‘Live Bites’ That’ll Tantalise Your Northern Palette!

Joelene English, Choreographer and Dancer : 'February 11th 1963'.  'February 11th 1963' is a piece examining the last days of Sylvia Plath and is a 2013 revival co-production with Dance City Newcastle and Arts Council England.  Choreographer : Joelene English.  Dancer : Joelene English.  Photographer : John FG Stead

Live bites, is the latest Friday First by Yorkshire Dance. Here, they presented new work by emerging artists based in Hull, Newcastle, Merseyside and Scotland as part of Northern Platform. It’s aim is to increase the visibility of dance artists and companies working in the north, outside their respective regions. For dance in Yorkshire, the evening was a little taste of what the rest of the north has to offer, alongside showcasing some of Yorkshire’s work. On the whole I enjoyed the evening – straight talking, interesting and easy to relate to. A big fat thumbs up for an entertaining and varied program that dealt with themes like love, relationships and human ( possibly animal) behaviour. One audience member equated the experience to watching 3D TV.  I liked that. I watch a lot of live dance performance and it’s easy to forget how incredibly talented dancers are. Here’s a flavour of what we saw.

First up for the evening was Dance City (Newcastle) with an extract from a longer duet called February 11th 1963. Choreographed and performed by Joelene English, the work focuses on Sylvia Plath’s last moments. Now watching this caused me to revisit the work of Sylvia Plath and I found this article written about her last days, which reminded me of Plath’s fragility and how hard it must be to live around people suffering from that kind of depression. When I first read Plath’s autobiographical novel The Bell Jar, I saw Plath as a strong but misunderstood woman. It struck me that her ‘free will’ was interpreted as mental illness. Of course, this is not the whole story, but being electrocuted to cure ‘unconventional’ behaviour would have had me lobotomised before I even reached puberty. If I am honest, I was a little dubious about seeing a dance piece whose subject was a woman with depression that killed herself. I feared that it would be gloomy and tedious. Not so. The choreography was intricate and interesting. It had a clear framework and moved swiftly from one idea to another, painting almost cinematic images for the audience. The set was simple but effective, with a retro typewriter balanced at an angle, a chair, a stack of old hand-bound books, and a lamp. With the monotony of the sound of a ticking clock and the action confined to a small section of the space , I could easily imagine Plath locked in her room for hours going over and over the same dark thoughts. At seven minutes, I felt like the story was only just getting started, so I am very interested to see the full duet.

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Second performance came from Dance Base (Edinburgh). ID Me choreographed by Tamsyn Russell, was a series of short vignettes that seemed to me to show the dis-functional behaviour that pervades even the most flawless facade. Some of the choreography was compelling to watch, with three excellent performances from Fiona Jeffries, Adrienne O’Leary and Tamsyn Russell. The characters seemed like three slightly warped dolls. The movement was precisely executed and technically impressive. In each ‘snapshot’, there was something that was slightly off-kilter. Seemingly perfect synchronisation was interrupted by deliberate deviations and doll-like unblinking eyes stared at the us. The opening song had a cartoon-like creepiness, that again emphasised that all was not as it seemed. Three images came to my mind watching ID Me; first, a film of a woman being photoshopped to the point that she no longer looks human and appears more like a mannequin (you may have seen this on facebook recently from a blog called Upworthy). Second, the ‘mean girls‘ characters in the film of the same name. In the film, these girls follow each other around mindlessly and adhere to a very weird set of rules. Third, advertisements in the 1950’s and their portrayal of  women. There was a rather malleable, compliant quality to the characters in this piece, yet they were clearly physically powerful and had minds of their own. This contrast of power and conformity was very interesting. The choreography created a very specific movement language, that worked brilliantly as a trio. On a personal note, I would have loved to have seen more of a story to this choreography.

The House Smells of Ghost -  www.joforrestphotographer.com

The opening to the second half, This House smells of Ghost, was supported by Dance Initiative Greater Manchester (for this performance) and  Merseyside Dance Initiative ( previously). This was a fast-paced and athletic duet, choreographed and performed by Daniela B Larsen and Robert Guy. The lighting by Gareth Green worked well in this space, as without wings, the shadows of the dancers reflected on the side walls, which heightened the ghostly feel as their silhouettes shifted rapidly, elongating, shrinking and merging together. The soundtrack added another layer to the story with ambient music including Little Fluffy Clouds by the Orb and a curious sound scape. Talking with Daniella afterward, she told me that the origin for the words came from Frank Warren’s book A Postsecret Book:A Lifetime of Secrets, The origins o which was an ongoing community art project where people mail in their secrets anonymously on one side of a homemade postcard. If you havn’t seen these blog posts, it is definitely worth a look, as it’s a fascinating snapshot of the randomness, beauty and misery of human beings.

4 October 2013: Hull Dance 2013 at Hull Truck Theatre. Stephanie Potter (left) and Natalie Randall of NSDance, during their winning performance. Picture: Sean Spencer/Hull News & Pictures Ltd 01482 772651/07976 433960 www.hullnews.co.uk   sean@hullnews.co.uk

Dance performances from Hull Dance closed both the first and second half of the evening: first half was 2Blondes Dance Company with their prize-winning debut piece The humanness of Awkwardness. This was a duet looking at, well, awkwardness. It starts with one ‘blonde’ laying out a whole assortment of items in a line across the front of the stage. Her feelings toward revealing those items was used as a tool so that when she got to the under wear, and then a tampon, we could see that she was clearly embarrassed by these items. The performers immediately set up an ‘I know I’m on stage’ collusion with the audience that worked well. They deliberately avoided eye contact with one another, misread each other’s signals resulting in false starts and botched attempts at moving together. It was amusing. The strongest moment for me was when one performer does a ‘victory dance’ with a wooden spoon, only to have her euphoria in being the ‘winner’ smashed by the other performer crying inconsolably. They hold the scene of one sobbing and the other not knowing what to do for an uncomfortably long time. This perhaps suggests a more solemn reason for the characters behaviour. I believe the company plan to develop this piece further and I am interested to see if they explore what is underneath that humour.

Non Applicables

The other Hull piece was the Non-Applicables with What’s Love got to do with it? This gave us two quality performances from Sian Myers and Fenella Ryan, and a cracking soundtrack. Whats Love got to do with it? was a light-hearted look at ‘dating and mating’. It includes an intervention in the interval where the performers auctioned each other off like slabs of meat, alluding to the stereotyping of online dating sites. It also included their very own version of the Kama Sutra which was first shown instructionally and then ‘with the lights down low’ to Tina Turner’s private Dancer. Did I mention this was a cracking soundtrack! Another highlight was when one girl shimmied at speed in a gold sequined dress (again a possible Tina Turner reference), while her partner, dressed in a suit, struts around bobbing her head in a a sort of weird bird-like mating ritual. The rest of this ‘love-circuit’ contained similar outlandish comic commentary on ‘love’, ending with the two girls suited, slow dancing. At this point they invite the audience to join them on the dance floor to smooch to Spandau Ballet‘s True. This was a bridge too far and sent me swiftly down to the bar for a large and very reasonable priced glass of red wine. Sorry girl, but I absolutely wasn’t up for a step back in time to the dreaded school disco – stuck in a room with sweaty teenage boys and cheesy music with no choice but to stay to the bitter end!! Scarred for life!

Daniela B Larsen and Robert Guy - This House Smells of Ghosts 02 (c) Daniel Clarke

On a more serious note, could Northern Platforms be useful in strengthening the dance sector in the north?  By increasing the visibility of dance artists and companies working in the North and Scotland, would we be better equipped to do something about the funding divide that has come to light in a recent report? In case you hadn’t heard, research revealed that London benefits culturally from taxpayers money at about £69 php while the rest of the country at nearer £4.50. In response to Melvyn Bragg’s call to action to the rest of England to ‘fight back’ against the ‘unfair funding bias’ toward London, could raising the profile of talent based in the North be ammunition for that ‘fight’? Of course, I know that it isn’t that simple and that this situation affects the whole cultural landscape in the North, not just the dance sector, but still, it’s a start right?

Zoe Parker (@Zoe_Parker) is a choreographer and performance coach writing about dance and culture. She is choreographer for Yorkshire Life Aquatic and delivers training for professional dancers and dance leaders. Zoe will be running an Injury prevention training at Barnsley Civic in January 2014.