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.