New work Catrin Lewis
May 9th 10.40 am arrived on train to find someone sitting in my reserved seat, who obviously had no idea about reservations, quiet carriage etiquette or general manners whilst eating (maybe she wasn’t taught as a child to keep mouth closed whilst chewing). Phone charger breaks. Good start I thought.
Train 30 minutes late into Paddington, central London packed. La,la,la. Return journey eventful! Stuck in Edgware Road missed train from Paddington by 2 minutes. No phone battery, no train. Eventually got back to Newport at 2am station locked, lift turns up 2.20 am. Arrived back at Hobbits cold, wet, hungry and truly exhilarated. Read on…
I don’t usually bring too much of my home and family life into my blogs, but here is an exception.
I had the privilege of watching my daughter Catrin’s final piece of choreography yesterday which was being assessed as part of her Dance course at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance. She has made the piece on company dancer Megan Griffiths together with BA3 dancers Lily Turner, Russell Fine,Heli-Maria Latola and Gordan Raeburn who did a valiant job with some pretty gritty movement phrases. It was spectacular! An excellent piece of choreography including good structural device and relevant movement content to the subject of Vertigo. Great lighting too under the watchful eye of the genius Faye Patterson.
Audience reaction was good, we all felt that we could have watched another 10 minutes, even though Catrin said they couldn’t have given any more, the dancers disagreed with her! A piece which is certainly going to be developed at some point in time.
Another privilege was to watch Julian Lewis’ rehearsal as I couldn’t get to his showing today. Some excellent performances from his dancers and a refreshing dance idea developed into a mature and complex new work called Surrealist Entity.
So many more mature and established choreographers showing work on the current dance scene could have learned a few things from the refreshing and simplistic approach to work by these young choreographers. No endless passages of simply filling in the musical structure, thoughtful linear structure and design collaboration with no pretentious lip service. Let’s see more of this!
So, exhausted and frazzled I arrived home to Wales, but so very glad I had made that journey to experience first hand the joys of new art in the throes of its creation. Thank you.