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Fabulous Beast's "The Bull"
Australia Dance Theatre
"Dancing Through the War"

from John Percival
copyright ©2007, John Percival

Consistency is something dance companies don't necessarily supply, as two visiting troupes have just demonstrated in London. Take Irish choreographer-director Michael Keegan-Dolan and his company Fabulous Beast, based in the midlands of Ireland but including also performers from other European and African countries among its dancers, actors and musicians. Since beginning the group ten years ago Keegan-Dolan has mounted six productions, three of which have been shown in London at the Barbican Arts Centre where the company is now an artistic associate. The first, a weird modern-dress treatment of “Giselle”, created 2003, reached us in 2005, had some enthusiastic reviews and was nominated for an Olivier Award. I thought it was rubbish. But I enjoyed “The Flowerbed”, a modern reinterpretation of the Romeo and Juliet story, created 2000, when it came here last year.

Now, for a season 21 February – 3 March, we have “The Bull”, created 2005 but seemingly revised since. Its source is a story probably much older than the twelfth century manuscript that recorded it, but again in modern dress. It involves attempts to win a prized bull as part of a matrimonial dispute. The show ends with almost all characters killed, but I can't tell you the story because I couldn't understand it as presented. Along the way we have some “Riverside” style show-off steps, a nude man representing a dog, a priest, a sexy young girl, singing, splashing, men apparently with period pains, and a huge pile of peat. It isn't boring but I can't pretend to have found it as satisfying as spectators around me apparently did. New commissions are due at the Barbican in 2008 and 2009, so we'll see what materialises.

From the other side of the world came Australian Dance Theatre for just two nights as Sadler's Wells, 20 and 21 February, followed until 31 March by a ten-city tour of England, Scotland and Wales organised by Dance Consortium (that's a group of theatres which came together in 2000 to enrich the provision of dance throughout Britain and develop audiences). On previous visits they brought “Birdbrain”, a deconstruction of “Swan Lake” and “The Age of Unbeauty”, both very dancey. This time “Held” is made up of violent jumpy movements for five women, seven men, who are joined by photographer Lois Greenfield; her pictures of them in mid-air are shown on two big screens. We are told that the pictures are what we just saw being taken (which puzzles me because they included shadows which I didn't see on stage). Anyway, the dancers' bodies are shown in strange positions apparently hung in space. It's startling, and obviously impressed many observers, but I found myself glad that it lasted only about fifty minutes, and I wasn't the only one who thought it felt longer
.
That same week saw the official opening of an exhibition (16 February – 20 May) in the Churchill Museum and Cabinet War Rooms, an underground space just behind the government offices in Whitehall. Titled “Dancing Through the War”, this depicted the Royal Ballet 1939-46. At the opening, dancers performed duets from “The Wanderer” and “Facade” and a trio from “Enigma Variations”. I don't see what this last (created in 1968) had to do with wartime, and anyway I couldn't see much of what was happening at all since, with an unraised stage the dancers were obscured by people sitting further forward. Much more enjoyable was a film called “Dancing in the Dark” which showed episodes from that time, both on and off stage, plus a slightly later “Black Swan” sequence, very well danced by Beryl Grey and John Field; there were also extracts from “Les Sylphides” with Margot Fonteyn and Michael Somes. The film also included interesting comments from former dancers Julia Farron, Beryl Grey, Leo Kersley and ballet mistress Jean Bedells. That was fascinating and deserves the widest possible showing.

Photos:
Top: Colin Dunne and Angelo Smimmo in "The Bull." Photo by Ros Kavanagh.
Bottom: Australia Dance Theatre. Photo by Lois Greenfield.


Volume 5, No. 9
March 5, 2007

copyright ©2007 by John Percival
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