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 Revelation of Miss White: nocturn dance films on Facebook from Monday 21st March 2016

John Darvell‘s Berkshire based company nocturn creates and delivers experimental contemnporary narrative performances based on topical social issues.  Using a mixture of dance and accessible technology, they engage audiences in interactive artistic events that they may experience accidentally, either online, or in an installation setting.  On Monday 21st March The Revelation of Miss White will premier on Facebook and deliver a three week series of dance-film installments and accompanying intensive audience engagement in this online mystery series.