Going with the Flow

Throughout its Fringe programme, Dance Base has been holding its popular Dance du Jour, classes in a different style every afternoon.

Tomorrow, it’s the turn of Matthew Hawkins, who achieved widespread acclaim at the 2007 Fringe with Muscular Memory Lane. He will teach Contemporary Flow at 1.30, after performing a one-off solo slot at Heads Up today. Hawkins trained at the Royal Ballet School in the 1970s and performed with the Royal Ballet for five years before becoming an independent dance practitioner, working solo and performing with, among others, the Michael Clark Company and Second Stride.

He has a relaxed approach to teaching class, saying 'Basically, I’m just going to see who’s there.' His hour-and-a-quarter long class is aimed at all levels, and he hopes that dancers with backgrounds in ballet or contemporary dance will feel equally at home, acknowledging that 'people who do contemporary dance or other dance forms feel less than comfortable in a ballet class. I’d quite forgotten that people who do ballet could feel odd in a contemporary class, but it’s absolutely true.'

When asked whether as a choreographer he has discarded anything of the classical vocabulary, he replies "I suppose the ballet is often associated with good taste and nights out in a nice opulent setting, and it can be very stifled. I’m not at all interested in that.” He says, however, that 'I like the legibility’, adding that because of his own training, he feels at ease with the classical technique and values the range of movement that it facilitates, although ‘that’s a very personal thing.'

While contemporary dance originated as a reaction against ballet and its perceived constraints, Hawkins is reluctant to be drawn into any rivalry between the two disciplines. If he has a preference it is influenced less by aesthetics and more by the different ways in which the two styles tend to function. 'I think in the UK context, broadly speaking, ballet as an art form requires a lot of facilities. It requires a wardrobe department, maybe a wig department, music. Ballet needs these things, it needs the big space, it needs its narratives, it has a particular way in which it operates.'

Speaking of his own way of working, he continues 'Independent practitioners might have wished to be in a way one man bands.' He holds up a small rucksack, open to reveal a few unarresting items of dancewear. 'That’s it,' he says. 'I’m going to bring this in tomorrow and dance a solo.' For Hawkins, contemporary dance, and his own independence, not only gives him technical and artistic freedom, but allows him more freedom with the whole process of production, from choreography to costume to lighting. 'You could say that’s the difference between ballet and contemporary work. Often the contemporary choreographers wish to have a hand in all aspects of what they’re showing, making all the choices. I absolutely honour the way that ballet is,' he muses, but 'it’s almost as if you can think of a choreographer as a movie director. He has to get a deal, he has to have a production company.' His independence from any one organisation allows him freedom of movement in two ways, allowing him to choreograph for himself, and to perform his choreography where he wishes, unimpeded by company politics, preferences, or budget constraints.

Hawkins’ attitude to classical dance and to production values has doubtlessly evolved from his origins at the Royal Ballet. His outlook on performance and technique has also changed as he has grown and matured as a dancer and choreographer.

'Let’s say that as time moves on I find essences all the more interesting.' Instead of starting at the barre, Friday’s Dance du Jour will start in the centre. 'We’ll think about the spine first, we’ll think about breathing, we’ll do some small movements for the spine, some bigger movements for the spine, then we’ll remember our shoulders, and then after that we’ll remember our feet.' While the class will work up to an enchainement, in a one-off class, the finished product isn’t important: 'Essentially it’s time spent together.' What is important is to have 'a shared experience in that hour and a quarter'.