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?
Donald Hutera
The Times

A deceptively simple piece and only after a while did the full enormity of Butcher’s strength and agility become apparent
Virginia Bridgewater
The Argus

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.
Sarah Frater
Evening Standard

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.
Virginia Bridgewater
The Argus

Becky Edmunds short sweet film of rehearsals shows both the effort and injury involved.
Sanjoy Roy
The Guardian

Reinventing The Wheel

Morrissey 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.
Donald Hutera
The Times

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.
Sanjoy Roy
The Guardian

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.
Robin Strapp
Newbury Weekly

Wallflower

Jane 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
Donald Hutera
The Times

The strange slightly sinister air of the piece was reminiscent of an insect spinning and twisting in the half light
Virginia Bridgewater
The Argus

A clever film beautifully choreographed combining a dancer behind a gauze cleverly interacting with the projected image to great effect
Robin Strapp
Newbury Weekly

From Where I’m Standing

A 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 couldn’t 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
Performance director: Flick Ferdinando (Company F.Z)
Music/Soundscape: Peter Coyte
Animation and Editing: Carl Stevenson
Performers: Lindsey Butcher,
John Paul Zaccarini (Company F.Z)
Lighting and Rigging: Tom Ratcliffe
Carpenter: James Chaplin

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.
Tom Wilson
Total Theatre magazine 16/2/2004

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.
Donald Hutera
The Times

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.
Sanjoy Roy
The Guardian

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.
Robin Strapp
Newbury Weekly

Taking Flight

Taking 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.
Donald Hutera
The Times

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!
Carole Edrich
ballet.co.uk

A challenging and hugely enjoyable production that was enthusiastically received by an appreciative audience.
Robin Strapp
Newbury Weekly

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.
Virginia Bridgewater
The Argus