Moving With the Times: First Look (Dancin’ Oxford Spring Festival), Pegasus Theatre, 20th January 2023 – Maggie Watson reports

First Look was a chance to see the work in progress on four dances by artists awarded 2023 Moving with the Times commissions. Presented in the welcoming environment of Pegasus, the programme consisted of three solos and a duet. An onstage discussion, curated by Thomas Page, followed each work, enabling the performers to seek responses from the audience.

All four works explored what it is to be an outsider, who does not conform to society’s norms, whether through disability, gender, social class, sexuality, culture or ethnicity. Intriguingly, all the performances used words as well as dance to establish context and convey meaning, through songs, poems or pre-recorded monologues, and by the dancers themselves speaking on stage.

Audience feedback was sometimes practical: for example, discussions about whether Divija Melally’s piece could end with the dancer on or off stage, or the way in which dancer Lucy Clark shared the stage space with musician Philip Kinshuck. The performances also provoked more subjective reactions, including intensely emotional responses to the exploration of transgender experience by dancers Trayvaughn Robin and Tonye Scott-Obene in CTC Dance Company’s work, and a vote by show of hands on whether or not the audience liked or disliked the type of character portrayed by Vita Peach in her comic creation, HUGO.

Viewing the four works at this stage shed light on the artists’ different creative approaches. Vita Peach, directed by Tamsin Heatley, offered a brief but polished and sophisticated excerpt from her solo work, while CTC Dance gave several short developing extracts from what will be a longer narrative dance for two dancers. Lucy Clark and the interdisciplinary ‘fuse collective’ presented a collaboration between dancer, musician and visual artists Daniela Zaharieva and Yi Ting Liong in which sound, lighting and movement seemed to hold equal value. In contrast, Divija Melally’s dance was a solo work, apparently devised and staged entirely by herself, that began to the sound of her own breath, and included a beautiful visual effect (which it would be ‘a spoiler’ to describe here!).

There was wit, humour and grace on show, as well as the rawness of pain as the dancers in their various ways embodied experiences of rejection or exclusion. They all had ample ideas and material to work with; perhaps more than it will be possible to incorporate within the finished works. When Dancin’ Oxford presents the final versions at Pegasus on 3rd and 4th March, it will be almost as interesting to discover what the artists have chosen to omit, as it will be to see what they have refined and developed.

Maggie Watson

21st January 2023

 

Bitter Moves, Sweet Truths: an evening of continuing – multidisciplinary collaboration at Arts at the Old Fire Station 24th February 2022

“Last Christmas, a new telescope was sent into space and is now wandering in the dark and mysterious galaxy – is this how we, as artists, feel when we go deep into our consciousness in search of what makes us feel alive?“

What happens when five artistic units come together during a global pandemic and are given the time to think and reflect? Witnessing a rise in sickening racial attacks against the global majority, the endless closure of theatres and arts venues, and the widening gap between the “successful” artist and the “starving” artist, what would five live artists of different races and backgrounds do when they gather?

Bitter Moves, Sweet Truths: an evening of continuing is part of an ongoing collaboration between percussionist/multidisciplinary artist Angela Wai-Nok Hui, contemporary art duo Ghost and John, dance/maker/writer Shivaangee Agrawal, and independent dance artist Thomas Page. Together they look at what creative exchange and artist alliance means in a world where the arts are under threat, and how to project a healthier future in the post-pandemic world. This dynamic promenade piece will merge dance with soundscapes & projections, transporting you to a place of calm that strives to build connections through art.

The evening will be a chance to observe, question, challenge, share, reflect, dream, and exchange. So artists, art makers, art lovers, join us at the Old Fire Station Theatre in Oxford as we unpack this mess in the tidiest ways we can!

Date: Thursday 24th February 7.00pm

Venue: Arts at the Old Fire Station, 40 George Street, Oxford OX1 2AQ

Tickets: Standard: £13 | Pay more: £15 | Pay less: £11 Book online here

Duration: 2.5 hours

Ages: 14+

 

ODF presents Dance Scratch Night, Arts at the Old Fire Station, 9th February 2022 – Maggie Watson reports

Wednesday 9th February saw the first Dance Scratch Night at the Old Fire Station since the start of the pandemic.   Three local makers, Pragna Das, Susie Crow and Helen Edwards shared new work with an audience, and invited feedback and suggestions during discussions moderated by Jenny Parrott on behalf of Oxford Dance Forum (ODF).  Although they work in different dance and movement genres, all three artists draw on a vast corpus of knowledge and understanding: for Pragna Das and Susie Crow, the heritage of Kathak and ballet; for Helen Edwards, Asian movement traditions including Butoh, and the ancient materiality of the natural world.

 

Oxford Dance Forum presents Dance Scratch Night, Arts at the Old Fire Station, 9th February 2022

Oxford Dance Forum are delighted finally to be back at Arts at the Old Fire Station to share an evening of new dance works in progress by ODF members, and invite feedback, comments and discussion with the audience.

Pragna Das – Bhoboghure

Moving ahead- sometimes it happens that we get stuck in a situation or a thing. This piece describes that feeling and the urge to move ahead, and how that process happens. The dilemma of being comfortable with people around, and when you are forced to move ahead without them as they were gone in the delinquent.

Susie Crow – Technical studies project

Over the course of the pandemic and under the limitations of lockdown I have been creating miniature dances arising from balletic technical challenges, that could be practised and performed at home. Western classical musicians have long written and published technical studies, making them available to all who wish to try playing them. I hope to make my dance studies similarly publicly available online, and am investigating appropriate formats and platforms for doing this.

Dancers: Ségolène Tarte, Evie Tucker and Thomas Page

Helen Edwards – Finding Stone

We are of the earth
Exploring a dialogue with stones found by the sea
Carrying these stones with me
My body feeling their weight, density, atmosphere and stories,
I am slowed by them,
Anchored in presence
The dance emerges from the body in the liminal spaces between the memories of stone and water
A residue of this ancient knowledge
The strata of life and layers of time

Date: Wednesday 9th February 7.30pm

Venue: Arts at the Old Fire Station, 40 George Street, Oxford OX1 2AQ

Tickets: £5 on the door or book online here

Oxford Dance Forum would like to thank Arts at the Old Fire Station and all their team for supporting this event.

Find out more about Oxford Dance Forum via the website here and on Facebook here

 

A Moment by Thomas Page Dances available online via Arts at the Old Fire Station till 4th July 2021

Oxford-based Thomas Page Dances‘ thought provoking and beautifully mesmerising contemporary dance show A Moment is available online via Arts at the Old Fire Station, Oxford until 4th July, as part of a national mix-mode tour.

Responding to Bren Gosling’s play Moment of Grace, two contemporary dancers (Llewelyn Lewis and Thomas Page) explore what it was to be Queer in the 80s and Princess Diana’s opening of Britain’s first AIDS unit.

“I used to be interested in clothes, clubs, buying records. And men. Now my life…what life? – Quote from Moment of Grace, Bren Gosling.

After being featured in Offbeat Festival’s Supported Artists Programme, Thomas Page Dances, are presenting this intimate duet, with the hope to spark a new wave of conversations around HIV/AIDS helping to raise awareness whilst creating a physical archive of such a vital part of our history. The performance moves through gestural phrases and intricate partnering to create different episodes and relationships creating a highly visceral experience for the audience. Set to a delicate, yet powerful score by composer Robert Singer.

Premièred in London with a sold-out run at the Bloomsbury Festival in a double bill with Gosling’s play, the show uses Page’s signatory blend of detailed hand gestures and contortion fused with Contemporary dance, and has already sparked a growing following in with just two runs of performances in London and Oxford.

“If you’re a fan of contemporary dance, come for a gorgeous piece by a fantastic emerging company. If you’ve never come to a dance performance before, come for a heartbreaking duet: the perfect first dance show.” – The Old Fire Station’s programming team

★★★★ “In a different league” – The Sunday Express on Thomas Page Dances

“An incredible piece giving a platform to allow for conversation. Truly mesmerising and awakening.” – Audience member, 2019

“The National HIV Story Trust is recording and preserving stories told by people who have been touched by HIV/AIDS Since the 1980s. We seek also to re-imagine those experiences through the arts and are proud to associate with the dynamic Thomas Page Dance Company.” – Paul Coleman, National HIV Story Trust

Available online to watch until end of Sunday 4th July

Duration: 40 minutes

Tickets: Standard £10, Pay more £15, Pay less £5

Book for the show and buy tickets here

Find out more about Thomas Page Dances here

 

Joel Brown and Eve Mutso in 111, Old Fire Station, 22nd October 2019 – Thomas Page reviews

A beautifully intimate friendship, a shared curiosity and a lot of satisfying movement.

Following a lovely curtain raiser from the inclusive dance company Parasol Dance Group  full of talented young dancers, 111 begins with an empty scaffolding in soft lighting waiting to be occupied.

Joel Brown (a paraplegic dancer and singer-songwriter, currently dancing with Candoco Dance Company) enters the space, gets out of his wheelchair and begins a solo of floorwork. This solo was the first of many highlights from the work; Brown fluidly glides across the floor releasing into a series of rolls, balances and spirals. He then begins to tell us how the partnership with Eve Mutso (freelance dancer and choreographer, former Principal Dancer of Scottish Ballet) began, and about a series of notes he sent to her each starting with “Eve I have to tell you something.”

 

Aporia by Thomas Page Dances, Arts at the Old Fire Station, 27th July 2019 – Maggie Watson reviews

Aporia, presented by Thomas Page Dances at the Old Fire Station last night, is a work of gruelling physicality. It is also didactic and earnest, and felt at times like a lecture illustrated by movement. Billed as an investigation that explores social unrest and the relationship between peace and conflict, the work’s movement vocabulary is vigorous to the point of violence: the dancers throw themselves at the floor landing hard on their hands and feet, contort their backs twisting into backbends with rolling ankles, or confront each other like martial arts practitioners (Page had early training in kick-boxing). Page is not limited by adherence to a specific dance system, and seems to have devised his own training method: company class includes a programme, referred to with some dread by the dancers, as ‘The Ten’, in addition to improvisation and work based on whichever piece is in performance.

 

Thomas Page Dances presents Aporia, Arts at the Old Fire Station, 27th July 2019

After the success of A Moment at this year’s Offbeat Festival, company Thomas Page Dances led by Oxford-born choreographer Thomas Page is returning to the Old Fire Station with their latest contemporary dance ensemble work Aporia. The company has a choreographic practice rooted in socio-political ideas in movement; following performance at the Resolution Festival, they were deemed “in a different league” with a 4-star review and complimented on their “natural affinity for deeply felt movement” for the ensemble work Aporia.  Charged by a unique electronic score from composer Max Winter, five performers challenge the themes of life’s perpetual aporia within human nature. This highly physical work brings together expressive movements with compelling reflections of spoken-word, under a chic geometric lighting design by Joel Levine, to explore the paradoxical relationship of peace and conflict.  Featuring poignant solos and a series of powerful duets, enhanced by the equally physical costumes by designer Rosie Whiting, this work journeys through key events of the human experience; love, confrontation, and death.

Following the performance, the company would like to invite the audience to stay for an informal ‘Question and Answer’ session. During this Q+A session audience members will be able to speak freely with the choreographer, performers and collaborators about both the performance and process.

TPD are excited to be bringing the work to Oxfordshire home of their contemporary dance training programme and Youth Company.  Thomas Page, artistic director, said:

“We’re really excited to be bringing Aporia to Oxford, working with such an amazing team of artists who are all so passionate about the work and raising the profile of dance in Oxford.”

“The response and experience of sharing Aporia, alongside our workshop and discussion around the work has been truly wonderful. I plan to keep developing the work and looking forward to organising a tour nationally for 2020, and who knows maybe internationally too!”

Performance:  Saturday 27th July 2019, 7.30pm

Venue:  Arts at The Old Fire Station, 40 George Street, Oxford, OX1 2AQ.

Tickets: £10 – £14 book online here or call the box office on 01865 263990

Duration:  40 minutes plus Q&A

 

Extras: Intense/flashing lights

 

 

Thomas Page Dances in C-A-G-E-D, The North Wall, 7th July 2017 – review

My interest was piqued by the chance to watch a dance piece exploring issues of oppression with our current cultural context as a narrative backdrop to hold in my mind – as well as wearing multiple hats: dancer, student of psychology and working in medical research. I wondered how dance as an art form rooted in movement can offer space to explore, express, embody and perhaps come to terms with oppressive situations. How can oppression be conveyed in essence?

We are living in social and political instability resulting from the particular moment, embedded in history. It seems reasonable to propose that people of less privileged demographics – in increasing numbers and inequality – are disenfranchised, feel excluded from opportunities or have experienced discrimination from ruling class decision-making. From narrowing school curriculums, our precarious gig economy, public service and infrastructure funding cuts, NHS privatisation or divisive Brexit strategies, to name but a few examples close to home.  The repercussions of such circumstances include levels of oppression that have psychological consequences such as depression. 

 

C-A-G-E-D: Thomas Page Dances, Laban Studio Theatre, London, Thursday 16th June 2016 – Emily May reports

“The psychology of oppression is thus self-inflicted in a constant struggle where man hypocritically creates standards of life that they themselves perpetually contradict” – Duane Campbell

C-A-G-E-D is the recent, ambitious choreographic debut from aspiring choreographer Thomas Page. Originally from Oxford – having taken class with Lunas Dance Project – Page is now a contemporary dance student at the renowned Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance.  However, despite relocating, Page stays committed to the Oxford dance scene by commuting back to his hometown at the weekend to teach dance at Authentic Performance Academy.

Thomas is an individual with guts and motivation, having approached the conservatoire’s Student Union at the beginning of his first year, asking for support in producing a full length dance work to explore his interest in the psychology of oppression. It was on 16^th and 17^th June that this ambition manifested itself in reality, and Page presented his work in the Laban Studio Theatre, costumed and lit. It was performed by a quintet of diverse and mesmerising dancers – all students of Trinity Laban aside from Iona McGuire, a prospective student of London Contemporary Dance School.