Dance
| 30 August 2009
The Arches @ St Stephen’s
9-31 August, 19.30
That women from the audience felt empowered and secure enough to shed their clothes, stand shoulder to shoulder with the nude cast, clothed members of the audience and join in a gutsy, bellowing rendition of Jerusalem in the show’s finale, is a feat that I have never before witnessed, and testament to the radiance and fortitude of Nic Green’s ‘Trilogy’.
| 30 August 2009
Pleasance Courtyard
7-31 August (ex.17, 24) 14.30
First Class is one of those productions that it is very difficult to review. Imagine, if you will, Alice’s best-friend leaning in and asking, “So, Alice dear, how would you describe Wonderland?” She’d probably reply, “It’s blinking barmy, Emily dear!” and so is this wonderful, daft, warm-hearted show from Lecoq-trained “Half Wit” theatre.
| 29 August 2009
The Arches @ St Steven's
9-31 August, 17.30
The premise of 'Spaceman, 'a lone survivor undergoes evolutionary mutations to find out why he is alive', is at once exciting, but also an awkward and paradoxical concept for one man to physicalise on stage.
| 26 August 2009
Zoo Southside
23-31 August, 10.55
Kooky and
involving, this commentary on red tape society and governmental control
uses the setting of East Germany to illustrate the evils of government
surveillance and defence tactics based on fear.
| 25 August 2009
The Voodoo Rooms
12-23rd August (ex. 17, 18), 22.00
Prepare to be transported to 1930’s Berlin, a world sexy, glamorous and debauched, with dazzling lights and colours, feathers and ribbons, jewelled gloves and fishnets, satin and suspenders.
| 23 August 2009
The Zoo
18-28 August, 19.00
Luxuria, performed by the Scottish Dance Theatre, is utterly beautiful in its story, dress and dance.
| 19 August 2009
New Town Theatre
19, 21, 23 August etc (alternating between their other show Strike) 19.40
Nouvelles Folies is the new show from Fiat Lux, a French "silent Burlesque" theatre company, who blend together mime and slapstick for this hour of physical comedy.
| 18 August 2009
New Town Theatre
5-30 August (ex. 17) 21.30
Lights up. The portly Leygnac comes on stage with a suitcase clutched in his sweaty hand. Snap. He pulls from its shallow depths his lithe, yet momentarily wilted companion Thibaud. Hoisting him onto the piano stool, he starts to crank him up like an old car until he sparks into life with a sudden jolt and begins thumping on the piano’s keys. So kick starts these Frenchmen’s anarchic mime act full of physical humour.
| 18 August 2009
DanceBase @ Out of the Blue Drill Hall
14-27 (ex. 17,24) August, times vary.
There are very few aerialists out there, and the skill itself is so astonishing that any display has great natural appeal.
| 14 August 2009
New Town Theatre
5-30 August, 17:45
Pedal percussion sends vibrations ricocheting through the audience in the New Town Theatre this Fringe. Dubbed as tap’s answer to High School Musical, Tap Kids are bringing their story of high school senior year to life on this, their European leg of their tour.
| 14 August 2009
The Zoo Southside
August 7-31 (ex. 17,24) 16:30
For once, the promotional description of a show is justified. This piece by award-winning dance troupe 2FaCeD is bold, slick and expressive, not to mention athletically stunning.
| 14 August 2009
The Zoo Southside.
7-31 August (ex. 20) 22:30
Purportedly about four youngsters whose friendship fractures when they enter a big city, this physical theatre performance by the Russian group, Rain People, is obtuse and uncohesive, and the acting unconvincing. I can only presume that ‘inventing the sky’ is a dodgy metaphor for attempting to create a paradise in the city.
| 14 August 2009
The Zoo Southside
7th-31st August, 12.50
Painting an apartment stripped of almost everything but the kitchen sink, an ‘i-click’, and a stamp-sensitive light system, Joey and Matt are not an ordinary pair of decorators. Their performance outstrips those generic hip-hop productions, colouring the genre with refreshing, down-to-earth comedy. Imaginative, quirky choreography stylishly transforms their mundane chores.
| 13 August 2009
Assembly @ Assembly Hall
13-31 August (ex. 17,24) 16:30
A polished hour of eclectic dance pieces, C!rca blurs the lines between physical theatre, contemporary dance and acrobatics. The performance is divided into a series of sketches: some are dramatic and emotionally charged, some silly and comedic. All the pieces are stylistically expressed with subtle lighting, projecting eerie shadows of the choreographed movement.
| 13 August 2009
Assembly @ George Street
12-31 August (ex. 17,24) 17.05
Some shows at the Fringe ooze quality and this is one of them – in style, grace and confidence Kataklo investigate Leonadro da Vinci’s passions – machines and the human form in a piece of dance that gripped me from the outset.
| 13 August 2009
C Venues 34
5-31 August, 15.15
If you’re looking for something a bit different, Sweet is a very entertaining production of… something a bit different. Award winning total theatre group, Chotto Ookii, return to the festival with their cynical anti-romcom, blending a mix of physical theatre, puppetry and comedy.
| 13 August 2009
The Traverse
8-16 August, 16:45
My personal experience of dance came to an abrupt end when, aged four, I was escorted howling from my ballet class because I apparently had a horror of “sweeping leaves”. Therefore, it was with trepidation that I discovered I was going to a Dance/ Physical Theatre adaptation of Poe’s The Masque of the Red Death, the story of how a horrific disease (swine flu?!) catches up with a heartless noble and his equally ne’er-do-well friends, having barricaded themselves off from their suffering subjects.
| 13 August 2009
The World @ St George’s West
6-31 August, 21.00
With their relentless energy and irresistable rountines, this dance troupe sets a firework beneath the Fringe ahead of the Bank of Scotland display at the end of the Festival.
| 13 August 2009
Dance Base
6-16th August, 20.30
There isn’t a huge amount to be said about this production, as there is very little movement on the stage; a feature normally fundamental to a dance show. The venue is dark and incredibly hot, but one can’t help but feel that these are not the only factors in the show that may send you to sleep.
| 11 August 2009
Pleasance Dome
5-31 August (ex. 17,24) 16.20
This production was so exceptional that I do not know how to do it justice. One man attempting to depict Homer’s Odyssey is an epic order in itself especially in the constraints of an hour. Cue the ambitious Lecoq trained George Mann, whose multi-faceted performance renders him peerless.
