On Saturday 16th April One Dance Ambassador Emma- Hope Newitt and I attended the MY Dance Festival in Birmingham. My Dance is a regional platform co-produced by DanceXchange and Dance4, for youth dance companies and groups to have the chance to showcase their work from the East and West Midlands. There was 153 young dancers involved in the performances with twelve groups picked to perform at the platform.
4 groups were selected to go through to One Dance UK’s national youth dance festival U.Dance 2016 which taking place 8-10th July in Salford. These groups were: Versus Dance Company, Flexus Touring Company, Gedling Ballet School and Tammy Tsang.
The evening consisted of two halves. Opening the night was YuvaGatl – Centre for Advanced Dance Training (CAT) with Nadubhangi. Three female dancers were joined by a male dancer to form a well syncopated quartet. Each dancer embodied the movement through the use of rhythmic swirls and spins. The use of the detailed deep orange costumes as well as the warm wash of lighting allowed the audience to see YuvaGatl’s dance idea which was inspired by the shapes of nature surrounding us.
Second to perform was Dance Generation (CAT) with Neverland. Set to a vibrant and energetic beat the percussion helped track the running, jumping and shifting of weight. Dance Generation used breath and words such as ‘Shh’ to break the on-going often gestural choreography by John Ross. Neverland had a tribal feel to it due to the use of weight grounding movement and the way in which all dancers move together across the space almost herd or pack like.
Versus Dance Company were next to perform with To Cause, To Become. Immediately one dancer is lit with the beam of spotlight. As she sinks into what becomes a prominent motif throughout the piece, the audience’s attention then gets brought to the five dancers standing back stage left. They move together forwards claiming the space to then join dancer one under the spotlight; showing this sense of breaking invisible boundaries.
Translucent Junior Youth Dance Company then follow with their piece Vital Response. The Company dressed in all black, based their work on the physical and emotional effects of fear. As an audience member I really got a sense of the passion and empathy behind the piece especially when the group pulses towards each other as they become one unit.
Following on, Ignite Dance Company display their piece Genesis. They open with five spotlights; four girls in purple tops and one in a blue top placed in the middle. Five more dancers enter the space, four in black tops and one in another blue top whom then join the previous dancers to become five duets; to make strong partner work. They scramble and shift in-between the spotlights all in perfect unison.
2Faced Youth Dance then took to the stage with an immense explosion of energy showcasing their work Unite. Emily Cook and Kieran Shannon explore the theme of de-individualisation and the idea of conformity through their choreography. They start in a huddle to then crawl over each other using each other as a base. They continue throughout the piece to return to this grounded sense incorporating a significant amount of floor work in contrast to impressive lifts and jumps.
To close the first act was Flexus Touring Company with Whilst We Are Here, Let’s Dance. As one of the groups to be selected to go onto U.Dance 2016 it becomes apparent why. The standard of originality created curiosity for every member of the audience that evening. Choreographer Katy Dawson used dance and vocals side by side; showing relationships not only through movement and music combined but also through the use of humour. In the programme note it stated that this piece was a work in progress and so it will be exciting to see how Flexus will develop this piece for the national festival.
Opening the second act was Derbyshire Youth Dance Company with their piece Waiting. This light hearted piece immediately cracked a smile on every member of the audience’s faces. With its uplifting music,Waiting used this idea of different people in society to display the Great British pastime- Queuing. Characters included: a chef, business woman, flight attendant, an old lady, two sisters, a middle class lady, a painter, football player, swimmer, acrobat and a dinner lady. Each dancer completely embodied their character which allowed us as the audience to follow them through their personal experiences of queuing!
Perception Dance Company brought a twist with their performance at MY Dance. With the influence from Banksy and his artwork graffiti, this became their stimulus for their piece:There Is Always Hope. The red heart balloon became a prominent feature in the choreography by Alison Clinton in collaboration with the performers. The dancers worked in relation to one another through the use of lifts as well as through clear transitions which added layers to There Is Always Hope.
Gedling Ballet School followed with a very different piece named The Fallen. Militant in their movement this piece showed a sense of struggle, power and journey. The dancer’s formations were on point with this powerful theme explored cleverly taking inspiration from actual military drills and actions such as ‘army crawls’ which were then re-worked to produce choreography.
Curve Young Dance Company were next to perform with their modern piece The Wicca Ballroom loosely based on Roald Dahl’s The Witches. The Leicester based company explored what happens when the witches long black gloves were removed. The quirky/ ridged choreography accentuates the desperate shaking and pulsating actions which peeled back the witches’ real characteristics.
To bring MY Dance 2016 to an end were RedxCo with their piece Transcendence Voices. This piece was the first and last to really take influence from each individual dancer no matter what style of dance they specialise in; resulting to the genre of Hip Hop choreographers Andrew Williams and Emma Terzza unite the group together. The piece oozed with a sense of ownership from each dancer as they fully embraced the stage.
Each piece from the MY Dance evening captivated the audience in a different way, whether this was through the use of complex choreography, formations, lifts and tricks, humour or props all twelve acts embodied dance in a unique way which made an impression to both Emma-Hope Newitt and I as well as the entire audience.The support that this event had from family and friends together was electric and from the response’s it was truly an evening enjoyed by all.
By being able to attend MY Dance and through representing One Dance UK it gave me an insight into the up and coming artists as well as the next generation of dance talent which we should all support and follow attentively.
Review written by Lily Grundy
The U.Dance London Platformwas a selection event for the U.Dance 2016 National Festival, taking place 8-10 July in Salford. We will be announcing the groups selected to take part in the national festival soon! For updates about the festival please follow along on Twitter: @youthdance#udance2016