Marnie McKee looks at what’s hot in dance in 2007. For those who despaired and thought the battle for independence was long gone, the UK independent dance scene has a jeter or two for you. In fact if contraction is your mantra, then read on.
This year sees a mixed bag of movement for London’s independent dance companies. While new companies like Bonachela Dance Company and Christopher Wheeldon’s Morphoses are launched, established companies like Michael Clark Company continue their balletic plight, DV8 progress in the studio, Akram Khan finally moves out of home after working with Kylie, ZooNation hold auditions, CandoCo see some changes and premiere a great new season choreographed by Rafael Bonachela, and there’s a surprising new work from h2Dance. Phew!
Contemporary dance has come a long way since the recognition of ballet as a dance form in the Ducal courts of Renaissance Italy in the early 1500’s. Not quite as ancient, 2007 sees Michael Clark present the final season of his company’s 3-year performance trilogy, The Stravinsky Project. Michael Clark has been around since the ‘70’s, when he began collaborating with renowned bands, fashion designers and visual artists and there are few UK companies that have intertwined the live music experience with ballet-re-written like he has.
Critic Suzanne Cotter describes Michael Clark’s recent works as “head-thumping.” The “heart-pumping music is part of the way he works with the formal vocabulary of classical dance… His underlying approach is cacophonous, exploiting confusion, visual contamination and disruption. His work is also formally rigorous and masterful.”
But is his work still all it’s cracked up to be? Judge for yourself. You can experience the second Stravinsky Project production ‘Mmm’ now at Tramway as part of the new territories festival in Glasgow, and it also tours Sheffield, then Birmingham as part of Fierce! before landing at The Barbican.
After receiving an MBE in 1997, CandoCo’s highly acclaimed Artistic Director Celeste Dandeker has now received an OBE in the 2007 New Year Honours List, for outstanding contribution in dance. Dandeker is to retire from her position at Candoco, but not before having set the company’s upcoming season, which promises to be a sensation, premiering in Manchester in April.
For those not familiar with Dandeker’s remarkable story, it all began when she was dancing with the London Contemporary Dance Theatre as a young woman. After suffering a paralysing fall on stage, her career was believed to be over. However defying all critics and expectations Dandeker consequently co-founded CandoCo with Adam Benjamin in 1991 and it grew into the first of its kind in the UK – a professional dance company combining disabled and non-disabled dancers.
CandoCo’s new season of work has been created by award winning choreographers Arthur Pita and Rafael Bonachela. Describing himself as a “movement junkie”, Barcelona-born Rafael Bonachela has made a spotless and much needed etching into the London and European dance scene. Last year he launched Bonachela Dance Company (BDC), and he is the first artist in residence at the South Bank Centre.
Meanwhile London Choreographer Akram Khan was invited to choreograph a new section for Kylie Minogue’s new Showgirl Homecoming Tour, which arrived in the UK in January. Four songs – Finer Feelings, Confide in Me, Cowboy Style and Too Far — have been blended into a mini creation myth. The concept “was based on images of gods, and the idea of her being made by the gods out of four elements, but wanting to be separated from her creators: a human being, not a puppet,” says Akram, after working with Kylie last summer, shortly after she had been given the all clear after breast cancer.
Apparently they made quite an impression on each other. Was it Kylie’s influence that had 32-year-old Khan move out of the family home just recently? Khan said: “Getting married [to a dancer, Shanell Winlock] was a clue it was time”(!!)
This year Khan is creating a piece with the National Ballet of China, as well as working with actress Juliette Binoche on a play called Gnosis. He will continue the international tours of Zero Degrees, Sacred Monsters and Third Catalogue and his company’s website is worth a look to see Khan’s awesome solo on the homepage.
Who would have thought the mostly classically minded Sadler’s Wells would become host to a plethora of resident companies and other artists. From Akram Khan; Sylvie Guillem; the Ballet Boyz (George Piper Dances); Matthew Bourne’s New Adventures; Rambert; and Random Dance Companies to Christopher Wheeldon’s soon to be formed company, Morphoses. Wheeldon is returning home after a phenomenal journey with the New York City Ballet, which he joined at 19. The permanent company will be launched in 2008, but a company of guest artists will make an appearance in London for several performances at Sadler’s Wells in September.
Wheeldon said that he will be giving dancers a larger creative role than is usual in many large ballet companies. “Dancers are amazing, generous people. All they basically want is to put on a good show. But they perform much better when they are inspired,” says Wheeldon.
More left-of-centre, the Hip Hop Dance Theatre outfit ZooNation was created in 2000 when Kate Prince started teaching at Pineapple Dance Studios in London. Kate directed her first performance at the age of 18 at the 1993 Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Following a month-long sellout production at the same festival last year, Into the Hoods received 5-star reviews in The Scotsman, The Herald, The List and The Metro. And if you are feeling fit and positive (?) then check out Zoo Nation, which is holding auditions at the beginning of February, but you need to attend Kate’s Saturday classes at Pineapple Studios to stand a chance.
DV8 Physical Theatre led by Lloyd Newson, was formed in 1986 by an independent collective of dancers who had become frustrated and disillusioned with the preoccupation and direction of most dance. This year they’re in rehearsal for a new piece for touring early next year, based around issues surrounding tolerance, intolerance, religion and sexuality. DV8’s latest film The Cost of Living is touring to international festivals in 2007 in Europe and America (it won 11 international film awards). The one showing in the UK this year is in Northampton on 26 January, but you can find it on DVD.
Also on the cards is dance duo h2Dance’s new show To Die For. Extracts from the show are being presented on 26 January and 25 May at Greenwich Dance Agency, with the premiere at Laban on 14 March, and a full season in May at The Place.
So don’t stay indoors with any reminiscent of a seasonal affective disorder – there is something out there for dancers, critics and simple afficiandos in independent dance this year!
