy, Marilyn Monroe: icons each and every one of them, all famed for their beauty. For the Fringe debut of Brooklyn dance team Company XIV, artistic director Austin McCormick plans to lay on a paean to the…

Nederlands Dans Theater 2

CONTEMPORARY DANCE Theatre Royal, Glasgow, Fri 20 & Sat 21 Jun Given the enormous influence Jirí Kylián has had over Nederlands Dans Theater during the past 30 years, it should come as no surprise that even when he’s not there, his presence is felt.

The Curve Foundation 10th Anniversary Gala

CONTEMPORARY DANCE King’s Theatre, Edinburgh, Tue 20 May ‘I thought if I were to have a party to celebrate ten years of the Curve Foundation, who would I invite?’ says Ross Cooper, artistic director of Curve Foundation. ‘Who has been relative to our…

Nederlands Dans Theater 1

CONTEMPORARY DANCE Edinburgh Festival Theatre, Fri 11 & Sat 12 Apr Although Nederlands Dans Theater’s ever-excellent youth company paid us a visit in May 2007, it’s been almost two years since principal company NDT1’s memorable, award-winning…

Myth

DANCE Tramway, Glasgow, Thu 17–Sat 19 Apr According to Jung, the self is only created when the conscious and the unconscious unite, and a failure to embrace our unconscious brings on fragmented turmoil. It’s this notion of ‘finding a balance within…

The Blank Album

As all musicians know, putting together an album isn’t just about writing songs. Running order, track length and variety of sound all come into play. So when choreographer, Natasha Gilmore decided to use the album model to create her latest dance piece…

Uprising/In Your Rooms

Hofesh Schechter’s work, here seen in two new pieces, has set the contemporary dance world alight. In this programme, among other themes, ideas about masculinity and family are explored. Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, Sat 22 Mar

Scottish Dance Theatre

CONTEMPORARY DANCE Glasgow Theatre Royal, Thu 28–Fri 29 Feb When dance works – and I mean really works – it’s not your eyes that tell you, but your heart. And that rush of adrenalin. Needless to say, it doesn’t happen very often – but with Liv Lorent…

The Visible Men

NEW WORK Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, Sat 16 Feb Contemporary dance and comedy double act are two concepts that aren’t usually found in the same sentence. The two genres appear to attract such widely different types of audiences, and philosophies that…