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Bedlam Dance CompanyOctober 2002 London, The Place by Ann Williams |
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Bedlam Dance Company, created by Israeli-born Yael Flexer, celebrated its tenth anniversary last week at The Place, as evidenced by the larger-than-usual crowd on Friday in the buzzy little bar. Bedlam's show 'Flexible Shorts' (part of the Dance Umbrella 2002 festival) was to have been a quadruple bill, but the last-minute injury of a dancer torpedoed the planned programme, which had to be propped up with filmed inserts. As it happens, one of these filmed inserts, 'Lifelong' choreographed by Jamie Watton and the dancers was for me the most enjoyable item on the programme. Three women - Fiona Edwards, Hanna Gillgren and Lisa Kendall - played off each other like small boys in a playground (there is an undoubtedly masculine feel to the piece). They run and push at each other, jump on each other and turn sulkily away from each other. Jules Maxwell's rythmic score underlines the welcomely clean sculpture of the movement Watton provides for the women. I would love, some day, to see this piece danced 'in the flesh'. Bedlam's originator, Yael Flexer, danced her own piece 'Yes' as the opener for the programme Her dance movements are controlled and thoughtful but break out occasionally into something more spacious and promising. She's a slender woman, but even so a small ridge of flesh divided her trousers and top reassuringly - i.e, she's a normal woman. 'Yes' is a jokey sort of piece, with Flexer turning, bending jumping in silence, without the benefit of music until the closing moments, when Martin Marais' classic-sounding score kicks in. Flexer has choreographed her eyes too, so that when they turn conspiritorially towards the audience she gets the reaction she wants. Because of the programme's confusion, I couldn't find the title of another piece, a solo choreographed and danced by David Dorfman. Dorfman, burlier than your average dancer, showed impressive control in his strange piece, fuelled by falls, kicks and half turns (memorably, he repeatedly did a combined spin and fall to the floor, returning smoothly upright without visible effort ). All this was accompanied by a wall of increasing, ominous electronic sound - something of a cliche these days in contemporary dance. The programme ended on a strong note: 'Short Term' choreographed by the aforesaid Dorfman, was a delight: Hana Gilgren and Yael Flexer might have been children playing a game, as the angular, spidery movements suggested, or then again they could have been lovers, as the occasional burst of petulant dialogue suggested...'What are you thinking of?' one of the women asks, repeating her question several times, until her exasperated partner bellows back '.WORLD PEACE!' Dorfman's choreographic skills are evident here; a movement that starts out looking chaotic ends up seeming utterly logical. He is based in New York but has created work for Scottish Dance Theatre and other UK companies, so I hope he'll be a regular visitor here.
Finally, a word about The Place itself. Housed in a splendid old red-brick building in a quiet street off the bustling Euston Road in King's Cross, it has been the home of contemporary dance in London for several decades. It is also the home of the London Contemporary Dance School, so it has a nicely relaxed and 'studenty' feel. The young staff (possibly students themselves) are knowledgeable and friendly, so with its small cafe-restaurant, The Place is a welcome oasis in the traffic-fumed 'desert' between the WC and NW borders of London.
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