Dance magazine 2014

DANCE WORLDS COLLIDE AND CONTRAST AT FESTIVAL 2014 FEATHERS AND LEATHERS INALA – A UNIQUE COLLABORATION AKRAM KHAN COMES TO THE FESTIVAL WITH GNOSIS ENTER THE SURREAL WORLD OF PINA BAUSCH

Feathers and leathers Critic Judith Mackrell looks at the unique creative forces that have come together for Inala

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nala is the Zulu word for ‘abundance of good will’, and this new collaboration between choreographer Mark Baldwin, classical composer Ella Spira and the South African choir Ladysmith Black Mambazo not only aspires to being an exceptional meeting place of cultures, it also pays homage to the great unifying force of our times, Nelson Mandela.

The project began as a musical encounter between Spira and Ladysmith Black Mambazo. Spira was fascinated by the soft, sonorous harmonies of the latter’s a cappella sound, rooted in the songs of black South African miners. And while she wasn’t the first to be entranced by it (the choir featured on Paul Simon’s 1986 album Graceland) she was still unprepared for the richness and speed with which they responded to the piano score she played them, weaving their own rhythms and harmonies around it.

It was Monica Mason, former director of The Royal Ballet and South African born herself, who introduced the music to Mark Baldwin. His immediate response was that ‘it had legs’, it was music that begged to be choreographed to.

In fact the men of Ladysmith do traditionally dance as they sing – tight routines of small shuffled steps and gestures that reflect the oppressive conditions in which the miners were forced to live. Baldwin however had no interest in trying to appropriate that language, rather he wanted to construct a vocabulary of his own that would be ‘a celebration of different backgrounds’.

Among the nine dancers he’s chosen for the project are Dane Hurst and Mbuleo Ndabemi, both from Baldwin’s own company Rambert. They are South African and trained in contemporary and classical styles, but Ndabemi also has a more

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traditional African background. ‘I grew up with this music’ he says ‘it does something to my dancing’.

Baldwin has also been inspired by the movement of animals and birds, a theme picked up by his designer Georg Meyer Wiel who is using leather and feathers in his costumes to transform the dancers into ‘some neo mythological species, halfwarrior, half-animal.’ On all sides, the collaborators of Inala are attempting to create a very new and very particular cultural space – certainly convincing Monica Mason that ‘probably nothing quite like it has been done before’.

Judith Mackrell is Dance Critic for The Guardian

Inala Sunday 10 – Tuesday12 August 8.00pm The Edinburgh Playhouse eif.co.uk/inala £10–£32 (fees apply) Supported by

SOUTH AFRICA – UNITED KINGDOM SEASONS 2014 & 2015

Inspiring new ways

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Image Simon Turtle

Flickering like a flame Akram Khan offers Festival audiences a rare and perhaps final opportunity to witness Gnosis

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kram Khan’s Gnosis had a tricky start. The planned first performance was delayed when Khan was injured. As a result, the first public glimpse of the work was a tiny fragment, short but extraordinary. His dance evoked the moment when Queen Gandhari, a character from Indian epic the Mahabharata, dies in a fire. Shaking and shimmering, Khan flickered like flame.

The Mahabharata has played an important part in Khan’s performing career: at 13, he toured the world in Peter Brook’s celebrated staging of the story. The experience had a big impact on Khan – particularly, he says, Brook’s approach to the Mahabharata as ‘a universal story rather than a local one’.

His main focus is Gandhari, who marries a blind prince and chooses to blindfold herself to share his journey. ‘It’s changed a lot, and it will change a lot for the Edinburgh Festival,’ Khan says.

‘We’re reworking certain scenes, with a wonderful array of musicians. There’s a strong emphasis on live music – I think that’s why they chose this piece, because it’s really an interaction between dancer and musician.’

Khan clearly loves the character of Gandhari, describing her story, her choices as a queen and as a mother. The Edinburgh performances may be the last chance to see Gnosis. ‘I think this is the last time we do it,’ he says. ‘It’s quite an emotional one.’

Gnosis Tuesday 19 – Thursday 21 August 8.00pm King’s Theatre eif.co.uk/gnosis £12-£32 (fees apply) The appearance of Fang-Yi Sheu supported

by The Ministry of Culture, Taiwan

Photo Richard Haughton

Zoë Anderson is Dance Critic for The Independent

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Photo MAU

Living dangerously Samoan choreographer Lemi Ponifasio brings a very personal new work to the Festival

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hen New Zealand-based company MAU came to the Edinburgh International Festival in 2010, it shared with us not just a performance but a way of life.

Samoan choreographer, Lemi Ponifasio imbues everything he creates with his own personal philosophy on our place in the world – and it’s an experience like no other.

MAU’s 2014 offering, I AM, like many of the performances at this year’s Festival, has its starting point as the First World War – but Ponifasio also found inspiration in other sources. New Zealand

visual artist Colin McCahon, playwrights Antonin Artaud and Heiner Müller and various chants and prayers all fed into his creative process.

‘I’m bringing all this ‘difficult material’ together,’ he says, ‘because I think this is a moment in time to make a strong reflection, not only on the disaster of the First World War, but where humanity is at.

‘I feel this moment is not about celebrating the victory of war, but it’s more about looking at the human heart, and what we’re capable of.’

I AM Saturday 16 & Sunday 17 August 8.00pm The Edinburgh Playhouse eif.co.uk/iam £10–£32 Supported by

Kelly Apter is a Dance Critic for The Scotsman 5

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Photo Wonge Bergmann

Cheekto-cheek flirtations Immerse yourself in the magical world of Pina Bausch

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o not forget…’ It’s not quite a command, not quite a plea, but when the dancers in Sweet Mambo tell audiences who they are, that phrase shadows the saying of their name. It’s such a typically Bausch detail: a reminder that every piece she made – no matter how flamboyantly theatrical or choreographically visceral and intense – was about people, not ciphers.

Sweet Mambo, made in 2008 – a year before her sudden, unexpected death – resonates throughout with Pina Bausch’s fascination with the impulses that can pull men and women into intimate personal relationships, then just as readily thrust them apart. No other 20th century choreographer quite matches her instinct for the visual imagery, the gestures, the impromptu acts and incongruities that spell out urgent desire or brutal rejection. Who else but Bausch could imagine normality as a bevy of woman in long, elegant evening frocks? But somehow those extravagant dresses, with their hint of Hollywood glamour, are exactly the stuff of everyday romantic dreams. They flounce and slink so seductively in Sweet Mambo – no wonder one man kisses the back of a woman in a lowcut gown…

If this was a Fred and Ginger movie, that might be the cue for cheek-to-cheek dancing. But Bausch offers us an experience that delves deeper than hearts and flowers illusions. So while Sweet Mambo has the sizzle and caprice of flirtation on the hoof, it also has the reality check of gutwrenching disappointments, forlorn hopes. But as the soundscore weaves together a beguiling mix of popular, often jazzy tunes – it ranges from Portishead to Nina Simone, Tom Waits and Brian Eno – Bausch’s graceful, resilient women choose to face the music and dance with the partners that come their way.

Sweet Mambo moves audiences in different ways. How could it not? We all have our personal experiences of relationships, good, bad or unfulfilled.

But one thing is certain: once seen, Bausch’s gift of dance-theatre is something you don’t forget.

Mary Brennan is Dance Critic for The Herald

Sweet Mambo Saturday 23 – Monday 25 August 7.30pm The Edinburgh Playhouse eif.co.uk/sweetmambo £10–£32

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Photo Stuart Armitt

Fiery Festival Finale!

Festival 2014 concludes with a spectacular concert, with fireworks launched from Edinburgh’s iconic Castle to music by Wagner, Beethoven, Debussy and Mendelssohn, concluding with Tchaikovsky’s electrifying 1812 Overture, performed live by the Scottish Chamber Orchestra.

Virgin Money Fireworks Concert Sunday 31 August 9.00pm eif.co.uk/virginmoneyfireworks Sponsored by

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