Dance
CHOREOGRAPHER OF THE MONTH JANIS CLAXTON What made you want to be a choreographer? I grew up running wild in the Australian bush and I was always dancing barefoot outdoors. I guess it was that connection with the wilderness and the land along with a need for emotional and creative release and a desire to experience the power and fullness of all of that in motion.
What is the inspiration behind your latest piece? Humanimalia was originally inspired by Enclosure 44 – Humans, where in 2008 during the Edinburgh Fringe my company spent 11 days inside an animal enclosure at Edinburgh Zoo. That led to a lot of research into the evolutionary connections we share with other animals especially the other great apes. Humanimalia is based on these connections, the 98% DNA we share with chimpanzees and the 2% difference. What are you looking for in the dancers who perform your choreography?
There are, of course, physical and technical needs and mostly I work with female dancers, but what is really important to me is to work with intelligent dancers who are committed and prepared to embrace the entire process from conception and research to development. So the dancers contribute at every level of the creative process. Their voices, movement and ideas are intricately woven throughout the work. I need to work with dancers who love the process and ethos of the company. I am not a ‘jobbing dancer’s’ choreographer! What do you hope audiences will take away from your work? I hope that audiences feel something, that they are moved and inspired. I hope Humanimalia gets them thinking about our place in the animal kingdom and I hope they donate some money to Budongo Conservation Field Station or any other conservation fund that is helping keep endangered species alive. ■ Humanimalia, Tramway, Glasgow, Fri 4 & Sat 5 Mar; Brunton Theatre, Musselburgh, Fri 11 Mar; macrobert, Stirling, Thu 17 Mar.
114 THE LIST 3–31 March 2011
PREVIEW CONTEMPORARY DANCE NEW TERRITORIES Tramway, Glasgow, Tue 8–Sat 26 Mar
As the New Territories festival continues apace, we asked artistic director Nikki Milican to take us on a whistle-stop tour of the main stage dance productions.
First up is a double-bill from Louise Lecavalier, a former dancer with Canadian outfit La La La Human Steps. ‘I’ve been keeping an eye on what Louise has been doing,’ says Milican, ‘and felt that now was the time to bring her over. There will be people who have no idea who La La La Human Steps are, and they’ll be able to get a little taster of what that work used to be like.’
Like Lecavalier, Liquid Loft is making its New Territories debut with Posing Project B, an award- winner at the 2007 Venice Biennale. ‘I think it lends itself very well to the architecture of Tramway 1, because it’s not a traditional end-on piece,’ says Milican. ‘It’s also very engaging and quite immediate for the audience.’
Making a welcome return to the festival is Canadian company O Vertigo with Onde de Choc (Shock Wave).
‘They had huge success at New Territories in 2002 with Luna, and it’s been hard to find a piece that would at least equal that,’ explains Milican. ‘As with all Quebeçois companies, they’re technically brilliant, and for people who aren’t looking for the leftfield quirky things we do, this is much more mainstream, choreographic dance.’
Also returning to the fold is France’s Compagnie Didier Théron, with its powerful work, Hara-kiri, performed underneath 40 fluorescent lights. ‘I’m a believer in creating long-term relationships with some artists, and Didier is one of them,’ says Milican. ‘This is quite a slow, meditative piece, extraordinarily lit and quite complex in its staging, but at the same time very simple in its performance.’
To close the festival, Milican has programmed
renowned Spanish choreographer, Sol Pico, who at the age of 43 has created a 1980s rock concert to explore the ageing process. ‘Sol wanted to go back on stage herself,’ says Milican, ‘and question what it’s like for a dancer to have a maturing body, looking at the whole age issue. It’s a fantastic piece to end the festival with.’ (Kelly Apter)
PREVIEW BALLET NORTHERN BALLET: CLEOPATRA Edinburgh Festival Theatre, Thu 10–Sat 12 Mar
With new production Cleopatra, Northern Ballet is heading into unchartered territory. For, while the movers and shakers of the Roman Empire have many column inches devoted to them, not all of it is helpful in terms of getting into a role. ‘In the past, we’ve worked from books or plays, where literally everything is written down for us,’ says dancer Toby Batley, who plays Cleopatra’s lover, Mark Antony. ‘But, while there is a lot of information about Cleopatra and Mark Antony, it’s mainly just historical facts. So, in a way, that’s made it a bit freer because you can’t really go wrong – but it’s also harder because there’s not so much to go by.’ The show’s scenario has been written by Northern Ballet’s artistic director, David Nixon, composer Claude-Michel Schönberg (of Les Miserables fame) and director Patricia Doyle. It was their job to bring one of the most famous women in history back to life – and give Batley something to build his rendition of Mark Antony on. ‘He was a pretty wild character,’ he says, ‘very brave and really sexual. He also spent a lot of time drinking and gambling, so one difficulty has been to make it believable that Cleopatra would fall in love with him. Because somebody like that could come across to the audience as not very nice – and he probably wasn’t, but you still want them to fall in love with him like she did.’ (Kelly Apter)