
Press
reviews of Taking Flight: |
| Taking
Fight more info
|
Falling
Up |
The
Way I See It
|
Reinventing
The Wheel |
| Wallflower
|
| Why?
|
taking
flight
Falling Up In the quietly
bewitching Falling Up Butcher nestles upon a longloop
of rope….she rolls and spirals with it, coiling it around
her lithe sturdy body until you wonder which came first, rope or
woman? A deceptively
simple piece and only after a while did the full enormity of Butcher’s
strength and agility become apparent An appealing
rope act that cleverly triggers you into seeing a hammock, then
a pole, then a ladder, then a beam in gymnastics only a very flexible
one. An intriguing sight. |
The Way I See It An inspired
idea was to present Becky Edmunds take on the rehearsals for the
show giving the audiences glimpses of what was to come and the work
that went into it. Becky Edmunds
short sweet film of rehearsals shows both the effort and injury
involved. |
Reinventing The WheelMorrissey and
Butcher weave a relationship around and with a large wheel. The
result is clever but not only that. The couples agile twists, balances
and climbs are a metaphor for the trust involved in any give and
take situation. They ride it
as if cresting waves or let it flow over them as they wriggle through
its struts. Its roll and reaction are like the visible forcefield
of their games of give and take. A giant metal
wheel moved across the auditorium with the performers twisting and
turning through the spokes with such inventiveness and split second
timing that was simply amazing. |
WallflowerJane Hodges
deft short film finds Butcher springing off and sprinting along
a brick wall. She rises only to drop slowly down again like a pensive
spider. In a nicely disorientating touch to the film Butcher is
occasionally glimpsed duplicating her filmed shapes behind the screen The strange
slightly sinister air of the piece was reminiscent of an insect
spinning and twisting in the half light A clever film
beautifully choreographed combining a dancer behind a gauze cleverly
interacting with the projected image to great effect |
From Where Im StandingA view of an average day through tilted spectacles where the forces of gravity conspire to make the easiest task the hardest thing in the world. From where he is standing she is making life difficult for him and from her perspective he couldnt be more useless. Together they need to get the job done even though they can't see eye to eye because he's topsy turvy and she's slightly off balance. Climbing the walls, tripping over themselves, off centered and upside down, their divertingly skewed relationship to perspective makes for a work that re-invents traditional circus skills for dance film. Film director:
Carl Stevenson A collaboration with Company F.Z. Commissioned by South East Dance. With huge thanks to Philip Morgan, Sean Phillips at Brighton Dome and Ed at Open Spaces. |
Why?Emerging from
a contemporary dance aesthetic Why? had a taut,
punchy feel as the dancers spun on and sprung from the vertical
face of the upstage wall. The clean slicing feel of the movement
was supported by Ben Park’s pulsing score evoking the clear
sense of the tension in the freedom found hanging 20 foot up on
the end of a rope. This effective marriage of the visceral thrill
inherent in all aerial work and the studied composure of contemporary
dance highlights exactly what is possible with a simple but rigorous
concept. In Fin Walker's
stringent, invigorating duet fuelled by Ben parks excellent score
for rumbling percussion the pair slip behind, flip over and tumble
against one another in a quasi-weightless ballet of controlled support. Fin walker brings
her punchier style to Why?…you feel as if
you’re watching them from above rather than the side. The
couple flip over and under, their backwards bounds and pendulum
swings spliced with grapples and spoke limbed spins. At times I felt
I was watching the action from above like a Busby Berkley movie
and that the actors were not suspended but performing on the floor.
It was truly so impressive. |
Taking FlightTaking
Flight is a classy, unpretentiously high-concept evening.
The show raises our consciousness of the dancer’s flesh and
bones and of our own bodies shifting attention in the performing
space. At different
times and in different combinations the pieces convey control, abandon,
humour, languor, support and passion and the audience engaged with
a serious intensity that I’ve not seen before…..a huge
creative risk that has paid off spectacularly well. The performance
is a sensation seekers dream! A challenging
and hugely enjoyable production that was enthusiastically received
by an appreciative audience. Taking
Flight was an aerial dance display which threw in the air
the way to approach our relationship with the ground, the air above
it and where we fit into the in between…a joy to watch and
an inspiration to realise what the human body can achieve. |