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Fragility and Fallibility
DANCE FILM | REVIEWS | Di Lorna Irvine

Fragility and Fallibility

The wavering, crepe paper-thin voice of an old man sings on a loop: “Jesus' blood never failed me yet, never failed me . . . yet, Jesus blood . . . never failed me yet / This one thing, I know, for he loves me . . . . So.” This is the first track of the soundtrack of the delicate, beautiful film Worn, screened through the Byre Theatre St Andrews, and could only be an appropriate choice to open. The heartbreaking track, by composer Gavin Bryars, samples the singing of a homeless man recorded on the streets, a vulnerable...

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Back to the Barre
DANCE FILM | REVIEWS | Di Marina Harss

Back to the Barre

William Forsythe is a dancers’ choreographer. Dancers love working with him, he challenges their minds and their bodies, his knowledge and understanding of the vocabulary of ballet is profound. In the studio, the atmosphere is one of co-conspirators, playmates. All this comes through in his most recent creation, a collaboration with New York City Ballet’s Tiler Peck called “The Barre Project (Blake Works II)” released on March 25, with a repeat performance on March 27. (The platform is CLI Studios, an online clearinghouse for dance classes.)

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Extremes of Choreography: Wim Vandekeybus
DANCE FILM | REVIEWS | Di Lorna Irvine

Extremes of Choreography: Wim Vandekeybus

Belgian choreographer and film maker Wim Vandekeybus’ work is characterised by absolute extremes: jaw-dropping theatricality; the use and abuse of unusual props, athleticism, frenzy, danger and discomfort. He doesn't deal in soft options; rather, he credits his audience with enough intelligence to enjoy, pick apart and understand his challenging, often dreamlike pieces. The scenography and sound are as integral to the work as the steps.

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Reframing
DANCE FILM | REVIEWS | Di Lorna Irvine

Reframing

As Glasgow's famous Tramway venue remains closed until further notice, Unlimited have commissioned a short film screening for those missing this superb live dance festival. This particular film is a superb example of the artists who would be participating on the stage throughout the spring, and feels entirely apposite, given its overarching theme.

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Dancing Out Loud
DANCE FILM | REVIEWS | Di Róisín O'Brien

Dancing Out Loud

Come for the choreographers, stay for the dancers. A collaboration between Sadler’s Wells and BBC Arts, Dancing Nation presents a selection of new and restaged works from emerging and established artists across the UK over 3 hour-long episodes. Most of the pre-recorded performances were filmed on grand stages across the UK (including the Sadler’s Wells main stage), but some pop up in the foyer or, in the case of Oona Doherty’s seminal work Hope Hunt & The Ascension into Lazarus, explode onto the streets of Belfast.

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Dance Camera West Drive-In
DANCE FILM | REVIEWS | Di Victoria Looseleaf

Dance Camera West Drive-In

Dance Camera West (DCW), the festival dedicated to the intersection of cinematography and choreography, was co-founded in Los Angeles in 2001 by Lynette Kessler and Kelly Hargraves, proving that the art form has come a long way since Thomas Edison hand-tinted the swirling skirts of modern dance pioneer Loie Fuller in the film version of the 1905 Danse Serpentine. And while the festival has undergone several directorial changes since its inception, Hargraves once again became its executive and artistic helmer since 2018.

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Season’s Greetings
DANCE FILM | REVIEWS | Di Sara Veale

Season’s Greetings

The sputtering stop-start of lockdown measures in the U.K. has wiped most of the 2020 dance season from the calendar, including a few live holiday performances that were optimistically (and, in hindsight, unrealistically) scheduled this autumn, like a bill of world premieres from English National Ballet. But it’s the year of make-do, and few companies have the leadership and resources to salvage so much from the wreckage as ENB, who swiftly rejigged those new works into a series of pay-per-view films for homebound audiences. It might be an emergency stopgap, but the digital programme works hard to capture the versatility...

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Tanowitz at the Joyce
DANCE FILM | REVIEWS | Di Faye Arthurs

Tanowitz at the Joyce

Solos and site-specific works were the dance world’s prevailing themes in 2020, for obvious reasons: people couldn’t touch each other or congregate. But the term site-specific can mean two different things. Sometimes it refers to a live event attended by a real, albeit limited, audience. For example, the LA Dance Project put on a series of drive-in shows, the Kaatsbaan summer festival offered spaced-out picnic blanket-seating, and Troy Schumacher and company are currently staging walk-through “Nutcracker” performances at the Wethersfield Mansion. But site-specific also refers to a dance choreographed for a particular place, which is then filmed and broadcast to...

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A Beautiful Toybox
DANCE FILM | REVIEWS | Di Lorna Irvine

A Beautiful Toybox

It's not just little girls who dream of escaping into ballet. Created for the screen by Christopher Hampson and set and costume designer Lez Brotherston and filmed by directors Jess and Morgs, The Secret Theatre comes across as a Victorian toybox full of rich, endless surprises. When a young boy, played with exuberance and wonder by Leo Tetteh, finds his way into an empty theatre, he is taken on an adventure into the heart of Christmas ballet, where dancers cast spells before his eyes. Here, Scottish Ballet bring the viewer not one, but two, magical ballets for the festive season, as...

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Beyond Ballet
DANCE FILM | REVIEWS | Di Merilyn Jackson

Beyond Ballet

In the last three decades, the term Dance and Technology became a thing, a niche where choreographers strove to enhance and marry kinetic movement with digital, animation, film and video. Brilliant failures and successes ensued, depending on how the collaborators gelled with each other. One of the great triumphs was “BIPED,” (1999) where Merce Cunningham partnered with Paul Kaiser and Shelley Eshkar's dazzling projected animation imagery and the murky, sonar-like thuds of Gavin Bryars' score. The dancers' shimmering tourmaline costumes furthered the underwater impression and the choreography swam, receding, wavery, elusive.

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The Swan
DANCE FILM | REVIEWS | Di Lorna Irvine

Dusk Chorus

The Swan, with choreography from David Dawson and written and filmed by Eve McConnachie, is of course inspired by “Swan Lake,” and focuses on the first six minutes of Act 4. It acts as (all being well next year) a wonderful taste of Scottish Ballet's forthcoming full adaptation and tour.

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Holding Tight
DANCE FILM | REVIEWS | Di Rachel Howard

Holding Tight

While many smaller American ballet companies hang on month to month through the pandemic to learn the ultimate shape of their fates, other troupes have faced harsh consequences swiftly. Just three months after California’s Covid restrictions, the board of the Sacramento Ballet voted to terminate Amy Seiwert’s tenure as artistic director, and the shifts she’d begun there—away from classical chestnuts and regional-level Balanchine and towards European-influenced new works—ended abruptly. Swiftly, Seiwert announced that she was returning to her project-based company in San Francisco, Imagery, which among other endeavors (and tours to the Joyce Theater Ballet Festival and Jacob’s Pillow) produces...

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Featured Reads

REVIEWS | Rachel Howard
Starry Nights

Beneath blue California skies, manicured trees, and the occasional hum of an overhead airplane, Tamara Rojo took the Frost Amphitheater stage at Stanford University to introduce herself as the new artistic director of San Francisco Ballet.

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