There is nothing egotistic about the People Show Studios whatsoever; despite it being home to the UK’s longest-running experimental theatre company People Show. The handful of square meters that makes up this goblin’s cave, set in a side road off Bethnal Green Road is all at once charming and nostalgic. Its size indicates that this was not the first choice of venue to house such a fast-growing dance festival but it does the trick on a cold winter’s night. The disco décor running the Green Room and cabal of public trying to squash into these cosy quarters keeps me amused until Chantal Guevara, Cloud Dance Festival’s director and producer, signals for us to fill the rafts.
So how many festivals actually survive without funding, presenting creations year after year? Cloud Dance Festival has been doing it thrice-yearly since 2007, and proudly introduced its Parade edition in December. Three performances over a weekend featured both favourite artists and newcomers, and although the People Show Studios proved quite small, seeing the performers up close is a privilege often denied in larger venues. The genius of Cloud Dance Festival also lies in its selection of short pieces, some of them works in process – you may not like something, but there are always 7 very different companies to discover, often introducing fresh new works.
Sunday's performance had an altogether different feel to it from Saturday’s, with two "narrative" works to kick off the evening. Diciembre Dance Group, a young company formed by Lucía Piquero, aimed very high with its first creation, The House of Bernarda Alba. It is encouraging to see young choreographers still taking inspiration from literature, and Mats Ek already proved that Federico García Lorca's play was well worth exploring in terms of movement. Lucía Piquero actually tried to go back to the original instructions of the play, and uses a cast of seven women to represent Bernarda, her daughters and the servant. Her style is lighter than Mats Ek's, inspired by the dancers' ballet training, but the mantillas, fans and religious postures bring the right note of obsession and ritual to the actual dancing. Giving a sense of the play's heavy symbolism in such a short time is a feat in itself, and Piquero uses her best dancers to the utmost, giving them short solos that highlight their individual dynamics. The piece could however be tighter and the ensemble parts more precise and powerful – steps were routinely blurred, but it is a promising start for the young Spanish dancer and choreographer.
Sophia Hurdley's Callas, on the other hand, is an absolutely unique work, quite unlike anything else performed that weekend. Based on the love story between Maria Callas and Aristotle Onassis while he was married to Jackie Kennedy, it uses R.J Murrow's voice and black and white film footage to give the audience a welcome sense of the context. Its blend of dance, music and drama is just superb, and Callas features great performers, whose scope and musical instinct are a testament to their West End background. Sophia Hurdley, in particular, soars through the choreography with an elegance absolutely fitting for Maria Callas - her clearly defined lines and the tragic sweep of her dancing bring true emotion to the singer's journey. Shelby Williams is cast to perfection as Jackie Kennedy, neat, clear, her serious austerity perfectly contrasting Callas, and James Leece's nuanced, fascinatingly restrained and awkward Onassis matches them both in acting. The triangle, with R.J. Murrow (Mike Denman) watching over, works dramatic wonders, especially when all three dancers (Callas and the couple) find themselves sharing the stage and mirroring each other. A stunningly expressive work, and a true ode to dramatic dance.
Lîla Dance's Here, Still Here, Still was born from a fascinating idea - what happens when you take away from someone his or her usual partners? A woman, Carrie Whitaker, has to work with the memories of these absent presences, and the seamless, dynamic piece that results shows her as a true performer, twisting and stretching her body into odd positions, moving into and away from the floor like a disturbed puppet character. All very well, but Here, Still Here, Still moves too fast to convey a sense of what is missing from the stage - her oddness is linear, almost too well-knit, and I wish her eyes had expressed more of what used to be. This thought-provoking experimentation just lacks a hint of structure and sense of communication to be compelling.
Free me out of existence, choreographed by Denzil Barnes and performed by Sezdrenah Dance Theatre, is an odd version of the battle between good and evil. A man in white goes through a mental combat of sorts with three figures in black lurking in the background, reminiscent of clichéd drug dealers. His struggle quickly takes the form of a MTV video, filled with relentless music in the background and thoroughly repetitive choreography. The good/evil division is far too simplistic – what exactly is it that they're doing to him? Can it be expressed through choreography? Without those vital elements, the figure in white looks like a martyr in a trance, an entity stuck in its agitation. It is a shame, as the dancers have a natural stage presence, and could do more with the street dance flavour of the work, but strong, well-composed choreography is the necessary evil, and it was missing.
Sol Dans, on the other hand, is a company bursting with ideas, and Melody Squire showed in Groundlings that she is a choreographer to be reckoned with. She was born in Chicago, and it shows, with jazz influences running deep in her vocabulary – Groundlings is American energy as we like it, physical and daring. The six dancers come out as tribal creatures, at once birds and panthers, their wild hair and painted bodies an indication of the form of ritual to come. The choreography hurls them into playful, energetic groups, and is only interrupted by the ribbons of cling film hanging around the stage – giving us the strange, beautiful image of animals suddenly trapped. Watch out for the future choreographic developments of Sol Dans – their escapism is very welcome.
Nexus Dance was billed to perform three solos, but only two made it to the Festival, namely Of Nothing and They Who Have Wings. Unfortunately, short and unrelated pieces are not the best format for a performance, especially without context, and neither registered really strongly. Josh Ben-Tovim is a beautiful dancer, all limbs and angst in Of Nothing, but I'm not sure how this piece differs from the thousands of «emotional» solos performed everywhere. They Who Have Wings was graced with wonderful live music from Tom Kirkpatrick, and his dialogue on stage with dancer and choreographer Siân Hopkins was probably the most interesting side of their work.
Last but not least, Ballet Black made an impromptu appearance, replacing another item. This highly-trained, fascinating company presented Pendulum, a pas de deux choreographed by Martin Lawrance to Steve Reich's Pendulum Music. Cira Robinson and Jazmon Voss both proved excellent in it, handling the classical virtuoso moves and contemporary partnering with flair, and a physical involvement all the more fascinating to watch from up close. The edgy, powerful competition between them wanes when they come together, yet feeds the tension of the pas de deux. It would be contemporary ballet at its best if Lawrance had selected another composer – Steve Reich's repetitive noise of a score gives no basis for movement, and a relationship to music would have given even more impulse to the couple. But Ballet Black's commitment to creation is a rarity in the ballet world, and its dancers are a class act.
So how many festivals actually survive without funding, presenting creations year after year? Cloud Dance Festival has been doing it thrice-yearly since 2007, and proudly introduced its Parade edition in December. Three performances over a weekend featured both favourite artists and newcomers, and although the People Show Studios proved quite small, seeing the performers up close is a privilege often denied in larger venues. The genius of Cloud Dance Festival also lies in its selection of short pieces, some of them works in process – you may not like something, but there are always 7 very different companies to discover, often introducing fresh new works.
The closing day of Cloud Dance Festival: Parade met a sold-out auditorium packed with eager dance viewers hungry for what was billed as a ‘Best Of’ special. Welcoming back some of the audience favourites from past festivals, the line-up boasted an exciting evening of contemporary dance.
Sunday 6th December 2009 and Cloud Dance Festival returned with its latest showcase Parade. As usual this last choreographic platform of the year was an assortment of various styles and offerings.
An honoured Bethnal Green played host to the final festival of 2009 produced by Cloud Dance Festival. Once again Cloud Dance Festival is back with a programme of exciting, innovative and groundbreaking pieces, giving London the opportunity to witness emerging and professional companies alike present their new work. This season, Cloud Dance Festival: Parade acts as a ‘best of’ for the festivals with companies selected by Cloud Dance Festival from this year’s previous events. Sunday evening saw a full house support seven organisations showcase their most recent works.
Cloud Dance Festival was developed in response to a lack of platforms for contemporary choreographers to share their work. Parade was a weekend of new pieces and some of the highlights from previous festivals. Housed in the cosy People Show Studios in Bethnal Green, Parade was so popular that it was over-subscribed on opening night!
As we are invited to take our seats and enter the theatre two dancers are casually moving in the space. Festival and nagune (wayfarer), choreographed by Ji Park, is an engaging work from the very beginning. As we enter the theatre two dancers are casually moving in the space. This unconventional framing breaks down the barrier between the audience and performers, connecting us with the dancers from the offset. In the centre of the stage stands a stack of books, this symbolic representation of all the order in our lives becomes a crucial element in the piece. As the dancers work to reorganise the stack, and we experience them struggling with the heavy load we are able to share the burden and effort. The sense relief when the books start to fall from their arms is felt by the audience and dancers alike.
It didn't bode well that the lighting desk died just minutes before the Sunday matinee was about to begin at the People Show Studios but fortunately for Cloud Dance Festival and its sold out audience, a genius was on hand to get everything back in working order just 15 minutes over schedule. And from an inauspicious start sprang a medley of enthralling, surprising, moving and intriguing dance.
Slanjayvah Dance's sensuous tango influenced duet offers an feast of toned flesh intricately synchronised by Jenni Wren and Phil Singer. Their partnering with blindfolds is inventive, the potential hazards of such complex partner work laid - almost literally - bare. Next up, Nexus Dance's stunning solo: 'Of Nothing' is all too short. The half deranged, long and lean male dancer gracefully stumbles across the stage, one minute his body fully outstretched, the next crumpled in on itself, every sinew strained and visible. We'd love to see more of this.
Hagit Yakira's duet 2B probes questions of being through an abstract duet featuring herself and Takeshi Matsumoto. From the opening gambit, a game about blinking, to the last gasp, holding each others' noses as they writhe about holding their breath this is a humourous and human piece of involving dance theatre. Their text enhances the unique dance style and the two personalities shine through endearingly. Their spot of funky disco dancing is especially jubilant.
After an interval where we're urged to give all our money to Cloud Dance (we still can't believe they receive no funding and cover all costs through ticket sales) we return to a frenetic take on rush hour from Pair Dance, both strong and relentless. And an odd but bewitching finale, a work in progress from Sophia Hurdley, interprets the story of Maria Callas's doomed love affair with Aristotle Onassis through dance. An intensely emotional, yet subtle performance from Hurdley is spellbinding, articulating the pain of love lost and a career sacrificed, played out to a haunting operatic soundtrack. But this West End style extract seems somewhat out of place at the end of an otherwise eclectic and strong contemporary dance bill.
We came with no expectations but left uplifted, wanting more and eager to see where Cloud Dance Festival goes next.
Slanjayvah Danza: ‘Blind Passion - Live Cut’, Nexus Dance: ‘Velocity - Of Nothing - They Who Have Wings’, Hagit Yakira: ‘2B’, Pair Dance: ‘RUSH’, Sophia Hurdley: ‘Callas’
December 2009
Bethnal Green, People Show Studios
by Bruce Marriott
The first time I've poked my head around Cloud Dance Festival's door, and apt, given Parade is a kind of "Best of" the previous 9 festivals they've given since starting business in 2007. There were 3 shows this weekend in Bethnal Green's 80-seat People Show Theatre, featuring 14 contemporary companies. The Sunday matinee I got to featured 5 and the general standard was a pleasing cut above Place Resolution and some of the curated Clore Studio events.
Slanjayvah Danza's Blind Passion - Live Cut kicked off the afternoon and proved a huge hit. Terrific to see a piece that is not about a troubled relationship for once, for this was about positive and wondrous things - the seductiveness and passion of bodies and physical contact. It starts with 'ordinary' Tango, the sexiest social dance of them all, and just as you think "That's OK, but Vincent and Flavia do it much better on 'Strictly'..." everything abruptly changes, the dancers (Jenni Wren and Phil Sanger - both excellent) don red blindfolds, strip right down, and the dance becomes much more free as they entwine and enjoy the pleasure of touch, manipulation and free contemporary play. It's HOT, but not in any sordid or smutty way ("damn" go all the heavy breathing 'may contain nudity' boys in the front row of the Place hoping for a transfer). It's an impressively fresh piece and I'm sure will be in the rep for a long time - it certainly deserves to be seen by many more.
If things started well it was down to earth with a bump during Nexus Dance's Velocity - Of Nothing - They Who Have Wings. It was supposed to be three solos but I think I only counted two: perhaps my brain just shut down. The programme didn't say if there was any particular theme but I didn't see much original here dance-wise - bar general contemporary noodling. I did though enjoy the live guitar and drawl of Tom Kirkpatrick.
Hagit Yakira and Takeshi Matsumoto were both lovable and annoying in 2B - sadly it was the annoying that won out for me. Credited with a dramaturge to ease its birth, 2B is "An attempt to create an abstract picture of two people meeting in one place, in an encounter that manifests itself in intimacy, competition, a challenge, tenderness and care." While just an 'attempt', it goes on far too long and I got very resentful of its impenetrable meanderings. The lovable bit is that both dancers have personally winning ways and there is humour in some of the competitions, like holding each others noses until they had to breathe, talking when they don't blink and when they do blink, they have to move (and not talk!). It's a bit like the dance equivalent of what Eddie Izzard would be to comedy if he was only firing on about one cylinder - on balance not such a great place to be. But true credit and kudos for trying something different.
Pair Dance grew to 3 for RUSH - an underground trip from Hell with endless personal pent-up frustration emerging and some bone-crunching dynamics as dancers hurl themselves around. It was all helped mightily by Richard Leonard's music/sound collage, which takes underground sounds, from the graunching and clatter of the wheels to the sneezing and wheezing of passengers and magnifies them to paranoid levels. A snappy and coherent piece of work that could fill the stage with movement.
Closing out the show was something very un-contemporary - Callas - about Maria Callas and Aristotle Onassis. Sophia Hurdley and her three dancers are Matthew Bourne/West End dance actors and their professionalism showed in impeccable costuming, make-up and video production. And hard to go wrong with a Maria Callas sound track. It explored the pursuit of Callas by Onassis and having won her his bored roving eye - all in rich 1950/60's period detail. The choreography was expressive and confident, if it broke no barriers, but like a Bourne show the work's success was as a complete production and it made me want to know more about Onassis and Callas - he clearly had more to him than money. It would be great to think this piece got developed on and its excellence rewarded. As my Granny would say "It was nice to see they dressed and bothered"!
I came away hugely impressed by the Festival and Chantal Guevara who puts it all on without public subsidy. The People Show Studios are pleasant enough but the Festival really needs somewhere bigger. All up a great advertisement for what "Can-do" attitude (by all concerned) can achieve and they deserve your support. Stop complaining about the lack of new work and go see some - in rich variety too.
