Clorinda Agonistes. Shobana Jeyasingh Dance, Oxford Playhouse, Tuesday 15 & Wednesday 16 November; introduced and discussed at DANSOX, Wednesday 9 November 2022 – Maggie Watson reviews

An informative and stimulating DANSOX event, hosted at St Hilda’s College on 9th November, heralded Shobana Jeyasingh’s new work, Clorinda Agonistes, which played to full houses at Oxford Playhouse last week.

Speaking at DANSOX, Jeyasingh described her work’s lengthy gestation period. The inspiration that she drew from hearing Claudio Monteverdi’s operatic scena Il combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda led her to research the story derived from Torquato Tasso’s epic poem Gerusalemme Liberata that lay behind it. Initially drawn by Monteverdi’s use of recitative, which Jeyasingh felt had an emotional effect similar to the vocalisation of syllables in classical Indian dance, she discovered a story that in spite of its late mediaeval orientalising tropes offers new resonance and meaning for audiences today.

 

The World Stage: Dance and Music with Marhaba at Cowley Carnival 1st July 2018

Based in East Oxford Marhaba is a popular and well established collaboration between various Oxford groups providing a platform for sharing music and dance between diverse communities – making the international local.  As part of the Discovery Zone of this year’s Cowley Carnival and curated by Confluence Collective, Marhaba will be hosting The World Stage at the Church of St Mary and St John with an international range of music and dance provided by locally based artists, guests and enthusiasts, to listen to, watch and join in… see below for the schedule.

This rich and welcoming event will throughout the day also include film shows of the work of Oxford dance artist Ana Barbour (1966 – 2017) to whose memory the event is dedicated, as well as poetry and music.

Key performance times are:

12.00 Film and ad hoc performance
1.25 Mue
1.40 Shakhosi
2.00 Dabke dance workshop by visiting Ramallah group
2.30 Café Reason Butoh Dance Theatre
2.45 Rumi for one more – interpretations and reflections on the work f Rumi
3.45 Pencak Silat Indonesian dance and music
4.00 The Littlemore Oratorio (abridged version)

When:  Sunday 1st July, 12.00-5.15pm

Venue:  Church of St Mary & St John, 1 Leopold Street (off Cowley Road), Oxford OX4 1PS

All welcome, no charge

Find out about this event here

Find out more about Marhaba here

Find out more about Ana Barbour and her work here

Further information about Confluence Collective here