Dance

Contemporary dance is the most exciting cultural endeavour in London. The pace, the vision, the ethnic diversity, the energy and the commitment to bringing together high and low culture, classical and street, make it a particularly London art form. Eastern Europeans, South Americans, homegrown talents like Akram Khan from the classical Asian traditions, French prima ballerinas: all are coming together in the only world city with the ability to combine disparate artists and outlooks and create the conditions for inspired work.

The process is accelerating, and at its centre are three key institutions: The Place, Southbank Centre and Sadler’s Wells that have now come together to jointly commission young Israeli choreographer Hofesh Shechter’s new work. The ambition is to fast-track Shechter and bring these very different institutions together to see if the things that divide them are stronger than the things that hold them together. We will only know how successful this unique endeavour has been when Shechter and his company have performed the final part of the series at Sadler’s Wells in September. But, if this is the city that can nurture him as it did Akram Khan, then we can be proud.

Does size matter?
Time Out's dance editor Allen Robertson asks whether size really does matter for the capital's most vibrant art form

Top dance venues
We size up the London's best dance venues and wonder whether star turn Hofesh Shechter can make the step up to the truly big stage

Best of the summer
This summer's dance highlights


Does size matter?
One size definitely does not fit all. Dance fans understand this and we adjust our sights accordingly. Where you end up sitting in any theatre determines not only what you’re able to see but also influences how engaged you’re likely to become in what’s happening on the stage.

The same thing occurs from the other side of the footlights as well. A dance that a choreographer has created for the 300-seat intimacy of The Place may end up vanishing when it is transferred into the 1,500-seat Sadler’s Wells. In contrast, classical ballet can appear far too strenuous, even forced, when viewed at close quarters.

Scale is an issue that audiences and artists attempt to sort out together, but it doesn’t always work out to everyone’s advantage. Several successful dances, notably duets, which were first performed in the Linbury Studio Theatre down in the basement of the Royal Opera House have lost their zest when they’ve been shifted to larger venues. It’s not anybody’s fault, certainly not the dancers’. But audiences who have encountered some of these highly enjoyable works only in larger situations, end up dubbing them damp squibs.

Earlier this month Tanja Liedtke’s stupendous trio ‘Construct’ had its world première in the small 300-seat Purcell Room. I can’t help thinking that it simply wouldn’t have worked nearly as well if it had been moved into the larger Queen Elizabeth Hall. Much of its impact depended on being up close and personal.

That’s not to say that solos and duets aren’t able to fill a large stage. Sylvie Guillem and Russell Maliphant’s multiple award-winning duet programme, ‘Push’, proves that. Created in 2005, it has already had three sold-out runs at Sadler’s Wells. It will be intriguing to see how ‘Push’ fares next year as the smallest of the four companies in the month-long ‘Spring Dance’ season at the Coliseum. At 2,358 seats, and with a stage that’s 55 feet wide, it is London’s largest dance venue.

There’s a theory within the profession that dance companies gradually accrue the right to proceed to larger spaces as they become more accomplished. It strikes me that this notion can’t actually be sustained. One of our greatest choreographers, Siobhan Davies, has created works for virtually every venue in town. She has had successes in most of them, but it is in small, even site-specific, venues where Davies has achieved her finest triumphs. The same is true of Jonathan Burrows. He is the very essence of low-key, low-tech creativity – the wry subtlety of his approach is dependent on an intimate exchange between viewers and performers.

Other artists, such as Wendy Houstoun and Charles Linehan, are natural-born miniaturists who shouldn’t be pushed to think large. This is no reflection on the size of their talents. But look at what happened to Lea Anderson, founder of The Cholmondeleys and The Featherstonehaughs – so adept at vignettes, she swamped herself when she tried to fulfil a Sadler’s Wells commission last year. The result, ‘Yippeee!!!’, turned out to be exaggerated and bloated and seemed to build a barrier between performers the audience.

Artists such as Siobhan Davies, brave enough to take a stand against the notion that the number of bums on seats is the ultimate barometer of success, are few and far between. That doesn’t negate her power, indeed it enhances her validity. We must never let statistics replace any artist’s notion of their place in the scale of things.
Allen Robertson

The Venues
The Place
Venue
300 seats Tucked away in a small area of charming Victorian streets behind Euston Road this is a fascinating building in what seems like its own little world with two addresses (if you’re entering the back entrance, the address is 16 Flaxman Terrace, WC1). Although the architecture is part Edwardian and part modern, the artistic reputation is all contemporary. The Place is committed to performance and developing contemporary dance through training and claims its activities are ‘unmatched in their quality and ranges’. The main space, the 300-seat Robin Howard dance theatre, mounts performances with more than 200 companies, British and foreign, a year.
The Place, 17 Duke’s Rd, WC1 (020 7121 1100/ www.theplace.org.uk).

The Punters
The most ‘dance’ of all three venues – almost everyone has or has had a close involvement with dance, many are ex-dancers as well as designers and choreographers. Very chic and very stylish, the atmosphere is – as you would expect – civilised, but it is relaxed rather than self-congratulatory. The talk is of strained calves, dance gossip and a certain amount of snobbery. I hear one man talk with some glee about how ‘poor’ dance at the Barbican is. One question: why are there so few black people here?

Amenities
A very good bar where ’70s soundtrack-funk bubbles away. On either side, double doors open to the Robin Howard dance theatre but this is a working environment too; there are eight studio spaces, classes, courses and the headquarters of the Richard Alston Dance Company.

Shechter on stage
When Shechter began his trilogy of performances here in March it was a homecoming of sorts and also enabled him to première the work in the most intimate of the three spaces. The cast – eight people for the opening piece ‘Uprising’ and ten for ‘In Your Rooms’ – were almost among the audience and it made for an exhilarating evening. Not surprisingly the first part of Shechter’s bill, the year-old ‘Uprising’ – in which he dances himself – was more focused and confident. Its use of mass movement is reminiscent of an R&B video but at a different level of ambition. Humorous as well as serious and influenced by popular culture without being populist, ‘In Your Rooms’ was less focused but it is the intention of the project that the work should progress. And, for all that slight confusion, there were parts that found moments of individual expressions within the group that moved the work from the engaging to the profound. A very promising beginning to the project.

Is it right for me?
The atmosphere is calculated to suggest, in an understated way, that everyone here is intellectual yet hip and the venue has an enviable reputation. Shechter was artist in residence here in 2005 and Alston, the creative director, is a hugely influential figure in British choreography. As he puts it, ‘The Place’s work in dance is vital: exhilarating, liberating, joyous and life changing.’ Inside the auditorium, the walls are black and seriousness hangs heavy in the air but there are Heath Robinson touches that maintain a recognisably English tone. A stagehand carries a pole with an oblong piece of black hardboard, which he leans against the wall so the Exit sign is covered during the performance.

Southbank centre
Venue
850 seats Queen Elizabeth Hall and the Purcell Room are the main venues but the rebirth of Southbank Centre is opening up new opportunities for dance. Under the leadership of director of dance and performance, Julia Carruthers, dance has increased its profile at the complex and, this summer, artists in residence Stan Won’t Dance, a physical theatre troupe as much as a dance company, will perform outside across the site. The Festival Hall reopens with Southbank associate artist Rafael Bonachela choreographing ‘Carmen Jones’. Then Klaus Obermaier’s ‘Rites’ – a reworking of Stravinsky’s ‘Rites of Spring’ for one dancer – with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and ‘virtual dancers’, viewed through 3D glasses, will open on June 26 and CandoCo will perform in the Hall’s ballroom. There is a sense of excitement about the place and contemporary dance is central to it.
Southbank Centre, SE1 (0871 663 2501/www.southbankcentre.co.uk)

The punters
Southbank Centre is good at blurring the borders between art forms and it goes out of its way to attract a diverse audience. The mix of audience also reflects the Southbank’s status as a national institution; the audience is often not pure dance but one that gets sucked in via events like the Meltdown series of gigs. This is not a ‘we are a dance audience’ audience.

Amenities
Myriad and spacious. Snack bar and expensive drinks bar in the main concourse at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, or take your drinks and food out on to the terrace where there a few – but not many– wooden benches and tables.

Schechter on stage
Shechter and his company’s appearance at Southbank Centre earlier this month should illustrate some of the problems implicit in fast-tracking. Although Shechter’s Queen Elizabeth Hall performance was naturally less intense than it was on the more constricted stage of the Robin Howard Theatre, as the dancers moved out into a larger space it also lacked some of the intensity of The Place performance and several passages seemed unfocused. However, the dancers grew in confidence over the evening and the addition of live music added new texture to the production (Hofesh plays drums in the band during ‘In Your Rooms’), ensuring a tumultuous reception.

Is it right for me?
Entering the main Queen Elizabeth Hall gives the visitor a strong sense of being at a cultural centre, the wide , L-shaped concourse full of people preparing for various events adds to a general feeling of being part of something larger than just going to see a dance performance. Because the complex is multi-arts, it offers unique opportunities for cross-art collaborations. There is a very strong south-Asian dance programme and, in the past, Akraam Khan and the London Sinfonieta have been residents. Talent spotting is central to Julia Carruthers’ vision and she has looked to Australia and Europe and – closer to home – Khan, who was nurtured here for three vital years. There are those who feel Hofesh could be the next Khan; he is generating a similar hum of expectation and, like Khan, brings an ethnic and cultural perspective to dance – although in Shechter’s case, Israeli rather than Asian.

Sadler's Wells
Venue
1500 seats Housed in Nicholas Hare Architects’ graceful glass and steel 1998 building, Sadler’s Wells has artfully stretched the definition of contemporary dance to get crowds in to big events like Stomp! and breakdance festivals alongside Akram Khan and Sylvie Guillem’s ‘Sacred Monsters’, ‘Push’ with Sylvie Guillem and Russell Maliphant and ‘zero degrees’, a collaboration which involved Akram Khan, Nitin Sawhney and Antony Gormley. ‘Our aim,’ says Sadler’s Wells, ‘is to produce work which combines both commercial success and the highest quality artistic standards.’

The approach is dictated by money. Sadler’s Wells receives a subsidy of 13 per cent per annum from Arts Council England; the rest of their annual income is self-generated, 70 per cent through ticket sales alone. They are obliged to put bums on seats.
Sadler’s Wells, Roseberry Avenue, EC1 (0844 412 4300/www.sadlerswells.com)

The punters
The necessity to produce work which is commercial means that Sadler’s Wells is not a venue for purists. It’s also more ethnically and socially diverse than, for example, The Place. But this can be because of the programming. The recent weekend of hip hop culture and dance attracted a larger than usual afro-Caribbean audience. ‘Sadler’s Wells audiences vary hugely according to the show they’ve come to,’
says a spokesperson, ‘whether it’s Breakin’ Convention or Matthew Bourne’s ‘Swan Lake’.’ The audience here is generally young and culturally aware.

Amenities
The theatre is the sixth on the site and takes 1,500 people, plus there’s the smaller 200-seat studio space, the Lillian Baylis Theatre, where more intimate and occasionally difficult works are performed (it is a key venue during Dance Umbrella). Hare’s interior – a three-storey, entirely glass-fronted space – is as impressive as his exterior and there is an excellent mezzanine restaurant as well as three bars to choose from (all of which open an hour and a half before each performance), in the light, airy and warm public space, plus a stage door café and bar. It’s a venue that puts the entire West End to shame.

Schechter on stage
We will see this September how Shechter takes to a venue that offers a chance to cross over commercially. Akram Khan and Sylvie Guillem’s recent revival of ‘Sacred Monsters’ laid down a marker for a successful dance event. It was also, it’s worth noting, a lot of fun. One of the most interesting challenges Shechter faces is that of space. All three stages are different sizes: The Place is the smallest, followed by Southbank Centre and then Sadler’s Wells. When he comes here, he’ll have to deal with mind-boggling amounts of it and a more mixed audience. It will give Shechter a chance to leapfrog forwards. Will he take it? Is it right for me?

Is it right for me?
The superlative performance space seems utterly modern but the stalls and circle maintain a sense of all the others that have stood on this spot before the present building. Sadler’s Wells may be looked down on by some dance purists who shudder at its inclination to put the commercial alongside the highbrow but an approach that began through necessity has developed into a unique programming policy. Sadler’s Wells should be saluted for the imagination with which it has brought dance to a wide audience without sacrificing a commitment to art. A delicate balancing act ingenuously done. This is the best entry-level venue for anyone new to contemporary dance. Go: eat, drink, watch and argue afterwards; you’ll have a great night.


This summer's dance highlights
Import/Export
Koen Augustijnen and Belgian company Les Ballets C. de la B. return to the Southbank with a new production, performed to baroque music by the Kirke String Quartet.
Southbank Centre, June 12-14.

Savion Glover
This US tap legend made his Broadway debut at 12 and since then has done everything from dancing with a chamber orchestra to appearing in a P Diddy video.
Sadler’s Wells, June 13-16.

Cloud Gate Theatre of Taiwan
This renowned company will be performing the final chapter of ‘Cursive: a Trilogy’, which sees scrolls of of paper unfurled across the stage with ink poured over them.
Sadler’s Wells, June 19-22.

Mark Morris Dance Group
Possibly the dance event of the year, ‘Mozart Dances’ features three, emotionally interconnected pieces, and premièred last year in New York to rave reviews.
Barbican, July 4-7.

Philippe Decouflé
‘Sombrero’ is a collaboration between the venue and this internationally acclaimed choreographer, whose CV includes a circus production for the 1992 Winter Olympics, and the video for New Order’s ‘True Faith’.
Sadler’s Wells, July 4-8.

Paco Peña
Peña brings his critically acclaimed company of musicians and dancers to Sadler’s Wells’ Peacock Theatre, performing passionate flamenco in ‘A Compás! To the Rhythym’.
Sadler’s Wells, August 7-12.

Hofesh Shechter
With ‘Uprising’/’In Your Rooms’, one of the UK’s most exciting choreographers has assembled a superb company of 12 dancers.
The personal, provocative piece was first peformed at The Place in March, moved through the Southbank Centre in May, and ends at Sadler’s Wells, adapting for each venue.
Sadler’s Wells, September 28-29.

See more dance listings