There is a story that the renowned fado singer Amália Rodrigues was in a hotel room in New York contemplating suicide; to stave off the depression she watched videos of Hollywood legend Fred Astaire tap dancing. Tap, or at least a style of footwork known as ‘zapateado’ is central to flamenco, but also to the lost… Read more »
As the third part in an open-ended trilogy, Made of Space, created by the accomplished Barcelona-based duo Maria Campos and Guy Nader, pushes further (or higher) an ambitious examination of the principles of physics: matter and its motion through space-time, energy, force and the workings of nature. Precision Challenging in its abstract premise, yet open… Read more »
When the prestigious choreographer Marta Carrasco convinced Albert Hurtado, the charismatic zumba teacher at her local gym to cross-dress before a live audience at the TNC, how could he refuse? The result, the breezy performance piece Jo, dona. A Lili Elbe., a heartfelt tribute to Lili Elbe: a Danish landscape painter and transgender woman, and… Read more »
In March 2016 propagandists, located (according to Google Analytics) in Saint Petersburg, infiltrated my blog lookingfordrama.com. ‘Vote Trump!’ They urged on a number of posts about Catalan theatre productions. Of course it’s nice to receive any comments, but it was disconcerting that having perused my online persona (courtesy of Facebook) my unwanted guests would have… Read more »
In this age of heavy words lightly thrown, the excellent contemporary dance troupe Mal Pelo offer a beautifully-wrought farce, a caustic yet sincere solo, performed by Pep Ramis, that counts on the input of playwright and theatre director Jordi Casanovas and French/Catalan physical theatre troupe Baró d’evel. Through 60 minutes we follow Ramis on his… Read more »
In this confident yet complex dance piece by Christian Rizzo, the simplicity and joy inherent in the creation of a community, the subject of his acclaimed 2013 work D’après une histoire vraie (based on a true story), is lifted into abstraction. In Une maison (a house), 14 dancers form fleeting connections that fail to leave… Read more »
The circus and performing arts troupe Baró d’evel, formed by the award-winning French/Catalan duo Camille Decourtye and Blaï Mateu Trias, expands its repertoire with a smart and sophisticated production for eight human performers, one white horse and a flock of pigeons. Falaise, that premiered at Barcelona’s Grec festival in July, is the second half of… Read more »
Grec Festival offers a great opportunity to experience a work by the Australian choreographer Lucy Guerin. For nearly 20 years, this Adelaide-born choreographer has been a reference point in contemporary dance, working out of Melbourne’s sophisticated and individualistic independent dance scene. Split, the word implying a forced, irreversible division, works on levels that are personal,… Read more »
With a title that evokes the Patrick Marber play about the desire for yet failure to achieve intimacy, Thomas Noone breaks apart its 2-couple dynamic with a six dancer piece, saying that it is the audience in this case that he wants to get closer to. The public sit on both sides as well as… Read more »
“Sexism fixates on the body of a woman,” says the Valencia-born choreographer Marina Mascarell, whose pitch perfect dance piece Three Times Rebel uncovers the roots of the feminist movement as an act of physical defence as well as intellectual defiance. The contemporary work, which premiered last year, developed “organically” after years of research, says Mascarell…. Read more »
