Scottish Dance Theatre unveil the details of its spring ’22 season, which will feature three different works (including a World Premiere) presented in its home theatre at Dundee Rep and across Scotland. According to Artistic Director Joan Clevillé:
the season responds to the company’s commitment to artistic innovation, audience development and social engagement. It also builds on the flexibility we have developed during the pandemic, with work created both for the stage and outdoors.
The season will start with the World Premiere of a brand-new commission: Ray, by Belgium-based and internationally acclaimed choreographer Meytal Blanaru. Taking over Dundee Rep’s stage between 14 and 16 April and the Traverse Theatre on 27 and 28 April, Ray marks the end of Blanaru’s trilogy of works exploring the theme of communication. This new, intimate work will explore the phenomenon of Emergence, as it ventures on a quest for a deep, collective, shared physical experience, one that tries to bridge between bodies and sweep people far beyond the intellect’s words, ideas and constructions.
Featuring original music by French composer Benjamin Sauzerau, Ray will be Blanaru’s first commission for a dance company in the UK. Known for her delicate and mesmerising movement language, she has developed a unique choreographic signature that invites audiences and performers to drop their expectations and form a deep emotional connection.
In the lead up to the opening, Ray will be shared with six different groups belonging to communities in Dundee. By sharing the work-in-progress, Blanaru intends to bring audiences right into the heart of the creation process and give them ownership and agency in shaping the final work.
Meytal Blanaru said:
Out of a deep sense of togetherness or belonging that so many of us miss nowadays, I find myself drawn to explore the meaning of a collective that meets beyond our socially constructed common grounds. What can connect us that lies beyond words, definitions, ideas and concepts? How can a live performance serve as a means to web people together – spectators and performers alike?
Antigone, Interrupted, the critically acclaimed production from Scottish Dance Theatre’s Artistic Director, Joan Clevillé, will be back on the road after proving a hit with audiences across the country last autumn. Featuring the charismatic Solène Weinachter, the production mixes dance and storytelling to pack all the drama, passion and big ideas of a Greek tragedy into a one-woman show exploring the role of the female body in resistance and civil disobedience.
Antigone, Interrupted will visit venues in Glasgow, The Highlands, Fife and Aberdeenshire, including Byre Theatre on 12 May and Eden Court on 17 May, before making its way home to Dundee Rep on 26 and 27 May, where Weinachter will share the stage with Sign Language Interpreter and Performer Yvonne Strain, in a performance with British Sign Language Integration for d/Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing audiences.
For the end of its spring season, Scottish Dance Theatre will team up with Dance North and renowned choreographer Rosemary Lee to re-stage her work Threaded Fine, which will be shown for the first time in Scotland. Six company dancers will share the space with 18 Scotland-based dancers from professional and non-professional backgrounds, to create a unique outdoor performance drawing on the connections between space and time and the cyclical rhythm of nature.
Following previous iterations in England and Malta, Lee will present Threaded Fine in Dundee and Findhorn next June. Over five hours, 24 dancers ranging in age from 9 to 70+ will perform the same 12-minute solo, starting with the youngest and ending with the oldest with audiences and passers-by being able to come and go as they wish during the performance time. Each dancer will work with Lee and her team to bring their own quality to the shared choreography, creating a ritualistic and moving performance accompanied by live music.
Further details on Threaded Fine to be announced in due course.
With such an ambitious programme of performances, dance fans across the country have many reasons to travel to Dundee this spring, not only to see Scottish Dance Theatre in action but also to visit the unmissable exhibition Michael Clark: Cosmic Dancer at V&A Dundee. The first major exhibition on the pioneering and radical work of Scottish dancer and choreographer Michael Clark curated and organised by Barbican, London runs from 5 March to 4 September 2022 at Scotland’s design museum.
Looking back to his meteoric rise as a young choreographer in the 1980s, Michael Clark: Cosmic Dancer presents a comprehensive vision of Clark’s career to date. Reflecting on his influence beyond dance, the exhibition explores his legendary collaborations across the visual arts, music, fashion and film, including Charles Atlas revisiting the acclaimed films Hail the New Puritan (1986) and Because We Must (1989) which featured Leigh Bowery and The Fall, along with work by BodyMap, Duncan Campbell, Peter Doig, Cerith Wyn Evans, Sophie Fiennes, Sarah Lucas, Silke Otto-Knapp, Elizabeth Peyton, Susan Stenger, Stevie Stewart, Wolfgang Tillmans, Trojan and others.
Ray by Meytal Blanaru
14 – 16 April, Dundee Rep
27 – 28 April, Traverse Theatre
Antigone, Interrupted
12 May, Byre Theatre
17 May, Eden Court
26 – 27 May, Dundee Rep
Michael Clark: Cosmic Dancer
On now until Saturday, 4 September
V&A Dundee