Tanya Batson-Savage, Freelance Writer
Shelleyann Maxwell performs in Chris Walker's Variations A Ska at Physical Labrish. The dance was restaged for the NDTC's Young Choreographers' Workshop held on Saturday. - ANDREW SMITH/PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR
FOR THE past few years the National Dance Theatre Company (NDTC) has been throbbing with the infusion of youthful talented energy in both its choreography and dancing. So the young choreographers were given voice on Saturday night at the NDTC's studio in the second Young Choreographers Workshop.
In his opening remarks, Professor Rex Nettleford noted that the company was engaged in much more than presenting "a nice night of people jumping about." Despite his protest it was a nice night of people jumping about, often to breath- defying effect, but it was clearly also much more.
EXPRESSION
The night was clearly a presentation of the process, experimentation and expression of dance. Whereas the NDTC's annual show presents dance as a full dramatic production, due to Saturday night's location at the studio, it focused more on dance in the process of creation rather than as a finished product. As such, it began with a class demonstration as the dancers and young choreographers were put through their paces by one of their own, Chris Walker.
The series of pieces had a most befitting opening with Oneil Pryce's Barre Talk, which used the exercise bars found in the studio as a significant prop in the dance. As such, it was particularly apt for the night because it celebrates the dance studio as a creative space, and it also leapt well outside the bounds.
IMAGINATIVE WORK
But that aside, it was an astoundingly imaginative work in choreography and it truly spoke to the skills of the dancers. Using basic workout gear as its costume, Barre Talk explored dance as both a singular and communal exercise. It is quite possibly Pryce's most intriguing work to date.
Another particularly outstanding piece presented at the workshop came much later in the show, Shellyann Maxwell's Soul Revolutionary. The dance highlights the dramatic intensity possible with dance and spoke to the power of stillness. Choreographed to Jimmy Cliff's Rebel in Me and performed by Maxwell and Marlon Simms, the dance is a beautiful rendition of love.
INTENSITY
Simply put, Soul Revolutionary presented an A-Ma-Zing work as it eloquently portrayed love as an intense experience between two people. Stillness was used to increase the intensity of the emotion between the two dancers, whose own expressiveness in bodies as well as facial expression worked marvellously. The dance was also beautifully buoyed by Maxwell's daring take on choreography which delights in breath-defying lifts and tosses that constantly leave one amazed at the dancers' strength and skill.
In his address, Prof. Nettleford noted that the NDTC was currently in "renewal continuity mode" which was clearly evident from the night's presentation. Other pieces presented were, Keita-Marie Chamberlain's No Paradise for Me; Simms' Memories and Fatal Encounters, Peta-Gaye Pryce's Caribbean Fusion; Walkers' Variations A Ska and additional pieces by Maxwell - Sincerely and Pryce - Broken Images. Generally, the workshop spoke to a willingness to explore traditional forms while experimenting with new ways of finding meaning.
"Choreographers don't grow on trees, incidentally," said Prof. Nettleford. "They are very hard to come by." And though the group whose work were featured on Saturday bore no signs of having merely sprung up, their talent and imagination is bearing very interesting fruit.
