A 'cucashop' is a South African term for a drinking session, and it was all too appropriate that tonight's event was held in the bar of Shoreditch's Rich Mix.
Tonight's "Cucashop" was a fundraiser organised on behalf of Jen Irons' "ironINC in Africa"; I had missed her 2009 fundraiser, but tonight offered a restaging of her 2006 work "Due To Unforeseen Circumstances", followed by a performance by Uchenna Dance Company, DJs and various live musicians.
Tonight's show officially started at 7pm, and for the first half hour, the audience meandered around the space, trying to find somewhere to sit or stand, admiring the makeshift baobab tree, and enjoying the African-themed music.
The piece began with a woman screaming "Wait!!" while she ran across the stage area and flung herself at the bus stop. After a brief interlude, she started ranting about her ex-boyfriend, needing to pay her electricity bill, wash her clothes, buy groceries, charge up her laptop... as the piece progressed, she continued to launguish at the bus stop, contorting herself into ever more elaborate pretzels, never managing to board a bus, but at least seduced at the end by a snazzily-wigged Christian From.
"Due To Unforeseen Circumstances" is a piece about mechanics, cars, and buses which never arrive. It's also about people's stories along the way, and the skill of Jen Irons' choreography is interspersing her characters' dramas with sections of pure dance, with the use of intricate gestures to narrate her stories while never losing the dramatic tension.
The most memorable moment of this piece is course when Siobhan Maguire, as a mechanic, strips down to a bikini and dons a long-haired wig to the strains of "The Girl From Ipanema", and poses erotically on the motorbike at the rear of the stage. Two men see her, stop dead in their tracks... and then enthuse at length about the motorbike's specs, slapping the petrol tank, not even noticing Siobhan's presence. Finally she loses patience with them and chases them off, telling them "you look less like mechanics and more like... a boy band!"
If there's an award for "most skilful use of nods", then we can make sure that Jen Irons receives it for this piece!
In the speech which Jen Irons gave later in the evening, she mentioned that she'd managed to pluck 8 out of her 9 dancers out of retirement, and all the more credit to her (and them) for pulling off such a polished performance; although it's been 5 years since the creation of this piece, it still shows a maturity, freshness and dynamism rarely present in the works by today's LCDS graduates.
And surely Jen should receive some prize for bringing back her original cast members of Christian From, Steve Robinson, Nick Lawson, Marc Saad, Jane Alice and Leon Smith. I last saw an excerpt of this piece performed outside the British Library in 2006, the day after the LCDS graduate party, and it has barely lost any of its freshness since then.
After a brief interval, Uchenna Dance Company took to the stage with "Regal Culture", a celebration of the everyday woman performed by six women, each wearing vivid costumes made from African print fabric.
Uchenna Dance Company's choreographic style blends modern dance with African dance, however the six dancers were visibly more comfortable with the African-influenced movement; by contrast, the non-African movements were less distinct, performed with less vigour than the African choreography.
One of the dancers, Amy Latchman, was beautiful to watch, adding a finesse to her performance aided by influences from other movement styles.
Although the lack of programme information meant that it was hard to understand what the piece was about, it was a welcome opportunity to appreciate the new wave of African-influenced dance supported by East London Dance and Vocab Dance.
Following the next break, Jen Irons gave a brief speech to introduce the evening and to explain the work which she is trying to raise awareness and funds for.
For the last several years, she has been travelling to different countries in Africa each year, working with children who have been severely affected by the ongoing civil war and violence prevalent in many of these countries. Although she had had preconceived ideas when she first went out there, she has since learned that what is most important is to "enjoy listening to music, enjoy having a dance, and getting together to have a good time." It hasn't been a one-way process either: Jen has learned a lot about music, movement styles, people's stories and so much more in the time she has spent there.
Jen is fully committed to her upcoming project in Namibia, but she needs to raise the funds in order to make that possible. When she was talking about her first year there, she explained that she'd had all these "big ideas" about the work she would do with the children - but ultimately, all the kids wanted was "to get their freak on". And so they did.
And with your help, they'll continue to do so. If you'd like to donate, then please visit cucashop.com or ironincinafrica.blogspot.com
