The Flock & Moving Cloud

Roser López Espinosa and Sofia Nappi
Scottish Dance Theatre
Dance City, Newcastle

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Scottish Dance Theatre. Moving Cloud Credit: Brian Hartley
The Flock Credit: Brian Hartley
The Flock Credit: Tiu Makkonen

Scottish Dance Theatre (SDT) flew into Newcastle last night from over the border, not literally, but with a double bill, The Flock and Moving Cloud, by female choreographers Roser López Espinosa and Sofia Nappi.

It opens with The Flock, created by López Espinosa and inspired by the movement of birds, and it lives up to its title in many ways. The set, a white cyclorama and a white dance floor, is duskily lit, and the company, standing in a migratory flock formation, move simply and cleanly to low volume music by Mark Drillich and Ilia Mayer. As the music becomes increasingly loud, the movements build in tempo and intensity. It’s a wonderful opener.

The next section is the seeming collapse of the exhausted birds, and a series of vibrant sections, groups, duets and an almost comical young bird solo, danced by Pauline Torzouli, follow.

Throughout, the partnering is unusual, inventive, human, collaborative, impressively thrilling. Finally, there’s a long section as they all gather together, connected and lightly playful, running, jumping, twisting and turning before disappearing. An exquisite work and, as nature collapses around us, also hopeful and moving.

The music, electronic and deceptively simple, is a perfect accompaniment, really well used. The almost gentle lighting, by Jou Serra and Katinka Marac, enhanced by the white set, shifts across the stage from warm to cool, from dusk to day, to twilight. It is never overstated and completes this beautiful addition to the repertoire.

After the interval, we were treated to a Scottish-inspired frolic, Moving Cloud, by Nappi. To recorded Celtic music, old and new by TRIP, LYRE LYRE, Greg Lawson, Innes White, Cormac Byrne, Charlie Stewart, it is fun, quirky, but rather chaotic. Well danced, it nonetheless feels random and unstructured. The music has been played live, which would make sense and certainly ‘lift’ the piece. However, it takes off about halfway through when a trio of dancers side ‘step, toe’ and shoulder click their way off stage.

The final offbeat ensemble dance is a real treat. The costumes by Alison Brown humorously reference the19th century—the kilt-clad dancer is great—it could have had more choreographic exploration generally. Lighting design by Gary Ebdy works well.

The company has changed style and ‘feel’ since Joan Clevillé became Artistic Director, and the dancers are highly skilled with a light and a warm approach and humanity. I felt they genuinely wanted to dance for us, and the audience, of course, responded by being warm and applauding strongly!

Their web site is full of interesting film, interviews etc for those who missed the show. With a full auditorium at Dance City, it felt like a great start to the autumn dance season.

You can catch the end of their tour at Riley Theatre, Leeds on Saturday 28 September.

Reviewer: Dora Frankel

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