Where is the garden? and LOTT 12...

On Friday 10th of December, the Coventry second year dance students had to perform their choreographed and improvised dance work pieces. On this night, I watched two dance pieces by the companies Eden Dance Company and So We Dance.

The first piece was choreographed by Alex Howard, performed by Eden Dance Company and was called Where is the Garden?  This was my first encounter with site specific dance and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Firstly, the cast’s attention to detail; created an atmosphere like that of a garden, so much so that I felt like I was exploring the garden.  Their use of the plastic foil was beautiful and was used I believe for representation of hibernation in winter. At points, there were certain phrase/movements, which I didn’t fully understand why they had been used e.g. the circling of the arm. Furthermore, as an audience member I loved the journey I was taken on from the studio ET 221 to Priory Square.  The cast’s responses’ in both venues were completely different and never got boring, as there was always so much detail to look at. Some people may suggest that the costumes, took attention away from the movement but I have to disagree. All the girls were very natural looking and it was in keeping with the piece.  The piece was refreshing, a new takes on dance I’ve never explored before and has refueled my passion.  All the dancers gave a true and honest response to the environment which they had explored and recreated seamlessly in different locations.  

The second company was So We Dance with their piece called LOTT 12 choreographed by Rick Nodine. The piece looked at the nature of group and explored how certain numbers/groups of people changed and regrouped. Another idea explored within the piece was the energy of repetition. I really enjoyed the continuous flow of movement. For me it created an idea of a mass of energy flowing back and forth. The cast had great teamwork; this was shown through the running and stopping sequence. They were facing opposite directions but had to sense when one another was going to start running, meaning that they both started together. A hard skill which they seem to master.  I understand that one of the main principles was repetition, but I think maybe it was used a little too much. They could have still portrayed the idea without so many repetitions. Use of normal clothing created individuality and the idea of the random nature of groupings. Unfortunately the use of repertoire and repetition meant there wasn't any room for the dancers to express their own response to the idea or create an honest performance. The movement phrases probably would of come from the dancers exploration of the idea through improvisation so therefore reflecting their personal ideas to some extent. Lastly the use of contact improvisation was fantastic, a standard and target I want to aim for.

All the dancers from both pieces worked very hard and you could see all of them had really explored the idea they were given to work with. I really enjoyed the evening and can't wait to start my second year performance!