Fairytale fantasy has come to contemporary dance with the debut of 'Angelmoth' from BalletLorent. Don't let the company name fool you however, Ms Lorent's company is as modern as they come in terms of movement although some point work is in evidence even from the male dancers, a poor mans Nutcracker this is not.
The story concerns 'Pippanouska', a shy young girl who dreams of the titular Angelmoth whilst working in a library inhabited by a collection of disparate characters all hiding from the real world amongst the shelves of musty books.
The entire first act concerns itself with introducing all of the characters and establishes their reasons for being in the library. Story development is assisted tremendously by strong voice-over narration from an unseen Ben Crompton.
After the intervention of a mysterious stranger in the Library, Marius Raczynski, two of the characters vanish into 'another world' and our heroes step up to the plate and move in for a rescue during the second act.
The storybook setting of the library is accomplished with consummate ease thanks to a stunning piece of set design from Phil Eddols and the original music from Andy Ross creates the fairytale mood perfectly.
From a movement perspective some of the choreography seems a little underdeveloped and you get the feeling the dancers need a little more time and more performances to really grow into their respective characters. Particularly strong work from Gavin Coward, Gwen Berwick and David Rae is evident throughout and I feel sure the other characters will be just as strong as the work develops.
At just over an hour and in two acts you get the impression the work is slightly too short. An hour long show or less is fine for straight choreography but storytelling needs more time to let the audience become familiar with the characters.
'Angelmoth' is to be congratulated for taking contemporary dance into a much warmer place than it normally inhabits. The art form is often cold and distant and the use of an old fashioned fairytale/storytelling mechanism is a welcome relief in a year filled with superb work from many companies but often times you felt like a distant stranger when the performance was done, not so with BalletLorent.
Without doubt the work needs a grander stage, the Dance Lab at Dance City makes it feel very constricted, and on that larger stage this work should really begin to shine and the dancers can begin to flex their performance prowess to the limit. The Nutcracker took 50 years to become a firm winter favourite with audiences. With more shows under its belt and continued development 'Angelmoth' could become a regular attraction for audiences in a fraction of that time.
What is your pet peeve, the one thing which really drives you mad?
Submitted by Beki.
people who lack the energy or enthusiasm to really make things change!
Perhaps one of the best pieces we have filmed this year is Wired Aerial Theatre with "Handmade/Manmade". Now Article19 films a lot of dance so why does this piece stand out in particular?
For the most part it's because, in our opinion, it is actually entertaining, something out of the ordinary in what can be a very frustrating profession to work. Most choreographers have a great deal of skill when it comes to creating movement but so often what seems to fail them is their ability to engage with the audience and give them a little something for making the effort and paying for a ticket.
Art is great but there isn't a lot of point in being arty if a) nobody watches your work and b) your audience is falling asleep!
A longer and much higher quality clip is available here.
Having added quite a few new photos into our little Vox page I feel an explanation of our (Article19's) approach to dance imagery may be in order.
We like to shoot 'editorial style' rather than the very rigid, posed images that you often see of dance, particularly in the press. The perfect image of the professional dancer in the perfect pose is not something that really interest us here.
Of far more interest is the personality of the folks involved especially if the images involve none professional or young dancers, as some of the images here do. The images are a lot more engaging because the subjects come across as more human, which of course they are ;o), but you can also tell the story of the class, workshop or whatver it is we are covering with close ups, reactions and contact between the participants.
It all makes for a much better photograph in our opinion and shows professional dancers in particular as we know and love them, as hard working individuals who can laugh, smile and grimace, showing a side of their personality which can often get lost on stage!
Hello!!! Wow! This is so much nicer than MySpace (what is with that place?) I know your probably thinking that cats can't type and you would be right. Yes I am a real person but there are a few of us sharing the same space so we speak as one under the TiggerToo banner.
Article19.co.uk is our main home (we call it TheLab™) but we want to share a load of stuff with you here like photos, videos and maybe some more stuff. We're all about the very serious, way too serious if you ask me, world of Contemporary Dance and we cover it with a good deal of humour, satire and lash our razor sharp tongue at those we feel deserve it!
I'm very much aware that at the moment I'm talking to myself since we just set this thing up so i'll shush, customise some more, upload some content and I'll be back real soon, hopefully with some friends, or bods in the 'neighbourhood' if that's what Vox calls friends!!
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