Imprints

Nux's previous entry at Dance Base - 2009's Grounds - was a duet between artistic director Maite Delafin and violinist Poppy Ackroyd. It coupled the visceral immediacy of dance with a thoughtful study of a mind in turmoil.

For 2011, Delafin has enlarged the team - Fringe veteran Michael Sherin and sound-artist John Lemke join Delafin and Ackroyd - and shifted her genre from dance to physical theatre.

"In this work the narrative line is very strong," she begins. "The physicality and the acting involved made the categorisation obvious to me. I actually made the decision before I started to do a physical theatre work to explore the subject matter."

The subject matter - how a couple cope with the onset of Alzheimer's - is serious and specific: this encouraged Delafin to challenge her usual working process. She says "it is a deep subject, and I really want the audience to engage with it. I want this work to raise awareness about this disease and I feel that physical theatre is a good way to reach more people."

"Sometimes I feel that people are scared of contemporary dance," she muses. "Quite often, when I say I do contemporary dance, some people don't really know what it is and others tell me 'ah, this weird abstract dance than no one understands.'" And while she insists that "I have faith in dance and I'm not planning to give up on it," this collaborative creation has given her new inspiration.

"Initially I created Imprints with Simon Conlon who is an actor and a clown doctor, but had physical theatre training. Then I reworked it with Michael Sherin: he has both an acting and dancing background." She discovered that dance and acting had different, but equally exciting, approaches. "I feel dancers - at least some of us - are more into doing first and thinking after, while a lot of actors do it the other way round! Such collaboration is very stimulating for me, as both disciplines work really well together."

Given her presence in the Edinburgh dance scene, it is unsurprising that Delafin is able to source excellent collaborators: "I choose the artists I work with because I think they are talented but also because they are people I connect with on a human level."

For Delafin, creativity is at its most powerful when it considers both ability and connection. "That is when real collaboration can happen, when people can communicate and exchange in a very natural way, being able to be honest with each other." If the subject is demanding, this is even more important.

By including both Ackroyd's music and Lemke's soundscape, the layers of performance become more complex. "The music soundtrack and soundscape really complement each other" a delighted Delafin confirms. The various talents that have contributed to Imprints suggest that here is a short work that can, nevertheless, shed light on the difficulties and victories involved in the struggle against a common senile affliction.