THEATRE
THE NORTH Joan Clevillé Dance returns with a new text-based work
Dance and the spoken word don’t always make good bedfellows. But when the newly formed Joan Clevillé Dance gave its debut performance in 2015, it proved that in the right hands the two can be beautiful companions. Plan B for Utopia was a moving, funny exploration of our hopes and dreams, and after two years of touring, Clevillé has created another text-based work to share with us: The North.
‘I love the interplay between movement and text, and feel that text can often help audiences who are
not so familiar with dance to engage with the work,’ he says. ‘With this new show, the performers do not address the audience directly, but we watch them interact with each other as characters inhabiting their own world.’
Following one young man’s search for his own identity, The North is more about human experience than geography. Choreographed by Clevillé in conjunction with the show’s three performers (including Solène Weinachter and John Kendall, both wonderful in Plan B for Utopia), the
show was partly influenced by the landscape and light of the far north. ‘The north which we describe in the piece is a place of the imagination, a liminal space somewhere between a limbo and a waiting room,’ explains Clevillé. ‘There’s definitely a Nordic feel to the work, but it’s open, desolate and unpredictable. I wanted to evoke a sense of disorientation, of being humbled by an environment that is stronger than us, and having to let go in order to survive.’ (Kelly Apter) ■ Tramway, Glasgow, Fri 12 & Sat 13 May.
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1 Apr–31 May 2017 THE LIST 99