Project Y

3rd August 2016 Tramway Glasgow

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Project Y is the summer intensive training and performance programme from YDance, Scotland’s national youth dance organisation. Having created a work for the company in 2011 it was a pleasure to be asked to write about this years 10th anniversay performance. A fantastic and varied programme of four exciting new works which the company will now tour to venues across Scotland. The dancing is impressive and framed beautifully with lighting design from Simon Gane.

 

Office

Choreographed by Matthew Robinson

A ticking clock sound counts the seconds, much like any office, clock watching or in this case, listening is an ever recurring theme.

As a half lit solo becomes a duet and duet becomes trio and quartet in intertwining contact, we feel the presence of an over seeing boss, up there somewhere above us, represented in a green light which occasionally gives a glimmer of it's presence to the rapture of the office below.

The green light office god has appointed a team leader. She emerges from the head of the table, reminiscent of Kurt Joos and his much studied Green Table, The leader sanctions the action  and appears to be either complicit with the unseen boss above, or has invented it to keep things under her control. She struts to the beat of production, exhaustion  and love interest. Intervening with the green light when things get too out of hand. The ensemble cuts a striking stillness of tableaus, framing the action as the ever present work force.

Moments of real intimacy push out of the monochrome tables chairs and costumes, reaching for real connection and it is here the work shows a tenderness and humanity. The dancers are entrancing in their performance, proving both communicative and impressive with some challenging choreography.

 

The Art Of Letting Go

Choreographed by Gavin Coward

Fear of the skipping rope may seem silly to some, but this concept holds a profound and touching message. I can remember clearly that fear, when we came to play with bigger ropes and girls lined up in the playground to jump through, it was even bigger for the boy looking on, uninvited. The use of skipping ropes is a genius touch in separating children through gender and all the fears of the unknown this can create. The skipping rope also counts time as a the recurring lone girl acts as pendulum, reminding us we need to move on.

Impressive running skips whip up an energy in the theatre and draw us into increasingly intricate sequences. "Everybody is afraid of something" The sound track repeats as the group take to a massive skipping rope and confront fear head on, in groups, couples or solo they pluck up the courage. They enter and exit the stage like little bouncing babies, full of beans and  literally bursting with life, hands open, faces wide in excitement and awe.

Duets emerge from the mass, couples cling, pushing and pulling each other. They are growing up and moving to the future while ever reluctant to let go of the past. The influence of Liv Lorent is evident in the strong attention to dramaturgy and building a unique physical language.

 

Team Solo

Choreographed by Tamsyn Russell

Team solo could be described as a series of interconnected vaudeville sketches performed by a team of little boxers in french pletes. It is bubbling with dry wit and clever physical language.

An opening solo brings us directly inside the solo aspect of team to a soundtrack of Happy Happy Ho. The dancer gives an impressive deadpan performance, unimpressed by the happy happy inspirational technique., She cuts a serious form in her virtuoso solo display of what it takes to be a member of a winning team.

And a team they are, the dream team!  21st century pop art cheer leaders of the future emerging into a powerfully synchronised and feisty little army. All flexing muscles and power moves, their formations echo the precision of Eurythmics with a touch of well timed physical comedy.

Tamsin makes intelligent comment on the discipline of the collective in various cultural manifestations from the capitalist USA dream team to the discipline of communist China. Using Rap in both American and Chinese form to support these ideas of the collective and the individual. Stripping all the artifice from hip hop moves was an interesting touch and served to enhance the grounded dexterity of winning athletes. And they win, again and again, their french pletes perfectly uniform as they flex their muscles til they drop.

 

Rules

Choreographed by Anna Kenrick

22 dancers adorned in colourful silk of varying hues create a long line. Almost zen Buddhist in their subsequent patience. They observe a tumbling duet as if learning, what to do, or in some cases an example of what not to do.

Dynamic ensembles play in and out of diagonal shafts of light. The precision and rhythmic timing is impressive and effective and the dancers are breath taking in their facility and attention to detail. Fluid duets which show sensitivity and creativity reveal moments of individuality leading to an entertaining play on gestural language and physical expression. The dancers are funny, engaging and rather good actors showing that choreography can applied to the face as much as the body.

Sharp and sudden changes in sound prompt quick re-arrangement in composition as if changing the rules for a new game, a new exploration. Unisons burst out explosively to pounding techno beats and beauty is revealed through quirky and punchy duets and trios.

By far the sweatiest most energetic display of the night, the young dancers thrash out expressively in bursts of independence. And as a collective, they express, expand, win battles and make new rules. A winning team.