DANCE FESTIVAL New Moves: Compania Vincente
Saez
Glasgow: Theatre Royal, Tue 2 Mar; New Moves continues at various venues until 20 Mar.
When Compania Vincente Saez steps into the spotlight on the opening night of Glasgow's long-running pan- European dance festival New Moves (New Territories), there will be one among their number who knows the well-worn velvet of the theatre's front-row seats better than most.
'I feel quite honoured to be coming back to perform in the Theatre Royal,’ says Colette Sadler, the Glaswegian dancer who was hastily exported by leading Spanish choreographer Saez two years ago after festival director Nikki Milican set her up with a visit to his Valencia studios. ’When I was a child my mother used to take me there to the ballet.’
It’s an honour, however, that Sadler reckons she had to leave home to achieve. 'I don’t know if this opportunity would have been created for me if I’d been in Scotland,’ she says. 'I think it’s a lot to do with the calibre of the [European] companies. Of all the companies I've worked with in Scotland none of them have ever performed at Theatre Royal.’ '
Getting past the stage door of one of Glasgow’s posher theatres is a victory for New Moves too. The defiantly
13 Mar.
Sadler's Well: Collette comes home with New moves
avant-garde festival has long been confined to the seating limitations of the city's Tramway and this opening night is a chance to show they can put those all important bums on seats.
As it happens, Saez is probably their best chance of doing so. In amongst the delicious maelstrom of artistry that is New Moves, Saez has been an constant in recent years, building up a following for his poignant brand of pure dance. It also acts as a neat introduction to the festival, which spends its opening week celebrating ’Espar'ia Se Mueve’ — the new flamenco and choreography of modern Spain.
Where fellow Spanish companies like Sol Pico (also at New Moves) feed on a more heavily theatrical tradition, Saez’s style exists on a lighter diet of emotionally engaging, almost spiritual dance.Lilah which has its British premiere at New Moves, follows the spiritual thread and mirrors Saez's own Catholic-turned-Buddhist faith by merging the religious songs of his home-town Elche with Eastern sounds from Pakistan.
For Sadler working with Saez has brought enlightenment of a different kind. ’A lot of the stuff in Britain to me now is very boring,’ she says. ’I feel in the rest of Europe they're influenced more by life than just by art. I think this kind of work appeals to a broader range of people because they can relate to it more.’ (Ellie Carr)
21-23 See Dance /i.sting_s, page 59 for ful/ details of the New Moves (New TerritorieS) programme
Phaedra's Love Glasgow: Citizens' Theatre, Tue 3—Sat
version takes bits from Seneca and Eurypides but it’s very much her own play, PeOple who come to see it who
Pretty fly for a white guy: Pheadra‘s Love
Sarah Kane occupies a unigtie position in contemporary playwriting Nobody else's work seems to provoke such extreme reactions from audiences and critics. Indeed, certain of the Jaded Cynics from the London p'ess corps felt compelled to wall: out cl her most (imfamous play B/as‘tec.’ They iiist didn’t have the stomach to." it, which says more about them than it does ab0ut Kane, because she is an undoubtedly important, even pioneering figure in drama. Put simply, there's nobody else like her
'The way she's managed to write a new play, based on a (lassit text, and made it funny With contemporary
references -— I think she's amazingly talented,’ enthuses Peter tv‘iackie Burns, who Will direct Kane's
Phaedra’s Love at the Citizens. lt promises to be a strikingly individual interpretation of Greek tragedy ’This
think they know the play will be surprised, because it's from Hippolytus' point of vrew' He's gurck to point out that the play's has more going for it than mere shock value: 'It is rather raw, it is confrontational, but also poetic and guite beautiful. And it's like a rollercoaster eight scenes that crack on straight through. It's very economical and tight.’
Burns feels it would be wrong to group Kane With her similarly controversial contemporaries, lrvrne Welsh and Mark Ravenhill, but acknowledges that they have helped create an appetite for envelope pushing drama. ’We’re not trying to ape work like Trainspotting or Shopping Arid Fuck/rig, but there are elements which Will appeal to their audience I think that has more to do With the general perversity of Britain, though ' (Rob Fraser)
preview THEATRE
Stage whispers
Re: treading the boards
THEATRE CRYPTIC ARE seeking an actress who sings/singer who acts, for their forthcoming production of Electra. As is always the case with this company, it’s not simply a 'matter of turning up and learning lines: the creative collaboration will begin at a workshop in early March and last several months. If you're talented, tuneful and open minded then this could be the gig for you. Interested parties should contact Anthea Haddow on 0141 338 6929. Judging by Cryptic’s previous shows, this may finally disprove the dictum that revenge is a dish best served cold.
PERFECT DAYS IS proving worthy of its name, with Liz Lochhead's comedy selling out the Citizens’ before opening night and already shifting impressive numbers of tickets for it's short run at the King's in Edinburgh (16-20 Mar). This further enhances the stature of the show, a Traverse production directed by John Tiffany, and bodes well for the proposed film version, which will mean those of you unable to experience it live needn't miss out. Star Siobhan Redmond is now cool enough to act as an endorsement for Blue, the café based at the Traverse. January's issue of Vogue reports that Janet Street Porter tempted Paul (Lily Savage) O’Grady over the threshold only once he had seen the Scottish actress chowing down.
THE TRON AND ARCHES theatres will co-produce the next show from the increasingly hot Improbable Theatre company. The people responsible for Lifegame will next present Coma: Stories From The Edge. . . which will depict various states of consciousness. The production will open at the Arches at the end of April, more details in forthcoming issues, naturally.
Life is but a scream: Theatre Cryptic
18 Feb—4 Mar 1999 THE LIST 55