Dance, Contemporary Dance

The Curve Foundation 10th Anniversary Gala

8 May 2008

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…

Myth

10 Apr 2008

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…

Nederlands Dans Theater 1

10 Apr 2008

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…

Edinburgh International Festival programme unveiled

2 Apr 2008

This year’s Edinburgh International Festival will take the changes and challenges facing contemporary Europe as its theme, it was announced today. Highlights of the programme include the world premiere of Matthew Bourne’s new dance work ‘Dorian…

The Blank Album

13 Mar 2008

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

13 Mar 2008

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

28 Feb 2008

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

14 Feb 2008

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…

Scottish Dance Theatre

14 Feb 2008

CONTEMPORARY DANCE Dundee Rep, Thu 21–Sat 23 Feb, then touring. When dance and music come together, it’s usually a fusion of creative sources – a symbiotic partnership of composer and choreographer. But when artistic director, Janet Smith commissioned…

La La La Human Steps: Amjad

31 Jan 2008

MODERN BALLET They say a picture tells a thousand words, and the poster for La La La Human Steps’ latest show pretty much tells you all you need to know. Standing 20ft tall, male dancer Dominic Santia is wearing a sharp black suit and pointe shoes.

Play Ball

17 Jan 2008

CONTEMPORARY DANCE Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, Sat 26 Jan Nina Rajarani is not afraid to mix things up. In her latest show, the London-based choreographer has merged a typically female Indian dance style with two largely male domains: the…

Act One

17 Jan 2008

CONTEMPORARY DANCE Tron Theatre, Glasgow, Thu 31 Jan When you talk about battles on the dancefloor, it usually involves a hip hop crew and some fairly heavy beats. But when Charlotte Vincent, artistic director of Vincent Dance Theatre, created…

Rambert Dance Company

1 Nov 2007

CONTEMPORARY DANCE Festival Theatre, Edinburgh, Wed 7–Fri 9 Nov Grace, finesse and refinement – three things every Rambert dancer has at their disposal. But the arrival of Australian choreographer, Garry Stewart this summer, turned the company on…

Richard Alston Dance Company

1 Nov 2007

CONTEMPORARY DANCE Festival Theatre, Edinburgh, Tue 13 Nov Music – some choreographers can’t start work without it, while for others it’s the final piece in the jigsaw. But for Martin Lawrance, dancer and choreographer with Richard Alston Dance…

Susan and Darren

4 Oct 2007

Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, Wed 17–Sat 20 Oct DANCE THEATRE Reality television may dominate the small screen, but seldom has it found its way into the theatre. And although the creators of Susan and Darren find the term ‘Reality Theatre’ too…

Scottish Dance Theatre

6 Sep 2007

In the past ten years, Scottish Dance Theatre has commissioned over 30 works, none more captivating, emotive and engaging than Liv Lorent’s Luxuria. So it’s little wonder that for its 21st anniversary tour, the Dundee-based company has chosen to…

Hitlist - the best Festival dance

23 Aug 2007

Ballerina Who Loves A B-Boy The finest Korean breakdancers in town – treat yourself to headspins, streetdance and a wee bit of ballet in this five star show. clubWEST@Hilton, 0772 028 5550, 7.45pm, until 24 Aug, £12 (£9). Trisha Brown Dance Company…

Trisha Brown Dance Company

23 Aug 2007

In 1962, one building in New York City became the centre of the modern dance world. Artists flocked to Judson Memorial Church to produce work, and when they left, went on to influence dancers and choreographers around the world. But when I ask Trisha…

Ballerina Who Loves a B-Boy

16 Aug 2007

Although it’s been crammed into a hotel function room better suited to the cringey frugging of a wedding disco, this gleeful little production is the most assured and exuberant of the cluster of Korean breakdance shows infesting the Fringe this…

Desert Island Dances

16 Aug 2007

This year, a proportion of the Fringe dance programme seems to be backing away from huge, political themes, focusing instead on small, personal moments of introversion. Desert Island Dances by Wendy Houston, whose Haunted, Daunted and Flaunted triptych…

John Moran and his Neighbour, Saori

16 Aug 2007

First off, this is not the show we’re supposed to see. At time of reviewing, the eponymous Saori was still in New York, nursing a burnt foot. By the end of Moran’s Edinburgh run, the Japanese dancer should be on stage with him – albeit slightly less…

Leitmotif

16 Aug 2007

Andrew Dawson is excitedly telling us about a company who film train journeys; no commentary, just a camera stuck to the front of the engine. He plays us the video – Bognor Regis to Victoria – and hops excitedly into the frame to point out the corner he…

Méli Mélo II

16 Aug 2007

Parody is a tricky thing to pull off. There’s a risk that, while attempting to point out the absurdity of the medium you’re lampooning, you destroy what made it worth imitating in the first place. Happily, Chicos Mambos succeed in negotiating that…

Scottish Dance Theatre

16 Aug 2007

Scotland’s national contemporary dance company celebrates its 21st birthday this year, so go along and see how they’ve grown. This Fringe they’ll be performing Vanessa Haska’s wartime-inspired work, Sorry About the Missiles!, using the company’s usual…

The Voice of Things - Toilet Paper

16 Aug 2007

The solo performer waters her toilet rolls, wears a toilet paper skirt and crown, drapes toilet paper across the stage and generally loses herself, and the audience, in the slow and painful process. Are Underbelly trying to fill their rooms or just…

As the Mother of a Brown Boy

9 Aug 2007

Just as society lets so many young black men fall through the net, As The Mother Of A Brown Boy also struggles to reach the dead boy it tries to reclaim from the ranks of statistics. As usual, Chickenshed are to be lauded for attending to a subject…

Cape Dance Company

Kelly Apter

9 Aug 2007

Bringing a show to the Edinburgh Fringe is a financial challenge for most people – but when you live over 6000 miles away, it’s a Herculean effort. Cape Dance Company has visited the Fringe twice before, in 1996 and 1998, so a return visit is long…

Druthers

9 Aug 2007

Druthers’ Everyman in the attic is hoisted from his hermitage by an entertaining barrage of multimedia performance from Bristol’s Precarious Dance. The company take the opportunity to showcase their very talented wares, making especially beautiful use…

Incarnat

9 Aug 2007

Each solo sequence in Incarnat is an incitation to empathy, relentlessly asking the onlooker to reach out. The shock tactics it uses in this endeavour make for difficult viewing at times, but its images create a devastatingly powerful piece of…

Maximum Crew

9 Aug 2007

Korean breakdance has evolved away from the po-faced machismo that can pervade Western scenes, so while the dancers may still occasionally come across as cocky show-offs, they’re not afraid of self-parody or knowing camp. Over there the b-boy crews…

Natasha Gilmore

5 questions

9 Aug 2007

5 words sum up your dance piece, Madame Bazie? Comic, intimate, ridiculous, emotional, intricate. 4 shows you’re looking forward to seeing Everything at Assembly Aurora Nova and Dance Base; A performance I know absolutely nothing about; The…

On Danse

9 Aug 2007

Sticking a video screen behind your choreography is all the rage these days, but few people do it as seamlessly as these guys. Compagnie Montalvo-Hervieu from France has blended ballet, contemporary, African and breakdance with a stunning video…

State of Matter

9 Aug 2007

The stark lighting and simple uniform of black tailcoats characterise the restraint that permeates this performance by Hereford’s 2FaCeD DaNcE Company. There is no narrative to this show, rather it is a collection of unrelated set pieces, the…

Tap Olé

9 Aug 2007

Tap Olé’s simple coupling of lively, rhythmic hoofing to classical guitar and hand clapping injects tap dance with a sexy, contemporary, feel. In this Spanish dance, the click of the castanets is replaced by a percussive whirr created by the dancers…

The Mothers Bones

9 Aug 2007

Inspiration can strike in the most unlikely of places, and for Kath Burlinson it was inside a cave in the Dordogne. Surrounded by ancient drawings, she hit upon the idea of The Mother’s Bones, a show which explores three ages of womanhood.

Dance Base

Edinburgh Festival Fringe

19 Jul 2007

Teenage boys, a footballer’s wife, a sprightly septuagenarian and a man in a dress. Kelly Apter talks to artistic director Morag Deyes about this year’s Dance Base programme

Leitmotif

Edinburgh Festival Fringe

19 Jul 2007

Andrew Dawson went on a deeply personal journey for his last Fringe hit. Kelly Apter discovers that his new dance show goes straight for the entertainment jugular

Score

Edinburgh Festival Fringe

19 Jul 2007

Edinburgh Festival Fringe A question of sport Allan Radcliffe talks to Quentin Ogier of 2002 Fringe award-winners Au Cul du Loup about their games-themed show

Hitlist - The best theatre & dance

3 Jul 2007

• Othello Bard in the Botanics continues with Shakespeare’s classic of ambition, jealousy and intrigue. Gordon Barr’s production sees an appropriately stifling and claustrophobic use of space employed in the leafy Kibble Palace where the drama is played…

Introdans Ensemble for youth and NDT2

22 May 2007

MODERN DANCE Double Dutch usually implies confusion and misunderstanding. But in Edinburgh this month, it means two tasty helpings of dance from the Netherlands. Hot on each other’s heels, Introdans Ensemble for Youth and Nederlands Dans Theater 2…

Yippeee!!!

22 May 2007

CONTEMPORARY DANCE With his love of geometric patterns and big budget dance routines, Busby Berkeley knew how to entertain an audience. And trying to emulate such a master, in these days of funding cuts and small venues, is no mean feat. But as she’s…

Les Ballets C. de la B - VSPRS

Tramway, Glasgow, Thu 3 - Sat 5 May

23 Apr 2007

CONTEMPORARY DANCE Belgian company, Les Ballet C. de la B is the spider plant of the dance world. Small cuttings spliced from the main group regularly take root elsewhere, creating diverse work under the same moniker. This unique structure means that…