Sometimes when you go to the theatre to see some new work all you’re really looking for is the opportunity to see someone enjoying their craft. We often use the term “dance maker” on Article19. We like it because it suggests to us, here in TheLab™, people diligently working to piece together movement, phrase by phrase like a Swiss watchmaker building a Tag-Heur
That’s what we have here with Verve 09, a group of dancers and dance makers enjoying their craft. Verve is a graduate company, based at the Northern School of Contemporary Dance in Leeds, but they could probably give most seasoned dance companies a run for their money.
For their tour Verve have a collection of 6 new works by Milan Kozánek, Filip Van Hufel, Glenn Wilkinson, Katie Baldwin, Jennifer-Lynne Crawford and Leanne Pike.
For you, our dear readers, we have ‘Niners’ (video one) by Glenn Wilkinson and ‘This is not a love song’ (video two) by Filip Van Hufel. During their long tour the company will perform a mixed bill of various combinations of the six pieces.
for ‘Niners’ the press speak says;
Divided into nine equal sections the choreography derives its inspiration from the ‘Family of Essences’. Each section of the sound score corresponds with a colour; the movement is a direct response to the sound and the colour it represents. This gives each segment its own particular mood, lending the whole an almost disjointed yet united structure.
‘This is not a love story’ has this to say;
In This is not a love song eleven dancers meet, interact, play and struggle. They are assembled on a physical playground, performing abstract movement material layered with theatrical intention and extreme physicality.
Dancers are: Christina Robinson, Jaeyun Kim, Jessica Hothersall, Jimin Park, Judith Clijsters, Kristina Alleyne, Leigh Pearce, Nathalie Wahlberg, Nicholas Keegan, Peri Warren and Robert Goodby.
Verve will be touring through July. Their next show is at the Mermaid Arts Centre on March 7th followed by the Showroom Theatre in Chichester on March 11th. Full touring details in the PDF embedded below and you can keep up with the company via the NSCD website.