66 Dances: A series of fortunate events. Andy Solway reflects on process, production and performance, Littlemore Church, 2nd-3rd December 2022

Dance is for the young. That’s what the world says. Dance companies are full of young dancers with incredible physical skills, and choreographers are funded to make spectacular performances with their young companies. But this view is belied by the huge numbers of older people who dance into their thirties, forties, fifties and beyond. I have always loved to dance, but I often think that I’m not a ‘real’ dancer. I’ve never been in a big company, I only danced seriously for about 12 years, then I more or less gave up until my late 50s. I don’t talk about dancing to my work colleagues, or in my kayaking club. But still, at 66, dance remains a core part of who I am.

66 Dances began, like many things, during lockdown. My friend Steve Batts, who is director of Echo Echo Dance Theatre Company in Derry, put on November Dances, a series of 21 live streamed performances in November 2020. It was a great event, Every weekday night a community of people from all over the world gathered to watch for about 15 minutes. Each night Steve created a space in our imaginations where he could dance for himself and for us. This summer, I was involved in several dance workshops and projects that I enjoyed immensely. However, I was also feeling afraid. I have had several small ailments that were quite worrying at the time, and many friends have quite serious ongoing health problems. Would I be able to dance in a year’s time? In a week? 66 Dances arose out of these feelings. The idea was to make a two-day event in which I would perform my age in dance.

 

Oxford Dance Forum presents Dance Scratch Night, at the Old Fire Station (OFS), Oxford, 5th October 2022 – Maggie Watson reports

The Oxford Dance Forum (ODF) Scratch Night was an opportunity for four choreographers to try out newly created dances in front of an audience.  Nathan Grassi introduced each work on behalf of ODF, and skilfully moderated the feedback discussions that followed each performance.

The evening started with a fragment from Andy Solway’s extended work 66 Dances, with which he plans to mark his sixty-sixth birthday over the course of two days at Littlemore Church in December.  Eight dancers, alongside musicians Malcolm Atkins and Paul Medley, presented an improvisation that included danced responses to haikus by Erica Ison, which were written on pieces of paper that were pinned to the back curtain and selected at random.  Imagery from the first haiku inspired a duet in which the dancers circled each other like birds.  Solway and Jenny Parrott responded to the second haiku with movement that conjured up the sense of dripping water; I could almost feel the rain splashing onto Parrott’s head and neck.