Josephine Leask is a dance writer and lecturer. Having written for a range of dance and art publications, she currently writes for Londondance and the Dance Insider. She lectures in cultural studies at London Studio Centre. Follow her on Twitter @jo_leask
Under are the articles written for DanceTabs.
Jamila Johnson-Small and guests – Heavy Handed We Crush the Moment – London
Heavy Handed We Crush the Moment, an immersive performance is fittingly programmed late at the Barbican Pit. It’s a relaxed and fluid set-up with dim lighting, a DJ’s deck and sculpted podiums on which the audience can sit.
Fernanda Muñoz-Newsome – Sadler’s Wells Wild Card series: Inchoate Buzz – London
★★★✰✰ Fernanda Munoz-Newsome’s unconventional set up in the Lilian Baylis transformed the studio into part nightclub-chill-out lounge, part sensual art installation and featured a line-up of intriguing guest artists.
Igor and Moreno – BEAT – London
★★★★★ Cool, intelligent, thought-provoking, BEAT excels because of its fantastic creative team and its absolute superstar dancer, Margherita Elliot.
Sung Im Her – Nutcrusher – London
★★★✰✰ Sung Im Her’s Nutcrusher is a dance work which adds a valuable contribution to the #metoo movement with its gritty aesthetics and undoing of the sexually coded body.
Gregory Maqoma – Cion: Requiem of Ravel’s Bolero – London
★★★✰✰ Gregory Maqoma’s theatrical storytelling, a potent mix of a capella, dance styles and scenography, projects a strong universal theme – grief.
Lucy Guerin – Split – London
★★★★✰ Fascinating for the duration of its 50 mins, Split focusses on duality – charting the shifts between Ashley McLellan and Lilian Steiner as they negotiate their space, timing, movement and relationship.
Danse Élargie: Dance Expanded – London
★★✰✰✰ Seven international companies appeared on the Sadler’s Wells main stage, all of whom are prize winners of the bi-annual international competition Danse Élargie: Dance Expanded – the brain wave of Boris Charmatz and director Emmanuel Demarcy-Mota…
Dada Masilo – Giselle – London
★★★★✰ Masilo and company unpack this famous story of a wronged woman, establishing a refreshingly black, South African and feminist perspective.
Impermanence – Baal – London
★★★✰✰ Baal conveys a convincing Brechtian essence framed through a contemporary gaze. It’s an intriguing work that celebrates the company’s wild creativity…
Interview – Claire Cunningham and her new Elvis inspired work “Thank You Very Much”
Interview – Claire Cunningham’s latest work “Thank You Very Much” uses the phenomenon of Elvis Presley and Elvis tribute artists as a springboard to explore impersonation, identity, acceptance and the challenges of being yourself. Josephine Leask finds out more from the lively Cunningham…
Lost Dog – Juliet & Romeo – London
★★★★✰ Juliet and Romeo is a clever work on many different levels.
Company of Elders – Dare I Speak, Natural 2019 – London
★★★★✰ Over the years that I’ve seen them, this extraordinary company of quirky individuals have become more adventurous about what they perform and flexible in how they perform…
Royal Ballet – The Firebird, A Month in the Country, Symphony in C – London
★★★★✰ Three short but densely packed ballets infused with a strong Russian flavour were at the heart of the Royal Ballet’s last bill of the season.
Seeta Patel – The Rite of Spring, Dance Dialogues – London
★★★✰✰ Rite of Spring: Through the perspective of a South Asian gaze, the brutality and finality of the original ballet’s pagan sacrifice is tempered by a rich spirituality and the optimistic suggestion of an after-life. It’s still scary but less barbaric.
Nora – Nora Invites Deborah Hay: Where Home Is – London
★★★✰✰ Nora’s show combines a piece made by Hay for the company followed by a short lecture-demonstration in which they guide us through different frames for watching dance – inspired from their viewing of Hay making a solo.
De Keersmaeker, Queyras & Rosas – Mitten wir im Leben sind / Bach6Cellosuiten – London
★★★★✰ What unfolds over the two hours is an extraordinary conversation between musician and dancers.
Corali Dance Company with Thick & Tight – Technicolour Everyday bill – London
★★★✰✰ Even as I leave the show not really having understood every bit of it, I’m touched by the multi-skilled performers and their unforced honesty.
Woman SRSLY – Takeover: Wildlife in Strange Waters – London
★★★✰✰ Woman SRSLY’s feminist energy exploded all over the Place last Thursday. The foyer and bar area were transformed into a colourful pink fun-fair.
Vincent Dance Theatre – Virgin Territory Film Installation – Margate
★★★★✰ Vincent Dance Theatre’s visceral and timely response to how social media is wrecking our children, hypersexualising them and stealing their childhood co-opts the very technology that it warns us about.
James Cousins Company – Epilogues bill of duets – London
★★★★✰ Cousins and company both surprise and stir us.
