DANCE LIST
I Runrig Union
Theatre. 8pm. £5. Poised on the brink of international fame, Runn‘g are supported by the white-hot bluegrass music of Edinburgh’s favourite good-time crowd-pullers
I The Cambridge Footllghts Revue Buchanan Theatre. 10.30pm. £4,£3. Having launched many of the comic stars of the last three decades, the Footlights is the place to spot the talent of the future.
SUNDAY 26
I The Gabriell String Quartet Hope Park Church. 2.15pm. £4.50, £3.50. In their final night the Quartet play Mozart’s Piano Quintet in G Minor and Schubert‘s Trout Quintet.
I The Elephant Man New Picture House. 7.30pm. David Lynch’s very moving film. with John Hurt as the disfigured John Merrick and Anthony Hopkins especially memorable as Treeves.
I The Scottish Chamber Orchestra and The St Andrew’s Chorus Younger Hall. 7.45pm. £3—£7.40 (includes £2.20 concs). As a musical finale to the Festival‘s events the two companies unite for a presentation of Handel’s Israel in Egypt.
I Beatrix Potter: The Tale Buchanan Theatre. 8pm. £3.50, £2.50. One-woman performance by Rohan McCullough, the actress who performed in Testamentof Youth last year and is currently appearing in Les Liaisons Dangereuses in London, based on the life of the authoress.
DANCE
GLASGOW
Performance
I THEATRE ROYAL Hope Street. 331 1234. 332 9000. Peter Pan—The Ballet 24 Feb—4 Mar. 7.15pm. Tickets £3—£17. Scottish Ballet takes its biggest step since Peter Darrell‘s death and the takeover by Peter Kyle. With music by Glasgow composer Eddie McGuire and steps by Graham Lustig (of Sadler‘s Wells Royal Ballet. London) it is the first full-length ballet ofJM Barrie‘s story ever to be created. Gorgeous sets and the delights of Barric‘s imagination setTinkerbell. Pirates. the Lost Boys and Injuns on a new version of this classic story. Don‘t grow up. buy tickets. They are selling fast.The premiere of Peter Pan on 24 February will be a gala performance in aid of the Royal Hospital for Sick Children at Yorkhill. Glasgow. Though ticket prices are the same as other nights. patrons are asked to make acontribution to the event. Petrushka 23 Mar—l April. Scottish Ballet continue an exciting spring season with a new version of this Russian Ballet choreographed by Fokine and premiered in 1911. The company invited Oleg Vinogradov. Artistic Director ofthe Kirov Ballet in Leningrad. to make this new work. I THIRD EYE CENTRE - NEW MOVES SEASON 350 Sauchiehail Street. 332 7521.
Third Eye are in the middle of theirsecond
season of new dance.
New Moves Periormance
Jessica Cohen 23 Feb. 7.30pm. £3.50 (£2.50). Orchid Flower Branch draws on Cohen‘s Asiatic experiences binding martial arts with Western contemporary dance forms.
Jessica Cohen 24/25 Feb. 7 . 30pm. £3 .50 (£2.50). Earthfall is described as a ‘dance and music spectacle. serious and humorous by turns‘. Again Cohen uses martial arts to create visual excitement. New Choreographers - Programme 2 3. 4 Mar. 7.30pm. £3.50 (£2.50). Wendy Houston. who has danced with a number of well-known companies includingThe
SONG AND DANCE
Action Syndicate, Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh. Action Syndicate is another young London-based group hoping to attract a national audience for their particular brand oi dance-theatre, cf. The Cholmondeieys and Adventures in Motion Pictures. Dancers and choreographers from all three companies trained at the Laban Centre. Like The Cholmondeleys, AS is comprised of four women, including choreographer Rene Eyre. Steps are just one element of their performance, along with props, music, mime and gesture. In In Violet Hour (see the pun?), the dancers are joined by powerful singer Bernadette Keefe, as Eyre turns the tables on Kurt Jooss’ anti-war classic The Green Table. In her other dance, Eyre uses mattresses, nightgowns, beanbags and film projections to create a moody memory-piece about childhood, mothering and women’s bodies. These vaguely feminist works are earnest, if irony-deficient. The performers have presence. What’s needed is a clearer development of Eyre’s strong source ideas. (Donald Hutera)
DIVA
Liz Aggiss, Billy Cowie and Divas, Third Eye Centre. There’s little that is easy, safe or conventional about Liz Aggiss and Billy Cowie’s work. Take Grotesque Dancer, their neo-Weimar signature piece. l-lere performer-choreographer Aggiss and composer Cowie challenge just about every stereotype of femininity and beauty with a ruthlessness that some dancegoers find disturbing, even infuriating. Such strong responses are welcome.
‘l’ti much rather have people react that way,’ Aggiss admits, ‘than say ‘That was nice’ or ‘Bloody Boring!’ Our work is extreme and uncompromising. The audience can’t lean back and look at pretty pictures. That can be uncomfortable, but we’re testing ourselves as well, trying to tread new ground.’
Kosh. Ludus and DV8. breaks the habits ofa lifetime in 40 minutes. Jane Cawdell. another Leicester graduate says Take Women. . . You‘ll Need Them. Laurie McLeod is an American who dances Letters to Heaven and Little Machines. Liz Aggiss 10 Mar. 7.30pm. £3.50(£2.50). A charismatic performer making Grotesque Dancer and Stations ofthe Angry a dramatic event. Aggiss is one of the season‘s invited artists.
Liz Aggiss and Divas 1 1 Mar. Liz Aggiss performs with the all-woman group she founded in 1986. Tough and very visual. Dorothy and Klaus and Die Orchidee im Plastick-Karton. the two pieces brought to New Moves. promise electric viewing. Among other things Aggiss has supported the Stranglers on a European tour.
Wim Vandekeybus 30/31 March. 7.30pm. £3.50 (£2.50). The scoop of the season . this Flemish artist comes to Glasgow for the British premiere of ’What the Body Does Not Remembcr‘. His company of five women and five men perform in a style described as ‘highly confrontational . . . adrenalin choreography‘ and which crosses apache dances and machine dances of the 20‘s. This performance. which must not be missed under any circumstances. will be held at the New
Now in their mid-thirties, for eight years the couple have lived, worked (teaching at Brighton Polytechnic) and created together, functioning as each other’s sternesi critics. ‘We pick at and worry things to death,’ Aggiss says. ‘lt makes you very determined to secure the identity of what you’re doing.’ According to Cowie, ‘When one of us says to the other, ‘Alright, that works,’ you know that it’s true.’
Cowie’s music is a giddy yet grisly blend of repetitive, electronically manipulated instrumentation and vocals. Aggiss, who trained with Alwin Nikolais and Hanya Holm in the US, has developed a blunt but expressive movement vocabulary that forces a radical rethink of the body’s abilities and limitations. They are co-lounders of the Wild Wigglers, an alternative cabaret act that has fronted rock bands like the Stranglers, and Divas, a Brighton-based dance quintet that
includes Aggiss.
Divas’ latest programme is a wacky sounding double-bill, one piece linking simple but heavily ironic movement to the strange, stilted phrases of foreign language recordings. The other dance is an oddball narrative involving love, greed, revenge, forgiveness and the invention of performance art. ‘We’re really experimenting with the possibilities of performance,’ Aggiss
explains. (Donald Hutera)
Athaeneum Theatre at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama.
New Moves Talks and Classes
Talks will be held on Saturdays throughout New Moves in the Studio Theatre at 3pm and are chaired by Glasgow Herald dance critic Mary Brennan. Free Admission. Jessica Cohen 25 Feb.
New Choreographers 4 Mar. See Programme Two for details of participants.
Liz Aggiss 11 Mar.
Workshops Workshop/classes are held on Saturdays from 1 lam-1pm throughout the New Moves season. Admission £2. Jessica Cohen 25 Feb.
Wendy Noustoun 4 Mar.
Liz Aggiss 11 Mar.
Glasgow Classes I DALMUIR COMMUNITY CENTRE
Community dance group for young people taken by Steps Out. 5—7pm. 50p. Phone Steps Out at the Scottish Ballet headquarters on 331 2931 for further details.
I GLASGOW ACADEMY OF DANCE 2/6. 19 Queen Street. 221 0750.
Classes are held throughout the week in a
mirrored and barred studio 1000 feet square. The following is a selection of what‘s on offer. Phone for details ofdaily classes.
Open Elementary Ballet Mondays 6.30—8pm.
Lunchtime Stretch Tuesdays noon—l . 15pm. Good for city centre workers.
Spanish Tuesdays 6—7 . 30pm.
Beginners Jazz Wednesdays 6—7 . 30pm. Classical and contemporary for the male dancer Thursdays 8—9.30pm.
T’ai Chi Fridays 5.30—6.30pm. Contemporary Beginners/Elementary Fridays 6.30-8pm.
I HILLHEAD SECONDARY SCHOOL Oakfield Avenue. Info from Glasgow Independent Dance on 334 4836. Stretch and Get Loose with Jane Simpson Class every Monday. 7-8.30pm. £2.
I SCOTTISH BALLET STUDIO 261 West Princes Street. 331 2931.
Junior Contemporary Tuesdays. 6—7pm. £1.50.
Adult Jazz Tuesdays 7. 15—8.30pm. £2 (£1.50).
Adult Contemporary Wednesdays. 6—7.30pm. £2 (£1.50).
Beginners Ballet Saturdays. I4 yearsto adult. Ill—11.15am. £2(£l.50). Beginners Jazz Saturdays. 14 years to adult. I 1.30am—lpm. £2 (£1 .50).
EDINBURGH
Peformance I TRAVERSE THEATRE West Bow.
(irassmarket. 226 2633.
Lindsay John 2. 3. 4 Mar. 7.30pm. Before Form — Skin is Lindsay John‘s latest dance piece begun while working in Japan under the title Red Tape. It was performed in Tokyo to much acclaim before being premiered in London in summer 1988. This development of the piece. like all John's work. is instilled with Buto. a contemporary Japanese dance form which is highly physical. controlled and completely unlike any other technique. Action Syndicate 5 Mar. 7.30pm. Action Syndicate appear following their appearance at London‘s dance festival ‘Spring-Loaded‘. See panel for details.
Classes
I EPWORTH HALLS Nicolson Square. Info 229 1072.
Tracy Hawkes Excellent evening classes with the artistic director of SPRING and dancer with Khoros Dance Theatre. Ballet and Jazz. Phone Tracy at the above number for details.
I KINGS THEATRE Leven Street. 2294840 ext 133.
Dance with Sheridan Nicol Classes by Edinburgh‘s dancer-in-residence. Sheridan Nicol is a vivacious teacherwith bags of energy and fun. Contact her at the above number for more details ofthe classes All classes £2(£l).
Edinburgh Youth Dance Theatre Wednesdays at St Brides Centre 6—9pm. Sheridan is building up a youth group which will take class and workshops at this time at St Brides Centre. Orwelchrrace (just off Gorgie Road). Contact the phone number above for details.
Lindsay John Workshops Saturdays 10am—1pm. Performance artist/dancer Lindsay John takes a special series of workshops (you are welcome to join all or just one). John is an artist who explores the unusual in dance and has a particular interest in the Japanese form Butoh. The classes continue until 4 Mar. £3.50(£3)
I TRAVERSE THEATRE West Bow. Grassmarket. 226 2633.
Details of the dancers below can be found in the New Moves (Third Eye Centre) section of the Glasgow listings.
Lindsay John 28 Feb. 6.30-9pm. £1. Experimental dance and physical theatre. See also Kings Theatre for his weekly workshops.
Jane Scott Barrett 11 Mar. 11am—1pm. Improvisation. No experience required.
26 The List 24 February - 9 March