Dancing In The Streets

While preparations begin for the Edinburgh festivals – including the Edinburgh International Film Festival, Edinburgh Magic Festival, the Edinburgh Fringe and the Edinburgh International Festival –  Get Scotland Dancing spreads across Scotland.

From March to November 2014, the Scotland-wide scheme attempts to encourage more people to engage with dance as it is a way of getting physically fit while having fun. Events thus far have included Dance-Along Movies (think Grease, Footloose, Dirty Dancing), and what the organisers have called Dance Trails. The latter showcases dance in unexpected places, and at unexpected times, such as city squares, parks, and graveyards. In June, the trail lands in Edinburgh, then Dundee. Also, on 21 June, the 24-hour Commonwealth Ceilidh kicks off, both a celebration of dance and the launch of the Commonwealth Games. A few weeks after this (on 10 July), Tramway will reveal the future of dance at the Commonwealth Youth Dance Festival, hosted by YDance. This will see approximately 400 young dancers from across the Commonwealth sharing their skills, participating in workshops and performances for the duration of the festival.

Meanwhile, as Glasgow gears up for the Games, festivals run a-plenty. The city will see the West End Festival take over the entire month, while the Glasgow Mela lasts only for one weekend (7-8 Jun). According to their site, the Glasgow Mela “is Scotland’s biggest multicultural festival.” With May’s weather being so inconsistent, it is hard to predict whether people who turn up for the Mela in Kelvingrove Park will be drenched. However, the acts themselves are extremely varied and promising – from bhangra beats by Sukshinder Shinda to the “bagrock” (bagpiping-rock fusion) of the Red Hot Chilli Pipers. Other events running alongside this include the Bollywood City strand, which involves the screening of four Bollywood films at the Grosvenor cinema marquee during the Mela weekend.

Another outdoor convention returns to Glasgow in the summer in the form of the Bard in the Botanics. Reliant on good weather and Shakespeare-lovers, the 2014 season opens with The Comedy of Errors. Directed by Gordon Barr, the play showcases Shakespeare’s love of plots entangled by a case of mistaken identity. As the name suggests, this event takes place in the Botanic Gardens in the open.

At the same time, with over 400 events in about 80 venues across the West End of Glasgow, the West End Festival brings music, theatre, talks and community events throughout the month of June.  One of the most exciting events of the programme includes the Gatsby Club night, which features a cabaret/burlesque live show, and requires a 1920s/vintage dress code. The theme for this one is ‘Bright Young Things’. This year, the Festival also features Glasgow’s only professional dance festival in the guise of the Cottiers Dance Project. Running for five days, the festival is intended to promote Scottish-based choreographers and dancers, as well as celebrating older ones through archive material, like Kenneth MacMillan’s Elite Syncopations (broadcast 1975) or Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers in the musical Shall we Dance (1937).

Finally, this month Glasgow welcomes Lord of the Flies to Scotland. Directed by Matthew Bourne and choreographed by Scott Ambler, the latest New Adventures production tries to follow William Golding's book as much as possible, although it makes sense that without the use of words, adapting a novel so iconic can become quite difficult. Bourne's decision to take on young men from each city the production visits means he gets half new cast every other week. This might add a rougher edge to the dancing, but it could also highlight the dark tale of the schoolboys who find themselves on a deserted island, without supervision, and definitely might motivate more people to see and participate in dance.