Three Pioneering Women
York Dance Project
Theatre Royal, Winchester
Tuesday 23rd April 2024 19.30
Dancers: Ellie Ferguson, Jenny Hayes, Edd Mitton, Dane Hurst, Amy Thake, Abigail Attard Montalto, Pierre Tappon, Luke Ahmet and Harry Wilson
The three pioneering women are Isadora Duncan, Martha Graham and Bela Lewitzky.
This is a bargain. £20 a ticket, a very good free programme with all the details you’d ever want, a glossy cover with this date and venue printed on. Or there was a pay what you want facility for the seats. This is highly subsidized dance theatre. The audience filled rows D to J, otherwise it was pretty much empty. Winchester Theatre Royal has been like that every time we have been. They share a West Hampshire syndrome with Southampton. Neither ever seem to be crowded. What was odd is that we see a lot of modern dance at Poole. They always attract loads of teenagers, mainly girls, from dance schools, often with their mums. Not much sign of it at all here. I’d advise playing at Poole next time instead. They could easily have charged £3 to £4 for the programme. It has all the content and is only slimmer because it has no adverts. Like most regional theatres, Winchester has filled too many single evenings with comedians or tribute bands, leaving not enough space for a play or dance to run profitably. They need 3 or 4 days minimum. So they don’t get good stuff except in one offs like this for one night, and so do not develop an audience with a theatre habit. It’s odd in such a prosperous city. In compensation, those who were there were tremendously enthusiastic.
As I know nothing about it (as Karen informs me) I’ll quote extensively! From the website is in italic (why re-type it!)
I would drop the introduction from the choreographer. If you do not have the presentation skill to speak for five minutes without reading aloud, it is far better not to bother. Or get someone else to present it who could recite the basic facts which are in the programme anyway.
Isadora
Kenneth MacMillan’s ballet Isadora, was created in 1981. This original three-act ballet captured the life of San Francisco native, Isadora Duncan. YDP’s Isadora has been reimagined and distils MacMillan’s original into a one-act, chamber work exploring the conflict between Isadora’s search for love and her pioneering mission to change the very nature of the art of dance.
It has spoken quotes from Isadora Duncan, which are played louder than the music, and I didn’t like the music. It was historically fascinating though. Isadora Duncan was already into bare feet, which makes sense in many ways, not least in avoiding the cost of those short-lived point shoes. She dances with four lovers: artist, millionaire, beach boy and I think a Russian writer. There are Russians in the background. She gives birth, buries children. It is visceral. If the original Isadora was like that, and I assume she was, it would have shocked audiences expecting a Sugar Plum Fairy or dying swan.
Errand Into The Maze
Martha Graham spent her formative years in Santa Barbara, California. She experienced her first dance performance, by the Denishawn Company, in Los Angeles, whom she soon went on to dance with. Graham created her masterpiece Errand into the Maze in 1947, exploring the depths of human fear and sexual power struggles, based on the legends of Ariadne, Theseus and the Minotaur
We booked it because Karen had studied Martha Graham and was fascinated. I’ll add that Martha Graham danced the first American performance of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring, conducted by Stokowkski, in 1930.
Modern dance technique really began with the towering figure that is Graham, but her dances are not often seen here, so this revival of Errand Into the Maze from 1947 is a real highlight. Based on the Minotaur myth, it casts a woman (Abigail Attard-Montalto) in the Theseus role. Originally it was Graham herself, and you can see her mighty presence, the stunningly stark shapes, toes thrust to the ceiling, the drama through stillness (and some incredible core control). She makes light work of the Minotaur and any other metaphorical demons. What a woman.
Lyndsey Winship, The Guardian 22 March 2024, Royal Opera House
This is far and away the outstanding piece. Mesmerizing and Karen had told me to watch the centrality of power in the lower back reflected in the torso. The dancing is superb. the Rod between the arms and across the neck is an ancient punishment and he danced and leapt into the air with it. A major aspect of Martha Graham, and then later dance, is that you have to start pretty young to be able to dance effectively on points. With bare foot dance in her style you don’t need to develop that ability and can begin later, as Karen did.
Meta 4
Bella Lewitzky was a dancer, choreographer, teacher, cultural crusader and an outspoken champion of artistic freedom, whose highly acclaimed company was rooted in Los Angeles. In 1994 she made the boldly sculptural and physically demanding Meta 4 with an original score by Robert Xavier Rodriguez.
Bella Lewitzky was perhaps the least familiar name in the programme, and her Meta 4 brought a much-needed playful note to the evening. A riff on the theme of four, reflected in Robert Xavier Rodriguez’s score, this 1984 work for two male and two female dancers, is full of intricate geometries, the connections between the dancers shifting restlessly throughout its four sections, and ending in the joyous mood of children in a playground.
Teresa Guerreiro, Culture Whisper, 22 March 2024, Royal Opera House
Four dancers, four sections. They were marked by projected red bars – one bar, two bars, three bars, four bars. It looked a bit modern ballet 101 to me. Very good ensemble dancing with innovative moves, but I never picked up joyous or playful. Karen loved it and expresses shock that I didn’t get joyous or playful.
Karen loved the way we had seen the development of different styles with brilliant performances.
A Point of Balance
By Yolanda Yorke-Edgell
She organized the evening. A marvellous closing piece with music from different artists including Kronos Quartet and Laurie Anderson. It begins with a woman in white, adds a woman in black, then a woman in purple. There are around five sections, all to different music, with the fifth wordless, but you hear the dancer breathing. That’s very Laurie Anderson.
The evening was a privilege for the too few who saw it. A great insight into history as well as spectacularly disciplined and inspired dancing.
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