When The National Review of Live Art was retired gracefully after thirty years of service to the awkward performance squad, few people imagined that its parent festival, New Territories, would disappear only two years later. For the past two decades, Glasgow in March has seen a carnival of experimental theatre, dance and art that refuses to respect boundaries: it seemed that the spring of 2012 would no longer be heralded by international rabble-rousers.

Fortunately, the legacy of Nikki Millican, artistic director of New Territories, lives on: Cryptic Nights lets Rory Middleton take a part out to Cove Park for The View, a site-specific installation that features film and live music, and The Arches’ Behaviour returns after a brief sabbatical, now sprawling over two months and including Liv Ann Young, possibly the most outrageous star of Live Art. Behaviour makes a gentle start with Fish and Game calling for female emancipation in a Victorian cycling style before bringing The Oh Fuck Moment from the Fringe to bring out those memories of things that really should not have happened.

Included within Behaviour’s programme, but a major event in its own right is Glasgow Buzzcut. Curated by two graduates from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland (née the RSAMD), Nick and Roseanna Cade, Buzzcut invades the Old Hairdressers and The Glue Factory for the last weekend in March, bringing back familiar faces from The National Review like Richard DeDomenici and a smattering of new artists, including Edinburgh Fringe provocateur The Ultimate Dancer.

While Glasgow’s reputation as a centre for wild, eclectic performance was bolstered by the presence of New Territories, its indigenous artists have always been ready for left-field action. In a city that is home to the Cotemporary Performance Practice degree – alma mater of Nic Green and Glas(s), who have gained a reputation for intelligent theatre that combines a social conscience and radical processes. Buzzcut – a festival that Nick Anderson hopes “will prove what it is possible to do with no money” – is a natural expression of the city’s spirit.

“Roseanna Cade and I decided, one morning after watching The Apprentice, to have our own festival. There was a huge gap where  important work would have been shown,” explains Anderson. “What started as a whim now has forty-eight artists over five days!” While emerging artists are vital to the atmosphere and ethos, Anderson is delighted that some major names of Live Art have responded to the call.

“Richard Layzell is a nice pull: it is good to have someone so established and hardworking and other artists look at the line-up and think – I am on a bill with Richard Layzell,” Anderson continues. “We have work from all over Britain, people coming from Europe.”

Buzzcut is not only about attracting artists from outside. “A big reason for doing Buzzcut was to inspire the fantastic artists that we have in Glasgow,” Anderson adds.  Recognising that Glasgow University, Glasgow School of Art and the Conservatoire are all producing artists who could fit into the festival’s remit, he is clear that “Buzzcut is offering a platform for the slightly different communities to come together, to share work and experiences. And the last night at The Glue Factory will end in a massive party.”

Three artists at Buzzcut 

Stephanie Black: RSAMD graduate

Following her Athena Award project in 2011, Stephanie Black returns to performance inspired by her enquiries into “what makes me keep making art,and what makes me an artist.”

Crux emerged from Black’s meditations on the gap between daily life and artistic endeavour. “I find myself doing normal tasks as a means to get by – washing, ironing, doing the dishes – like a cog in a machine, and I question how much my creativity gets stimulated,” she says. “And then there are times when something excites me – it could be the simplest thing – I lose the thought of everyday life and go into something more abstract. I take those moments and make them into a performance. That is the way I can express myself and put something back into the world.”

Like her earlier works, Crux is very much about the body: yet the addition of tai chi gives it a new emphasis. “It’s not about the nude body but the power of the body,” she notes. “Although often we want the abstract in contemporary art, I always make sure it has a human quality.”

Ultimate Dancer (credit to her)

“Ahhhrrrrrgggggghhh, gllhllhhhrrrrr, gggrrrrrraaaaaaaahhwww…You have travelled through the universe to come to this performance. A dance performance.You have come to see me dance. And you will. What will happen tonight was already written a long time ago. Written by our ancestors that danced before you and me; Isadora Duncan, Patrick Swayze, Jerome Bel. What we must do, and what we will do is beyond us. We will make a show in which our sweat, and our blood, will feed you, so that you will never have to go hungry again. But when I look into your eyes I see fear. Fear that you will never again see so well-articulated dancers moving beautifully across the space. Fear, because you think this is real, but it’s not, or is it? You tell me! And if you look closer you’ll notice the colours of orange and pink. The colours of Dance Maximus, and they’re questioning: Do you have what it takes to be the audience for this show? Do you have what it takes to be the audience for Dance Maximus? Aaaaaarrrrrggggggwwwhhh rrrrrgggghghhhgaaaaaaaa… I am The Ultimate Dancer! I am The Ultimate Dancer!”

Third Angel

Since 1995, Third Angel have been banging on the boundaries of theatre and live art. Not easy to pin down –they perform, film, install, photograph and design and turn up in theatres, galleries, car parks, offices and online. Driven by founders and artistic directors Rachael Walton and Alexander Kelly, they are veterans of a scene that refuses definition,and have inspired many Glasgow based performers into more challenging territory. If they approach their form from an angle, their content is familiar – they emphasise the everyday, finding the beauty in the mundane or ignored. And while they have staged major shows at Tramway and The Arches, they are never afraid to get intimate in scale, and are dedicated to being aware of the audience, respecting and involving them in their process of questioning and creation.