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| "Landing Patterns" - Ql2 Dance - National Youth Dance Company of Scotland |
Presented by
QL2 Dance and The National Youth Dance Company of Scotland.
The Q,
Queanbeyan Performing Arts Centre. 17th April
.
Reviewed by
Bill Stephens.
The fruits
of a collaboration between QL2 Dance and The National Youth Dance Company of
Scotland, forged in Glasgow at the 2014 Commonwealth Youth Dance Festival, was
on show at The Q on Sunday with the performance of a triple bill entitled
“10,000 Miles”. Consisting of an individual work from each company, together
with a collaborative work involving all the dancers from both companies, “10,000
Miles” provided a fascinating insight into the work of each organisation.
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| "Act of Contact" - QL2 Dance |
Presented in
three acts, without an interval, the program commenced with “Act of Contact”,
choreographed by Sara Black for QL2 Dance to an original score by Alisdair
Macindoe. Exploring touch and messages received through the skin, “Act of
Contact” commenced dramatically with four red-costumed couples posed around the
stage. Various responses elicited by one
partner gently touching the other were extended as more dancers took the stage,
with the reactions increasing in intensity until at one point the stage was
filled with furiously vibrating bodies.
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| "Maelstrom" - National Youth Dance Company of Scotland |
Artistic
Director of YDance, Anna Kenrick was the choreographer for “Maelstrom”, created
as a showcase for the company’s 2016 National and International tours and
premiered in Glasgow in early March. Performed to music by David Paul Jones, with
costumes by Jenni Loof and lighting design by Simon Gane, “Maelstrom” is a
complex, light-hearted response to the media obsessed world of online
communication. Sharply delineated squares and rectangles of light provided an
ever-changing environment in which the dancers confidently performed the often
quite acrobatic choreography which propelled the work.
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| "Landing Patterns" - Ql2 Dance and National Youth Dance Company of Scotland |
The final piece, “Landing Patterns”, choreographed by Anna Kenrick and Ruth Osborne during the five-day workshop, involved all the dancers from both companies. Working to an original soundscape by Adam Ventoura, against video projections by WildBear Entertainment, “Landing Patterns” commenced with a striking tableau of bodies piled on top of each other centre stage. The dancers disentangled from the pile to fill the stage for a remarkably polished performance in which the two companies fused seamlessly in a succession of cleverly staged movement combinations.
Strikingly
it was similarities, rather than the differences, that “Landing Patterns” revealed
about the work of both companies, that left the strongest impression, confirmed
later in the comments expressed by the young dancers in the short Q & A
session which followed the performance.
Photos: Lorna Sims
This review first published in the City News digital edition on 18th April 2016
This review first published in the City News digital edition on 18th April 2016
