Code Butterfly

They dance in tiny enclosed spaces, just inches from their audience, they have the confidence to come into contact with those watching them and this is something with which many seasoned performers would struggle.

Article by Philippa Cochrane | 10 Jul 2007
Site specific performance has become a shorthand for edgy, experimental and challenging theatre over the last decade. Its appeal is rooted in seeing something unique which cannot be recreated in another space, taking its life from the physicality and atmosphere of the venue with which the performers interact, the site becoming a character in its own right.

Code Butterfly by Curious Seed takes this concept a step further. The first dance show to be staged at the stunning new arts venue, The Out of the Blue Drill Hall in Edinburgh's Dalmeny Street, and the first dance production ever staged as part of the ascendant Leith Festival, Code Butterfly is not only site specific, but also specific to its community. A collaboration between four professional dancers and local girls from Leith and Granton, this piece explored the experience of being a young woman emerging from the cocoon of girlhood. The audience are guided through the maze-like nooks and crannies and breathtaking open spaces of this historic former army building, and in each separate space are challenged, confronted and mesmerised by the committed company of dancers, who appear from the most unexpected of places and are gone just as quickly, leaving behind them only echoes and shadows of childhood experience.

On paper it would be possible to dismiss this show as a worthy community project. But this would do the dancers, both professional and volunteer, a grave disservice. They dance in tiny enclosed spaces, just inches from their audience, they have the confidence to come into contact with those watching them and this is something with which many seasoned performers would struggle. The delight of Code Butterfly is in seeing such focus and sheer enjoyment from the whole company. They clearly revel in the spaces in which they dance. The building supports them, they support each other and the audience is left truly moved. [Philippa Cochrane]

Code Butterfly
Out of the Blue Drill Hall, Dalmeny Street, Edinburgh
7 June. http://www.outoftheblue.org.uk