I felt so honoured to be dancing at Pavillion Dance South West (PDSW) in Bournemouth recently.

I dance for Flickerr Dance company, and we had recently developed a solo work of artistic choreographer Felicity Kerr’s into a trio, which was invited to perform at PDSW’s Hatch and Scratch evening; an evening consisting of developing works with audience feedback in regards to the development of them and personal opinion. ‘Pioneered by Battersea Arts Centre, ‘scratching’ is presenting new performance in development to an audience to receive feedback.’ (www.pdsw.org.uk)

It was incredibly important to get audience feedback, and all seemed incredibly positive. Flickerr Dance is a very abstract contemporary dance company, and it’s work often comes from a choreological place.

‘Transliterate’ is based on a score from Bach’s Minor Fugue.

Felicity used a row of spotlights to highlight direction in which we travelled, using choreutics to determine this based upon the Fugue in minor C itself.

The work is often opposite of narrative, something so frequently seen in theatre, however the audience seemed to appreciate this, and it appeared to be a ‘breath of fresh air’.  Felicity explored J.S. Bach’s Fuge in C Minor from The Well-Tempered Clavichord through dance and discovers how muscial harmony can be translated into movement harmony.

It was a real honour to be showcasing work beside Mischief company and James Finnemore’s new work.

Mischief‘s work, ‘RED’ is a large scale physical theatre production, portraying the story of Little Red Riding Hood in a modern, dark and seedy world. This was a fast paced, energetic performance with plenty of narrative and leading the audience through the plot to different situations. I thoroughly enjoyed how they played wolf with a seedy, topless man, luring red riding hood and her beau into difficult temptations.

James Finnemore ‘s new piece pictured one male and one female on stage, and began with them gazing at each other. As an audience member it was difficult to determine their relationship at this point, and it built up, slowly and carefully, into a progression of moving to the beat, away from the beat, and with and without each other. I personally loved the floor work. And the pair of dancers seemed incredibly in sync. Having recently choreographed a duet consisting of a male and female dancer, yet attempting for this relationship to be viewed as platonic, this was really monumental for me to witness.

I loved this work, and it’s slow, gradual build.

Both pieces (not Flickerr Dance’s) contained nudity, and although I realise the powerful, emotive power this can have on an audience, I am beginning to wonder when dance will be about the body actually dancing, and not need nudity. Are we not supposed to be able to say what we wish through our bodies with our clothes on? Lets sell dance from dance, and not from nudity or sex.

Flickerr Dance and Transliterate are off to Bristol next! Take a look here for more information and tickets. Hope to see you there 🙂