Oxford Dance Writers

Metamorphoses – dance interpretations of the poetry of Ovid is an evening of dance and music based on interpretations of Ovid’s Metamorphoses performed by members of the Avid for Ovid group who have been working  in collaboration with the Oxford University research project Ancient Dance in Modern Dancers.  The event is a showing of work in progress, and will involve audience participation in that artists and academics will be asking for feedback.  Dancers Susie Crow and Ségolène Tarte with composer Malcolm Atkins introduced by classicist Helen Slaney will demonstrate some of their practical processes and emerging studies.  The researchers are eager to find out what audience members see in the pieces and how the communicability of an ancient solo narrative dance form might be developed in a contemporary context. (more…)

Wendy Whelan’s programme Restless Creature, on view at the Royal Opera House’s Linbury Studio Theatre last week, was a remarkable feat, consisting of four duets all danced by Whelan herself partnered in each work by its own choreographer.

In Ego et Tu we saw Alejandro Cerrudo, centre stage, lit by a pool of light as he spiralled and criss-crossed an invisible but almost palpable central line. Then he moved upstage and was miraculously replaced by Whelan emerging from the darkness, before they danced together using intricate lifts in which he held her away from his body, and barely seemed to touch her. (more…)