(3 / 5) Sumida River

(4 / 5) Impact Dance: Chapter 25+1

A hectic Saturday, along with tube strikes would herald a invigorating day of theatre in London. Kings Place has been itching to do their Noh Theatre festival since pre-pandemic times and with two days filled with events, I was only able to make Sumida River in Sign Language. This inclusive show, based on an old Japanese play of the Noh tradition, would welcome both deaf and hearing audiences. The lead roles were taken by Deaf performers who signed in their respective languages of JSL (Japanese Sign Language) and BSL (British Sign Language) with voiced translation in English.

The tale itself is quite simple: a Ferryman (the fitting stature of Brian Duffy) refuses to let The Mother (the elegant Chisato Minamimura) pass the river so late at night. The story of a child who drowned in said river permeates the story, having been kidnapped by bandits and was fleeing in the process. The theme of the after life and the never ending flow of nature are the main elements of the piece, here even more distilled in a often calm, sometimes heightened drama. Percussionist Beibei Wang used all sorts of instruments, big drums to make us jump out of our seats, little gongs and even the floors and seats of the auditorium. 

Most interesting was the use of both British and Japanese Sign Language, the Ferryman not able to grasp what The Mother means, with her insistent waving of her hand, her index and thumb together like the okay symbol. Being a lover of the dense practice of Noh, this was more accessible for both deaf audiences and for those unsure of the art itself. The strict posturing and lapping dialogue in the traditional pieces take time to unfold over you. Director Verity Lane should be praised here for her efforts, along with the cast including Elizabeth Oliver as the English voiceover and the plush costumes of Mirei Yazawa. 

A venture over to the Peacock Theatre saw the barnstorming talents of Impact Dance. Starring the legend Hakeem Onibudo, some 26 years of discovering dance talent in London (and beyond). He isn’t known as Mr Impact for nothing. 

It was the sheer talent on display from all these young dancers that was highly impressive. Each of these groups offered some neck breaking, animated moves, something you wouldn’t think the human body could do in such quick succession. The diverse nature of the inclusion would see Impact spread out to Reading and Birmingham. I was off course delighted to see Fusions Elite, a troupe from Cardiff grace the stage, a welcome reminder of home on this trip away. 

Many of these pieces had a certain mood, either jubilant, yearnful or furious. It’s that violent body popping I just cant get enough off! A retro cut of musical choices would see the delights of dubstep, a mass of hip-hop, The Pet Shop Boys, The Lion King and more. A breathtaking dance from Samuel da Silveria Lima, who came from Brazil to perform, proved that any one can dance.  An appearance from Botis Seva, fresh off the success of BLKDOG, ended the guest artist programme in a typically evocative and strident target on violence in today’s world. 

Seeing all this come together and the response from the audience to Hakeem’s lifetime of work was very touching. I’m in it for the journey now and want to see more. 

Hi Sam, great to meet you, can you give our readers some background information on yourself please?

Hi of course, I’m Sam Nicholson, I’m a dance teacher and fitness instructor down in Swansea. I have the pleasure of teaching lots of age ranges and abilities but I’m also the programme director for CanDo Hub where I get to work with 20 talented dancers with learning disabilities in our training provision.

I’m a Makaton tutor and I also work with lots of dance teachers and fitness instructors upskilling them in Additional Learning Needs.

What got you interested in dance and the arts?

I’ve danced since I was three so I’ve grown up with dance and the arts, it’s always been a part of my life and I don’t think I can see a time when it’s not going to be. I love how free it can make you, and through dance I’ve been taught so much.

You run the CanDo Hub which is for Adults with Additional Leaning Needs. You run group exercise and dance fitness opportunities, classes and day provision for adults with ALN, as well as CPD training for professionals. Can you tell us more about the group?

I set up CanDo Hub initially to provide dance and group exercise opportunities to individuals with ALN and their families. This quickly grew and a need for more specialised training became apparent – hence the start of our training provision.

Our training provision is made up of 20 talented individuals who all have Additional Learning Needs. It’s centred around giving and encouraging members to have a voice. Our teams decide their learning topics, what genre of art they want to focus on and so on. We very rarely say ‘oh no, you can’t do that’, its about finding a way to make their goals achievable and accessible. We work as a collective respecting each other and we get the best possible outcomes due to it.

The group have recently been working with Rebecca Edwards the National Dance Company Wales, Dance Ambassador for the Talesin in Swansea. How did you come to work together?

We were very lucky that Karen Thomas, Company Manager from NDCWales got in touch with us wanting to know more about our team, that lead to a meeting with NDCWales, Engagement Producer Guy O’Donnell, who put us in touch with our local Dance Ambassador. Rebecca has been fabulous and our team have really enjoyed working with her. Rebecca respects every one of them as dancers and has given them scope to add their own bits of choreography into the piece as well as expanding their knowledge and abilities. This was some of our dancers first experience of contemporary dance and they have really grown in terms of ability and confidence since working with her.

Your group performed a Curtain Raiser at The Taliesin Arts Centre, Swansea prior to National Dance Company Wales performance on the main stage. That must have been a nerve-wracking moment for the group!

They really enjoyed being part of the curtain raiser, there were a lot of nerves and excitement leading up to the piece, the performance included two teams who had rehearsed separately, the first time they rehearsed all together was 45 minutes before the performance so that was incredibly nerve wracking, hoping that that the strategies we had put in place to rehearse spacing would work! Thankfully it did and we were very proud of how our dancers performed. More importantly, the dancers themselves were very proud of themselves.

You created some visual resources prior to the performance by NDCWales for the CanDo Hub, how do these support access to an understanding of Contemporary Dance for your group members?

Visual resources are so important for our teams, it helps consolidate knowledge and helps understanding. Prior to attending, we had watched the trailers for each piece and discussed what we thought each piece was going to be like.

Then during the performances each dancer was given visual worksheet on questions regarding each performance. This really helped our dancers focus their attention on different aspects of the performance.  From set, props, costume and music, to movements and symbolism behind each piece.

The responses were great and lead to lots of discussion after the performance. Some of our dancers picked up on symbolism that for many would remain hidden. E.g Codi, one of our dancers saw within the first minutes of the piece that the flag used was to symbolise death. This worksheet was really helpful to refer back to when they were reviewing the pieces afterwards.

Contemporary dance is often abstract so there’s this common myth that someone with an Additional Learning Need wont ‘get it’, however if we as professionals provide the support in order to focus attention on certain aspects of each performance the results are often fascinating. 

We believe some of your group have reviewed the performance? What did they think?

Yes! They loved all three pieces. I was expecting them to all decide as a collective on what was the overall favourite but this led to a debate with no overall favourite chosen. What was interesting was that our dancers all had valid reasons as to why their chosen piece was their favourite overall, and there was a lot of symbolism that they understood.

They loved the spoken word section of Wild Thoughts using different speeds of movement. In Codi they enjoyed the prop work with the stick and the rhythm section comprised of clapping and stamping. In Ludo, they like how fun the piece was and the hopscotch lighting effect section.

We share a selection of quotes from the groups reviews below

“My favourite bit was the blood pumping and jumps. The dance was about mining. The red flag was blood and they waved it when people died. The music was loud. It was my favourite piece.”   Nia talking about Codi

“The music was loud and sharp. The dance made me feel jump scared but I was ok. My favourite dance moves were the dying moves and the stick work” Matthew talking about Codi

“I liked it when she turned the horn and scarf into a ship – it was funny!”  – Ross talking about his favourite part in Ludo.

“The hopscotch was fab. I liked the jumps and lifts. It made me feel happy.” Joanne talking about her favourite part in  Ludo.

“I liked it when they worked together as a team. I liked their floorwork and ballet moves. It was amazing”   Sara talking about Wild Thoughts.

“My favourite move was when everyone walked saying ‘foot foot foot foot.’ I liked the lifts too”  Clare talking about Wild thoughts.

If you were able to fund an area of the arts in Wales what would this be and why?

More opportunities for learning disabled dancers and learning disabled dance companies. As a sector we need to understand that we as professionals can learn a lot from learning disabled dancers and not put limits on their potential which quite often we are all guilty of.

What excites you about the arts in Wales?

 It’s great to see how the arts is growing and reaching all different ages, backgrounds and abilities. It’s exciting to see new collaborations and relationships starting to be made that will hopefully grow providing more opportunities for everyone in our sector.

What was the last really great thing that you experienced that you would like to share with our readers? 

The last thing I wanted to say was thank you to NDCWales!  Our dancers felt valued and respected by the NDCW dance leaders and company and we really hope we get to work with them again.  

You can find our more about The CanDo Hub here.

‘One Another’

National Dance Company Wales advertised that this piece would be ‘three dances to reconnect us’ and this is exactly what they did when the Pool Hayes Academy Sixth Form dancers travelled to Shrewsbury for their first Dance Aspirations day.

The first part of the day we watched the NDCW open dance class in the auditorium where we observed an independent warm up then a technique class led by Victoria Roberts, the rehearsal director of the company. This insight into a usually private company warm up showed us how a professional company prepare and the importance of ballet even within a contemporary company.

After this we were lucky enough to get the opportunity to interview company member Josh Attwood, who was a previous student of our teacher. He explained what it was like to be a professional dancer and described a day in his life. The opportunity to speak to a professional dancer really helped us to understand how much hard work and dedication it takes to successfully work as a professional dancer and has inspired us to consider our next steps towards this after sixth form very carefully.

A few hours later we returned to the auditorium to watch the performance of ‘One Another’ which is a triple bill.

‘Wild Thoughts’ by Andrea Costanzo Martini

We saw this piece as a celebration of the body because of the way the dancers explored their use of body, in combination with voice and movements. This choreography used animalistic movements with all dancers using contact to explore relationships. The block colour costume worked well for this dance as we felt that this could have been to emphasise the abstract nature of the piece and highlighted a lot of different gestures. The costume was abstract enough to support but not overpower the original theme of the dance. The dancers used a dynamic contrast and projected their voice to the audience with different facial expressions, which was effective to the audience as the combination of voice with movement is something that us students have not seen before and left us excited for what was to follow, having pushed us out of our comfort zones and left a lasting impression.

‘Codi’ by Anthony Matsena

‘Codi’ explores a narrative about the Welsh mining community. In this piece the lighting was key throughout the performance, with the use of headlights giving the audience an insight into working conditions for the miners and setting the scene effectively. This was also supported with the choice of  costumes. The props used gave a sense of drama and highlighted how dangerous conditions in the mine were for the workers. Throughout this piece we could really feel the level of emotion conveyed to the audience, where it goes from being excited and energetic at the beginning to sorrowful at the end. The use of voice effectively conveyed the passion of the community. Overall, this was our favourite piece because it taught us about an important historical event, helped us to empathise with miners and understand their dangerous conditions and inspired us to research more widely for our own choreography stimuli.

‘Ludo’ by Caroline Finn

The final piece in the triple bill was about transitioning into adulthood and revisiting fond memories of childhood experiences. The choreographic use of experimenting with games explored as a child was very entertaining as we tried to spot the various inspirations and witness how these had been turned into movement material. The clever use of props, such as the benches that were originally sat at the side of the stage that turned into a merry-go-round has inspired us to experiment with props in different ways back in lessons. It was interesting to see the clear characterisation within the different dancers, allowing us as the audience to explore these childhood memories through the eyes of each character all the way through. The personalised, multi purpose costumes also allowed each dancer to be playful with their character. This piece was placed perfectly at the end of the triple bill to leave the audience on a high.

After the performance we were lucky enough to be able to sit in a Q&A with members of the cast and learn which piece was their favourite, understand more about the development and rehearsal process for the show and understand how some of the pieces were created over Zoom due to Covid restrictions. Having this opportunity really helped us to develop our appreciation of the pieces and inspire us to try new approaches and push ourselves to explore movement material in different ways in our choreography lessons.

Overall, we loved all three pieces that NDCW performed; particularly how different each of them were and how the use of voice was incorporated. The performance style and characterisation of each piece was so different, which I don’t think we were expecting. We also loved seeing different props used in different ways throughout the three pieces and how the lighting was used effectively, especially in our favourite ‘Codi’.

We would like to congratulate NDCW for a fantastic show but really thank them, Josh especially, for opening up previously unseen elements of the rehearsal and preparation process for audience members to immerse themselves in – the impact the whole day has had on our lessons now we’re back in school is very clear to see and we are all better dancers for the whole experience.

So much of what it on offer at the theatre is routine light entertainment or tired re-runs of old chestnuts. A lot of new material, despite the best endeavours of marketing departments, also fails to excite. But, off to one side of mainstream theatre, there is contemporary dance and ‘One Another’ is a show that would appeal to anyone who enjoys performance and who appreciates physical technique, vivid imagination and enthusiastic exploration.

The show consists of three pieces: Ludo, by Caroline Finn, lasting thirty minutes; Codi, by Anthony Matsena, lasting twenty minutes and Wild Thoughts, by Andrea Costanzi Martini. There are nine dancers.

Wild Thoughts is an introduction to the company, with individual dancers appearing, performing similar routines, followed by duos and trios until everyone is on stage and a lot happens simultaneously. It’s extremely energetic (the first performance of the evening?) and very tight. There might have been mistakes but you would have been lucky to spot them. Although it’s fast, athletic and technical, it’s by no means dry. The dancers add to their movements by calling out the names of body parts in a synchronised chant. It had never struck me before that the word ‘thigh’ could achieve dramatic intensity!

I’d seen Codi the last time NDCW performed at Theatr Clwyd. I found it interesting with its clever use of lights and its references to the real life of coal mining and coal mining communities. The second time around, though, as much of it is performed in semi-darkness, to make the most of shadows and the helmet lights, I missed the facial expressions which added so much to the other pieces. And, whilst the soundtrack, mainly consisting of percussive noises is appropriate, it didn’t appeal to me. Nonetheless, this is dance approaching social comment and some of the poses that were struck resonate.

Ludo was fascinating and completely mad. It is a pot-pourri of situations taking place on and around a large table and then a number of park benches, which the dancers can manoeuvre individually or link together. There are moments of surrealism, in which elastic costumes are pulled in all directions, concealing the head or the limbs so that weird shapes can be created – and moved around. Little scenes are played out, teasing the intelligence – you want – in vain! – to work out exactly what is supposed to be going on. Objects, like an old gramophone player and a jam pot, are used as toys. Elements of stage business, like conjuring tricks and trompe l’oeil occur almost randomly. There’s no logic to any of the way the moments segue together, but that’s the fun of the piece. It makes nonsense of the idea of narrative by keeping you guessing throughout. It also makes you wonder if the stream of colourful ideas came from a single choreographer (if so I’d like to have some of what she is on) or if the company contributed their own ideas to make up the mix. The soundtrack to the piece is also charming, including, perhaps inevitably, an accordion at one point. The show ends with a smile.

The only downside is that the evening can’t build as it might with a ballet or a full length play. There are effectively two intervals which are almost as long as the pieces themselves. The audience is left to sit and look at the curtain, talking amongst themselves, or to go outside into the tented reception area which was very draughty (Theatr Clwyd is being substantially rebuilt). There will be technical reasons for these gaps – the dancers need to get their breath back and the set needs to be re-jigged – but ideally, there should be something happening on stage – a talk or question and answer session or even a bit of live music. Performances engross our attention and extend our concentration. If you can find a way to do this cumulatively you achieve more momentum.

That said, NDCW are to be congratulated on putting on a diverse and original show, of the kind which keeps theatre alive. Theatr Clwyd are also to be applauded for keeping their programme varied and making sure their local audience can experience the best in modern contemporary dance.

Simon Kensdale