When Words Fail, or, Jumping for Joy

Why do you love dance? It’s a question I always like to ask those I interview. Jamie Thomson, Resident Choreographer at the New English Contemporary Ballet recently answered: “What I love most about dance is how we can use it to communicate without the need for words: I've never been a big talker and so dance has always been a great way for me to express certain things.”

I was struck by this sentence. I love and choose words; they are the tools I use to make sense of the world, to articulate my experiences and emotions to attain clarity and understanding.

Of course I know there are times when words fail, they’re not enough, they exclude and limit; and this is often where movement and dance comes in. Sometimes we have no choice but to crumple in a heap of despair, or we must jump for joy; in these moments of strong emotion the body automatically expresses internal emotions physically. And sometimes dance just says it better. As an audience we can recognise this from our own body memory and it resonates faster than words ever could.

It is this jumping for joy, this celebration of the joy of movement that I have really loved during the Fringe so far, and I have been moved heart and soul by the shows on offer this year. Capoeira Knights: The Boys From Brazil wowed the audience at The World @ St George’s West with a high velocity sexy capoeira show – the speed of their movement is breathtaking. DOT504’s 100 Wounded Tears at Zoo Southside thrilled with its bold, fearless and frenetic movement that tears at your heart, as did SDT, also at Zoo Southside with its dancers propelling themselves into each other in Luxuria. Spectrum at C, Chambers Street excited with the furious pace of it contemporary dance and hip hop, and Jamie Thomson’s Certain Dark Things here at Dance Base combined delicious duets and striking composition all the while strutting an attitude so cool it hurt. All these shows have resonated deeply within me, so much so I can almost remember them physically.

“It's that unique way in which, once all is said and done” continues Thomson, “our bodies can express things that our words can't that fascinates me”. After seeing his work I am glad he and the other exciting dance companies presently here in Edinburgh are choosing dance over words.