GOlive Oxford 2015, curated by Donald Hutera. Burton Taylor Studio, 15 July 2015

Donald Hutera has brought Oxford a remarkable programme of innovative dance, which is also an exciting opportunity to see local artists’ work in a broader context.

The evening opened with Marina Collard’s And So It Goes On, a beautifully thought out dance that combined live performance and film. Collard danced in relation to her filmed image, projected onto the brick wall at the back of the stage, in a work full of subtle reflections and repetitions. Elegant, intense, yet restrained, the vertical focus of the live dance on the flat floor in front gained an added dimension from the video beside it, not only because there seemed to be a second dancer moving in a different plane, but also because the feeling of a raked stage at a different angle behind. Next, Oxford hip hop dancers Beat Street followed with Heart Cry, a graceful and surprisingly gentle work performed by three young men, who used the genre in an original and unusual way.

 

GOlive Oxford curated by Donald Hutera at Burton Taylor Studio 15th-18th July 2015

The GOlive Dance and Performance Festival has built an enviable reputation for breaking the rules in the mere two years since veteran dance/theatre critic Donald Hutera (the Times) first applied his encyclopaedic knowledge of international arts to curating a playful eclectic programme of performances for small spaces.  This year following a season at the Lion and Unicorn Theatre in Kentish Town in June GOlive goes on tour, with performances in Oxford and Winchester.  Featuring performers from Oxford and across the UK in the Burton Taylor Studio’s intimate setting, GOlive Oxford offers something for all lovers of dance in two programmes over four days.  If ya gotta go, GOlive!

“If it’s worth seeing, Hutera has seen it”  METRO

“…it might be the piece that hooks you forever…” Luke Jennings, The Observer

 

Moving With the Times, Pegasus Theatre 27th-28th February 2015 – Ana Barbour reviews

I arrived late to find myself in the middle of Selfies x4 by Marina Collard Company. On stage were 4 young female dancers Lorea Burge, Alice Labant, Mathilde Lepage Bagatta and Carolina Ravaioli – dressed in jeans and a pairing of blues and reddish tops. Sometimes they stood and gazed vacantly, other times they preened, sat, walked, jumped or danced; some lovely consecutive moves, responses, stopping and starting between the pairs. Behind them, ‘selfie shots’ – pictures of faces – built up in a mosaic of squares over the back screen and disappeared again to reappear in another configuration. The soundtrack a hubbub of background noise: talking, sometimes in English, sometimes in a foreign language, a lot of giggling and awkward noises, the clattering, clanking sounds of a canteen. The whole aptly expressing the isolating (alienating?) contentment and self absorption of selfie culture.  At the end we were treated to the two pairs becoming a four and posing for each other and us; a connection warmly appreciated by the audience. This work was a collaboration between Marina, Paul Whitty (sound/music) and Vicki Rucinska ( film/projection).

 

Moving with the Times, Pegasus Theatre, 27th & 28th February 2015

The Annual Festival platform of dance specially commissioned by Pegasus and Dancin’ Oxford.  Now in its fifth year, Moving with the Times showcases brand new dance work by some of Oxfordshire’s most exciting performers and choreographers. Artists and companies have spent several months working at Pegasus and elsewhere preparing and perfecting their work for one of Dancin’ Oxford’s key festival events.  This year’s artists include Justice in Motion; Cecilia Macfarlane, Melissa Holding, Hilary Kneale; Unlock The Chains Collective; and Marina Collard.

 

Dance Scratch, Pegasus Theatre Friday 23rd January 2015

This Dance Scratch provides a chance to catch the artists chosen to present work as part of Moving With The Times, the annual Dancin’ Oxford platform for local professional choreographers, giving the first airing of their new choreography in a work-in-progress showcase at the Pegasus Theatre.  Get a sneak peek and contribute your feedback before the final production during the festival in February.

Artists and companies showing work include Justice in Motion, Marina Collard, Unlock The Chains Collective, Cecilia Macfarlane with Melissa Holden and Hilary Kneale.

Date:  Friday 23rd January 2015, 7.30pm

Venue: Pegasus Theatre, Magdalen Road, Oxford OX4 1RE

This is a free event but booking is essential.

 

First Stage Dance Scratch Evening Pegasus Theatre Friday 24th January

Oxford dance artists making and presenting work for Dancin’ Oxford 2014 invite you to join them at Pegasus Theatre this Friday 24th January, when they will be showing new pieces in preparation at the First Stage Dance Scratch Evening presented by Pegasus & Oxford Dance Forum.  This free event is a fabulous opportunity to get a really close look at new pieces as they are being made.  Audiences have the chance to talk to the artists about the work, share thoughts and influence progress towards the final productions.  As in previous years, most of the pieces will be presented in completed form at the Moving With The Times showcase later in the season.  Artists include: AnaMorphic Dance Theatre, Sole Rebel Tap, Mamé Yansane, Unlock The Chains Collective, Marina Collard & Joe Lott Dance, and the works are suitable for all ages.

Friday 24th January 7.30pm

Pegasus Theatre, Magdalen Road, Oxford OX4 1RE
Full details and tickets from http://www.pegasustheatre.org.uk/shows/dance-scratch/

Box Office:  01865 812160

 

A Storyteller’s Inadequacy – Eva Kotátková at Modern Art Oxford 30th November 2013 – 2nd February 2014

Modern Art Oxford presents the first UK solo exhibition of Eva Kotátková’s varied conceptual work featuring the most prolific performance based works to date.  Local independent dancers Marina Collard, Paulette Mae and Jane Connelly are among a shifting team of performers in A Storyteller’s Inadequacy in which the artist proposes a playful and awkward relationship between performance, object, sculpture and installation.   A giant speech organ commands the space of the Upper Gallery, creating a  playground, gym, theatre and circus mixed environment for a group of performers to enact poses and temporary body constellations; they interact with an eclectic range of objects in an exploration of the possibilities as well as the limits and barriers in human communication and interaction.

 

Oxford dance artists at GOlive Dance and Performance Festival September 2013

September promises to be an exciting month for Oxfordshire based dance artists, several of whom are performing at the new GOlive Dance and Performance Festival curated by dance critic Donald Hutera (the Times) at the Lion and Unicorn Theatre in London.  Part of the Giant Olive Community Theatre Company, and now going into its twenty-fifth year, Kentish Town’s only theatre has firmly established itself as a cultural centre for high quality and innovative theatrical productions.  Resident Company Giant Olive have produced over twenty of their own productions at the venue, including classics, new writing, musical theatre projects and contemporary ballet productions and have also played host to over 300 visiting companies in the last five years.

London will get a chance to see work by the following Oxfordshire dance artists: Paulette Mae, Marina Collard, Nick McKerrow of Anjali, Cecile Feza Bushidi, Ana Barbour, and Susie Crow with Jennifer Jackson as BIG Ballets.

 

Marina Collard at Coventry University’s Forward in Motion 6th & 7th December

If you missed the chance to see her at the recent Flourish Dance Scratch Night at Pegasus, Oxford based dance artist Marina Collard will be showing her recent work Small Boat at Forward in Motion 2012, Coventry University’s annual festival of contemporary dance and performance this week on Thursday 6th and Friday 7th December.

 

Flourish Dance Scratch Night, Pegasus Theatre, 3rd November ’12

Joe Lott writes:

At the Flourish Dance Scratch Night, at the Pegasus Theatre on Saturday 3rd November, you can see the latest work from: Marina Collard, Joe Lott Dance, Ana Barbour, Jenny Parrott and Emma Webb.