Dance Theatre at the Fringe

Lying somewhere between dance and physical theatre, dance theatre is offering a strong showing in this year's Edinburgh Festivals. We take a closer look at a couple of the shows on offer this August

Feature by Eric Karoulla | 29 Jul 2014

While circus blossoms into an artform, honed to near-perfection by companies like NoFit State or Circa, dance theatre still straddles the line between dance and physical theatre. Is it dance with words or is it theatre with more movement and music? Either way, it’s not always easy to pick out, unless a performance company calls its productions ‘dance theatre.’ The seasoned theatre-goer can still struggle with the definitions, yet it’s quite easy to pick up on different styles by juxtaposing and comparing different performance companies. It becomes obvious very quickly that this depends not only on where they are from, but also the context and theatre conventions surrounding them. Here’s The Skinny on two quite different – yet extremely talented – companies.

This year, supported by ProFitArt, Lenka Vagnerová and Company present their latest works La Loba and Riders. La Loba, literally translated as ‘the she-wolf’ (or the wolfwoman) from Spanish, unravels the tale of a mysterious, travelling, bone collecting entity that constructs creatures out of the bones she finds and tries to breathe life into them. Using song, dance and puppetry, this piece thrives on the concept that each bone has a story to tell, and observes the traveller as she gives creatures life and takes it away. 

Initially intended as a solo piece, La Loba grew into an interdisciplinary duet between dancer Andrea Opavská and singer Jana Vébrová, set to a haunting, ethereal score by Ivan Acher. Both Opavská and Vébrová take on intense personae, although there are moments of playfulness dotted throughout.

On the other hand, Riders examines life from above – from the viewpoint of birds looking down on human civilisation both literally and figuratively. Voted Dance Piece of the Year at the Czech Dance Platform 2013 (an annual dance festival for Czech dance), Riders provides a strong contrast to La Loba, not only in theme, but also visually. Birds seem to make for lighter subject matter, although the music provided by Ivan Acher for Riders sounds more industrial and altogether more powerful. Nonetheless, both showcase the skills of the company, as they are physically demanding and require precision, but also demonstrate the dancers’ talent for creating curiously comical moments alongside intensely dark and dramatic ones.

Closer to home, Dundee-based Scottish Dance Theatre (SDT) have been working on Miann, under the direction of Fleur Darkin. Premiering at the Fringe as part of the Made in Scotland programme, Miann brings collaborative work to the spotlight. The show fuses live music by experimental Glasgow band, the One Ensemble, with Darkin’s movements and Alexander Ruth’s prize-winning costume design.

“Throughout the piece, we’re relying on each other so there are moments where they [the dancers] are responding, and cuing themselves back into the music, and there are moments where we – the musicians – are watching and directly responding to the movement,” explains Peter Nicholson, cellist for the band. Like the other three members of the One Ensemble, Nicholson plays more than one instrument.

Formed by Daniel Padden, who recently performed Whirlygig at the Tramway, the One Ensemble grew from a solo project into a live four-piece band. Aside from Miann, they recently played alongside SDT in Scale: Human Scale. Clearly, the collaboration is working for them.

Devised in non-theatrical spaces, Miann should have no trouble fitting into Summerhall’s Dissection room this summer, although it's only imaginable it will have to compete with other dance-based shows within Summerhall, like auMents Visual Dance Theater's Malasombra, and outside it, like La Loba or Sonics' Duum. What's more, they will have to battle it out with Circa's Beyond, or NoFitState's Bianco, both of which are incredibly ambitious, large-scale, circus-based shows from talented companies.

Scottish Dance Theatre, Miann (part of the Made in Scotland showcase), The Dissection Hall, Summerhall, 8-17 Aug, 7.55pm, £10-£12 Riders, ZOO Southside, 1-10 Aug (not 7 Aug), 5pm, £10-£12 La Loba, ZOO Southside, 12-25 Aug (not 18 Aug), 5pm, £8-£10