Oxford Dance Writers

Blue Ghost, performed by Flamenco dance company Dotdotdot, is captivating from beginning to end. At first the, stage is in darkness, then flares suddenly crackle and spark from its outermost corners, as dancers Magdalena Mannion and Noemi Luz gradually emerge from the gloaming, and the gathering light reveals composer and visual artist Nick Rothwell standing upstage centre at his music console, from which he creates a sensational soundscape that combines original Flamenco compositions and cantos with electronic music.

At times, rectangles of light projected on the wall at the back of the stage pierce the darkness, like illuminated windows drawing the dancers towards them, or the dancers themselves glow with LEDs embedded in their costumes as they vibrate, twist, and whirl with lightning footwork and stylised hand gestures. Towards the end, a beautiful image of a network of lights, like a pattern of glow-worms, appears behind the dancers.

There is a hint of display and courtship as if they are birds or insects, taking it in turns to show themselves to each other: one dancer wears a long dress and performs a spectacular shawl dance; the other wears high-waist trousers with a jerkin and transparent cloak suggestive of gossamer wings. Their fiercely accurate Flamenco taps are like a rhythmic conversation, both with each other and with the music, as they move faster and faster, their bodies strongly held and tightly centred, building suspense by containing their energy before the moments of release. They seemed to be ephemeral creatures, rather than human beings, that danced purely for the sake of dancing.

There was no programme available at the venue (not even a QR code), but afterwards I discovered that the work was inspired by the Blue Ghost Firefly.

Maggie Watson
26 March 2023

For more information about Dotdotdot Dance’s Blue Ghost, see programme here

Born to Exist is the third part of Joseph Toonga’s Hip Hop Dance Trilogy. It opens with a dancer standing, legs astride, centre stage, her back to the audience. Slowly, she starts to move, gradually expanding and extending with every part of her body, her torso undulating, her hips circling. Two more women join her and together they perform a tightly choreographed dance work to a score by ‘Mikey J’ Asante.

Toonga has drawn on street dance styles, to develop a theatrical performance technique and vocabulary. The dancers displayed accuracy, precision and sharp focus in carefully structured sequences, full of choreographic content, which called to mind urban violence and scenes of racial conflict. They moved in synch with one another, despite their markedly different heights and physiques, subtly taking cues from the sound of each others’ breath and footfall, as well as from the soundtrack.

This is not an easy work to watch: the dancers speak, one delivering a long and weary monologue in Portuguese that seemed to be about how terribly tired she is and how difficult it is to be a black woman; another dancer angrily demanded, over and over, ‘See me; why can’t you see me?’, before looking members of the audience in the eye and telling them to ‘F*** off’. Nobody answered back, and nobody walked out, but at that moment, I felt that anything might happen.

I was disappointed that there was no accompanying programme available for the performance; not even a QR code to link to information about the production. I had to search the Web to find the names of the three accomplished and talented dancers: Aisha Webber, Amanda de Souza, and Paris Crossley.

Maggie Watson
12 March 2023

Find out more about Joseph Toonga and Just Us Dance Theatre here

On Friday evening as part of an intensive Dancin’ Oxford week of events, JamesWiltonDance presented The Four Seasons before a packed auditorium, preceded by a lively ‘curtain raiser’ by a dozen local students who had attended a company workshop. Choreographers and performers James Wilton and Sarah Jane Taylor have created a truly immersive dance work, with designs by Vibeke Andersen, to Vivaldi’s music as recomposed by Max Richter with extensions by Michal Wojtas. The entire audience seemed to hold its breath from the first moment, as Taylor slowly emerged like an amoeba from a chrysalis, while the light gently glowed and dimmed, suggesting the passing of day and night.

Taylor and Wilton seemed to move in perfect unison, using every part of their bodies to support themselves, creating the illusion that they were drifting in space. Embracing, carrying, catching, and holding each other, they sometimes seemed to swim in the air, opening up to the warmth of the sun. Their arms were like slowly beating wings when they carried one another, back-to-back, and the mysterious globe that descended from above like the moon seemed to draw them as if they were the tides of the sea. They danced alongside the score rather than slavishly following it, yet when they stood vertically, close together, there was an almost Baroque formality that echoed colours in the music. The choreography carried ideas that it is impossible fully to capture in words, reminding us of the overwhelming extent of the cosmos, and our tiny part in it.

Maggie Watson
11th March 2023

On Wednesday night, ACE Dance and Music presented a two-part programme of original work; TNBT – The Night Before Tomorrow by Serge Aimé Coulibaly, and Mana – The Power Within, by Vincent Mantsoe and Gail Parmel. In TNBT artificial grass, benches and a table, alongside the seven dancers (five women and two men) dressed in casual hot-weather street clothes, suggested an outdoor scene. The company burst across the stage to Yvan Talbot’s score with a blistering energy; leaping, spinning, falling, they seemed driven by a furious rage against each other and against the audience. Their ferocity felt like an assault as they vented their anger, silently mouthing words that we could not hear, challenging each other, yet strangely dissociated from one another, pursuing their own trajectories as they moved between different formations, brief duets and solos. There was a passing feeling of more intimate connection between the guest performers Thabang Motaung and Mthoko Mkhwanazi, who introduced a sense of wit in a dance in which they interacted moving with fluidity and precision, but the overall impression was one of isolation. When Mirabel Huang-Smith danced on the table, although she was surrounded by the company, strobe lighting seemed to capture her movement in a series of stills, as if she was being observed by outsiders.

Karen Hauer and Gorka Marquez, much admired and loved Strictly Come Dancing professional dancers, are the latest to bring a Strictly spin-off commercial dance show to Oxford. Produced and directed by Stuart Glover, with nimble choreography by Nathan Clarke, FIREDANCE REIGNITE 2023 is an updated version of an already successful show which combines sizzling dancing with spectacular fire performance. Crashing percussion and sudden flares, dancers in rippling silk skirts swirling and shooting upwards like flames in the darkness, heralded an action-packed show. A simple narrative of two dancers from rival houses meeting at the Festival of Fire and forging a passionate connection provides a minimal excuse for a succession of dances which combine a range of latin styles and lyrical barefoot contemporary, set to a playlist of great and familiar songs. A small ensemble of dancers including two expert fire performers switched and recombined and changed costumes to bring variety and visual drama to a simple black stage setting.