Dance Space review

dance space weekend performance programme
sat 16th october 2010

Down a back alley on the less expensive side of the city centre is The Island. Managed by Artspace Lifespace, this disused police station and fire station is becoming a haven for the arts. There is a large venue there, home to The Invisible Circus, and the Boneyard Bar which hosts a variety of entertainment throughtout the week plus their famous extravaganzas such as Carny Ville. There are several floors of art studios plus a gallery, home to much of the most energised artistic talent in Bristol today. There are circus training spaces with rigging for aerial work, points for ground to air diciplines and mats for everything else. The latest addition to this creative family is a dedicated dance space. The Dance Space boasts a separate entrance to the building, avoiding the maze like interior of the police station and making it more accessible for evening classes and performances.

The Dance Space launched this weekend with two full days of workshops and an evening performance on saturday night. The workshops - improvisation, contemporary dance, dance for camera and tango - were held in a blank room approximately 12 meters by 12 meters, there is no decoration to the room and the only fixed features are rigging points for aerial work. It is workably shabby, not so glossy that you’re afraid to touch the walls and yet not in an uncomfortable state of dis-repair. The building, disused until Artspace Lifespace took it over, is leased for another 2 years - maybe more and has room for improvement - heating would be a bonus for example. Heaters were brought in for the workshops and they heated the space perfectly well but it woudn’t be sustainable long term. This is a space to work in, to train in, not to pose and ‘patronise the arts’. The weekend launch had the exciteable air of dance enthusiasts getting together to discuss the thing they love best. Dance for practitioners, a friendly cognocenti.

The programme for the evening event was delightfully put together, showing remarkably different pieces of both live dance and dance for camera. Tarn Scully showed an aerial dance piece, rarely seen outside the US, aerial dance blurs the lines between ground based work and aerial diciplines normally seen in circus. Seeking to link the ground with the air, Tarn throws herself repeatedly at a seemingly unassailable opponent, the chinese pole. Breath is audible as the floor supports her between meetings. There’s no doubt that aerial dance is a dicipline which is in a state of rapid growth.

Julia Thorneycroft’s choreography is crisp and classic formal contemporary dance. Her trio were simply clad in black and moved as one body. The signature of this piece, Surface, was a repeated return to forward bend jumps. I love contemporary dance and I found this excellent but so are most pieces of formal contemporary dance, there were no suprises here.

Rewiring is a remarkably assured debut from a first year dance student. Industrial and dark it combined small, precise intense movements with larger robotic movements but taken away from the dance floor and given a new context this piece was poetic and very focused.

A playful attitude is something that is often lacking in serious art but it can be accessed to great effect in improvisation. Noel Perkins, an established Cornwall based practitioner, and Kathleen Downie, one of Bristol’s foremost improvisation facilitators gave us a piece which unlocked joyful emotions hard to recreate through choreography. They moved fluidly through emotions, knowingly mocking themselves and embracing ridiculous and dark elements. One had the sense that they would be happy to break dance conventions although the closest they came was to break out onto the walls.

The performances spread across the geanres, across age ranges and from amateur to professional. The local tango class was a break from the contemporary and it was strangely shocking to see people wearing colour (!) and  shoes (!) in a space which was gaining that reverential atmosphere so associated with ‘serious art’. It shook me away from any false notion that dance is the preserve of the young, the monied or the artist. It reminded me that dance is one of the most enjoyable and accessible activities, enjoyed by people of almost all ages, cultures, classes and physical abilites, long may it remain so.

Live dance:
Glimmer
Tarn Scully: aeriel dance www.tanyascully.com

surface
movement collective
dancers: adele proctor, hayley adams, laura street, murilo leite d’imperio & roxane zara
choreographed by julia thorneycroft

rewiring
solo by madii shann

footpring
julia thorneycroft trio
dancers: Murilo Leite D’Impurio, Isabel Cressey, Clare Billington

I really must stop falling from trees
Improvisation - a spontaneous discovery. Dancers: Noel Perkins, Kathleen Downie & Itta

Dance for Camera:

La La
Jessie Percival in association with Welsh Independant Dance

Insomnia
Isabel Rocamora and Jo Cammack, www.isabel rocamora.org 4 Dance, 2005. Commissioned by Arts Council England and Channel 4

Stronger
Champloo (excerpt from White Caps)

The Visitor
Brenda Wait & Kyra Norman (made for Ponderosa Tanzland Festival)