Posts Tagged ‘Rosie Kay Dance Company’

5 Soldiers in Milan

After a successful tour in the spring and summer, IDFB 2010 co-commissioned work 5 SOLDIERS – The Body Is The Frontline recently had its international premiere at the Madrid En Danza festival in Spain. The prestigious dance festival invited Rosie Kay Dance Company to perform 5 Soldiers at the Teatro de la Abadia for two nights. The piece, which is a timely, controversial, thought provoking exploration of war in modern times, received an incredible reception, selling out its premiere and had a great response from interested audiences who stayed for the post-show talk.

5 Soldiers, Photographer Brian Slater

5 SOLDIERS is a dance theatre work with a female and four male dancers. It looks at how the human body is essential to, and used in, warfare. The work, choreographed by Rosie Kay, explores the physical training that prepares you for war, as well as the possible effects on the body, and the injury caused by warfare. For more 5 Soldiers news, visit the Rosie Kay Dance Company website. You can also watch the BBC coverage on the 5 SOLDIERS Facebook Group.

What’s on in week 1

The waiting is finally over! Here’s a round-up of what’s happening this week (19-25 April) at International Dance Festival Birmingham.

The big launch

Festival proceedings get underway today (Monday) with Dancing on the Waterways at Brindleyplace. Elsewhere in the region on Monday, there are free traditional dance performances to get the festival going in United Colours of Dance Out & About. You can see them in Coventry, Stoke-on-Trent, Hereford, and Stratford-upon-Avon throughout the afternoon.

The performances

We’ve got Mark Morris Dance Group’s L’Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato at Birmingham Hippodrome, with performances from Thursday through to Saturday.

L’Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato | International Dance Festival Birmingham

The show has been at the Coliseum in London recently, earning five stars reviews from both The Times and Guardian, Londondance.com and ballet.co.uk have rounded up the reviews.

There are two further shows on Friday and Saturday:

The debate

Tomorrow (Tuesday) there’s also a debate on the future of public investment in the arts with Ed Vaizey and Sion Simon at The Patrick Centre. We’ll be liveblogging that event so if you can’t make it in person you’ll still be able to follow along and contribute.

And there’s even more besides:

Keep up to date with what’s happening – follow IDFB on Twitter and sign up to the Facebook page. We’ll see you around!

What goes into a performance?

One of IDFB 2010’s new commissions is a piece from Rosie Kay Dance Company called 5 SOLDIERS The Body is the Frontline, which will premiere at the festival on 23 April.

5 SOLDIERS The Body is the Frontline | International Dance Festival Birmingham

Rosie Kay is artist-in-residence at DanceXchange in Birmingham where she’s been developing the piece. I’ve been lucky enough to have a glimpse of the work from time to time and it has been fascinating to see how it has come together.

Part of that is seeing the sheer amount of research that goes into developing a piece like this. For example:

  • In early 2009, Rosie spent two weeks training with the 4th Battalion of The Rifles (see her write-up here)
  • Following that, Rosie spent some time at Headley Court a rehabilitation centre for injured soldiers
  • Three of the dancers also spent a weekend with the Officers Training Corps
  • After a hard day in the studio, the company relaxed by watching the Oscar-winning film, The Hurt Locker
  • In an unusual move, an injured bomb-disposal expert was released by the military for two days to spend time in the studio where he spoke with the company’s dancers

It’s not just Rosie Kay and her dancers who are involved with this deeper research; others involved in realising 5 SOLDIERS have:

  • Early on, Rosie Kay and collaborators Annie Mahtani (sound artist) and Petra Tauscher (dramaturgist) conducted interviews with members of 4 Rifles, a retired Major General and a recent recruit
  • David Cotterrell, a visual artist, spent time in Helmland Province with the Joint Forces Medical Group

The issues explored in 5 SOLDIERS are not ones that should be approached lightly. What this immersion in the subject matter means is that, as well as infusing the finished piece, Rosie has become an eloquent speaker on the matters raised. Here she is discussing the origination of the work:

Rosie Kay – 5 Soldiers from Mr Nat Higginbottom on Vimeo.

Buy tickets – 5 SOLDIERS The Body is the Frontline will be at International Dance Festival Birmingham at the Patrick Centre on 23 and 24 April. Tickets cost £8-10.