5 SOLDIERS is a moving, dramatic and unique work that looks at how the human body remains essential to war, even in the 21st century. Choreographer Rosie Kay brings her acclaimed work, currently touring the UK, to Oxford for performances at Wolfson College on 2nd and 3rd of May as part of the Art and Conflict Symposium 2015 with the support of the School of Anthropology and Museum Ethnography, University of Oxford and Wolfson College.
A visceral ‘tour de force’ of the senses, 5 SOLDIERS provides an intimate view of the training that prepares our soldiers for the sheer physicality of combat, for the possibility of injury, and the impact conflict has on the bodies and minds of everyone it reaches. The piece has a powerful physicality, moments of humour and is full of honesty, all inspired by input from serving and former soldiers, and has been endorsed as ‘getting it’ by its military audiences. In movement, the performance weaves a story of physical transformation, helping us to understand what makes a soldier and how the experience of warfare affects those that choose to put their life on the line. (more…)
The next DANSOX event (supported by The Oxford Research Centre for the Humanities, TORCH) brings another distinguished artist to Oxford to St Hilda’s College. In Mapping Motion: impulse, object and trajectory – reflections on music and choreography, internationally renowned choreographer Kim Brandstrup will conduct a workshop/presentation with Royal Ballet dancers Marcelino Sambé and emerging choreographer Kristen McNally to explore choreographer’s methods and sources.
“Music inhabits the mysterious no man’s land between mathematical construction and human emotion – nothing is so abstract in its means and yet so immediate in its effect. Choreography exists in the same sphere, where choreographic choice seems to obey both logics. The creative challenge is to navigate between the two – so that the spectators are never really sure or even aware what drives the piece – whether it is the formal or the human, the conceptual or the narrative – whether all is planned or a product of chance.” Kim Brandstrup.
Venue: St Hilda’s College, Oxford, Jacqueline du Pré Building
Date: Tuesday, May 19, 2015 – 5:30pm to 7:00pm
Followed by refreshments
Free and open to all, but booking essential
Book at https://eventbrite.co.uk/event/16378395221/
More information about DANSOX and TORCH here
Cornish born choreographer James Wilton brings his company and latest work Last Man Standing to Pegasus on 17 April.
Our planet is under constant threat from external forces like solar flares or meteors. The thought that everything could end in an instant is compelling and can cause us to reflect on our own purpose and place in the universe. This first full length work by James Wilton Dance explores the desire to survive and the fragility of our existence, the hard-wired human drive to stay alive despite the inevitability of our ultimate conclusion.
Featuring six engaging dancers with exceptional physical skill performing against a soundtrack by American rock band Tool, Last Man Standing explores the fragility of human existence. The dancers use a full arsenal of throws, lifts and slides in a desperate, determined fight to survive. Breathtaking dance in a fight to the finish from UK choreography’s newest star. (more…)
This thought-provoking volume is an edited collection of papers and presentations from the conference Ballet, Why and How? Illuminating the role of ballet in the vocational education and the professional life of today’s dancer, held in Holland in 2012. In her introduction Gaby Allard of the editorial board movingly describes her own experience as a dancer transitioning from ballet to contemporary dance, her realisation of being “locked in” to her balletic bodily practice, and her search for new knowledge and approaches. The conference addressed the need she perceives for the on-going work of research and innovation in “best practice” that is integral to dance culture to be shared in dialogue, here specifically considering “the position and value of classical technique for the dancer today” (Allard in Brown & Vos edit. 2014, p.20). A wide range of speakers with differing perspectives including historians, pedagogues, psychologists, practitioners and dance scientists contributed, to build a revealing picture of the current state of the art. (more…)
Oxford Dance Writers 