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FESTIVAL DANCE | Previews
ÉOWYN EMERALD & DANCERS Fringe hit brings her company back with more dance treats
One of the best Fringe dance discoveries of 2014 was the work of Éowyn Emerald, a Canadian-born choreographer who lives and works in Portland, Oregon. Happily, she and her eponymous company are back with a 50-minute bill of seven dances that promises to be as rich and rewarding as before.
‘I think of my work as emotional,’ Emerald says, ‘driven by story and music. And partnering. We sometimes joke that I say “Catch me!” and then we see what happens. A lot of partnering is trial and error, and really fun. I’m lucky to work with the very talented and trusting dancers who are in the company.’
This August, for her third Fringe visit, Emerald and three
others will perform a series of short works including a number of premieres featuring music ranging from Duke Ellington to the English band alt-J. One of the pieces is a duet called blurred which one critic described as ‘captivating . . . giving form to an emotional exchange that ranges from tender to sexually charged’. It’s hard for Emerald to gauge the impact of a string of glowing reviews from Edinburgh. ‘Touring opportunities are hard to come by in the States,’ she says, ‘where theatres and presenters are strapped for cash and can rarely afford to take chances on new companies who lack the name recognition to generate ticket sales.
‘This makes the economics of sustaining a dance company incredibly daunting. Our hope is that our success at the Fringe could have a greater impact in the UK and Europe, potentially leading to more opportunities for the company to work abroad.’
Emerald is even considering relocating to the UK, which is good news for audiences this side of the Pond. In the meantime, she and her company are raising the 2016 Fringe dance bar that bit higher. (Donald Hutera) ■ Greenside at Royal Terrace, 557 2124, 8–27 Aug (not 14, 21), 1.50pm, £10 (£8). Previews 5–7 Aug, £5 (£4).
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BANG! TO THE HEART Two worlds collide in hip hop love story from Italy
POP-UP DUETS (FRAGMENTS OF LOVE) Unexpected dance treats at city museum IF THERE’S NOT DANCING AT THE REVOLUTION, I’M NOT COMING Film-dance-art medley from Titanic-lover
When Luca Lisci, artistic director of Milan’s Nue Dance Company, describes their style as a ‘mash-up of street dance and contemporary’, he’s not just talking about the choreography. Everything about their new show, Bang! to the Heart, embodies the world of hip hop, viewed through the lens of a dance theatre company.
‘This show is an homage to street art culture,’ says Lisci. ‘All the video imagery is pure street style: stencils, spray art, graffiti. We’ve been inspired by the giants of contemporary street art like Banksy and Shepard Fairey – and I met Blek le Rat, considered to be the godfather of street art, to understand the meaning of this style, which was so illuminating for the show’s art direction.’
The show depicts a modern day love affair, with shades of Romeo and Juliet. ‘On one side of the story we have what you belong to: a community, a group, a family, a culture,’ says Lisci. ‘And on the other side, there’s love. What if love made you choose between the deepest emotions you’ve ever felt, and the things that define you as a person? So it’s really a story of conflict.’ (Kelly Apter) ■ ZOO Southside, 662 6892, 6–29 Aug (not 10, 15, 22), 10.20pm, £12–£14 (£10–£12). Preview 5 Aug, £10.
64 THE LIST FESTIVAL 4–11 Aug 2016
The National Museum of Scotland is the site of Edinburgh-based choreographer Janis Claxton’s POP-UP Duets (fragments of love), a series of five-minute dance works featuring a cast of four, a specially composed score by Pippa Murphy, and 2015 Scottish Album of the Year award-winner Kathryn Joseph singing on a couple of the tracks. It all arose from Claxton’s desire to ‘bring high-quality dance to public places for unsuspecting audiences’. Claxton pretty much lives and breathes dance and performance. ‘I was just born a dancing thing,’ she says. The core of her work, however, is teaching what by now must add up to ‘tens of thousands of folk in many countries’. What she’s learnt in the process is ‘that there’s a very large audience of contemporary dance-lovers who just don’t know it yet. They’ll likely never pay to go to a theatre, but they do love to experience dance as an audience.’ Hence POP-UP Duets. ‘I hope the audience will experience a sense of
love,’ Claxton concludes, ‘in any aspect. I hope they have a visceral response to the work, and enjoy its beauty, power and flow.’ (Donald Hutera) ■ National Museum of Scotland, 0300 123 6789, 4–28 Aug (not 6–9, 15 & 16, 22 & 23), 3.30pm, free.
‘It is definitely not primarily a dance show,’ says Julia Croft, the creator-performer of If There’s Not Dancing.... An inviting mash-up of live art, dance, film and feminism, Croft’s show has been praised in New Zealand and now makes its Fringe debut. ‘I was inspired by many things,’ she adds, ‘being
an angry feminist, a film theory essay by Laura Mulvey, my inability to stop watching Titanic and my love of Sia’s ‘Chandelier’ and confetti.’
In the show, Croft takes apart scenes from several films – Titanic, Notting Hill, Pretty Woman, Psycho and Basic Instinct, to name a few – highlighting the way in which they objectify women. But that’s not to say she doesn’t still enjoy watching them.
‘I still love many of those films,’ she says, ‘especially Titanic. God, I love Titanic. I still engage with media that is problematic, but I try to identify the problems and not be passive about my consumption of these images. Having said that, I do try to watch films that contain more balanced gender representations. Like the new Ghostbusters. See it! It is amazing!’ But go and see her show first, of course. (Yasmin Sulaiman) ■ Summerhall, 560 1581, 4–28 Aug (not 22), 12.05pm, £10 (£8). Preview 3 Aug, £8.