If the title of this blended invoice from Yorke Dance Venture brings to thoughts sunshine and feelgood vibes, cease proper there. To mark the twenty fifth anniversary of her firm, Yolande Yorke-Edgell has collated a programme celebrating feminine dance pioneers who lived in California (because the British creative director used to) and it’s not precisely sunny: the tragic lifetime of Isadora Duncan, the white-hot energy of Martha Graham, the robust geometry of Bella Lewitzky, and a bit of Yorke-Edgell’s personal that feeds on the spirit of all three. Surfin’ USA it ain’t.
It’s an perception into fashionable dance historical past, which began with the spirited, passionate Duncan on the flip of the twentieth century. She threw off the shackles of classical dance, restrictive fashions and social expectations to pursue freedom of creative expression and was celebrated within the salons of Europe. However her life was a string of tragedies, primarily the deaths of her three kids, alongside doomed amorous affairs and monetary woes. That is all captured in an efficient remodeling of Kenneth MacMillan’s Isadora, initially created in 1981 (this model edits out her loss of life, strangled when her scarf caught within the wheels of a automobile). Amy Thake, within the title position, wafts, skips and floats on the breeze, and exhibits us a girl who lived by means of her physique, dominated by sensation with no worry of emotions – who had a beneficiant dose of self-importance, too.
Trendy dance approach actually started with the towering determine that’s Graham, however her dances will not be usually seen right here, so this revival of Errand Into the Maze from 1947 is an actual spotlight. Primarily based on the Minotaur delusion, it casts a girl (Abigail Attard-Montalto) within the Theseus position. Initially it was Graham herself, and you’ll see her mighty presence, the stunningly stark shapes, toes thrust to the ceiling, the drama by means of stillness (and a few unimaginable core management). She makes gentle work of the Minotaur and some other metaphorical demons. What a girl.
A extremely technical quartet, Meta 4, by Bella Lewitzky (1984) and Yorke-Edgell’s personal A Level of Steadiness, additionally show angular energy, so totally different to the mellifluous stream and molten our bodies extra frequent nowadays in up to date dance. It’s a critical, meaty programme and a beneficial historical past lesson.
