Fingerprint Dance at Inside Out Dorset Festival
Fingerprint Dance - ‘Two and a Half’
Inside Out Dorset, International Festival Outdoor Arts Festival 2021
‘She Lie’s’ - Floating sculpture by Monica Bonvicini off the shore of the Oslo Opera House, Norway.
Oslo Opera House, Norway.
‘She Lie’s’ - Floating sculpture by Monica Bonvicini off the shore of the Oslo Opera House, Norway.
“It was beautiful, I got immersed in it. A wonderful performance. One of my high lights of Inside Out this year. Thank you.”
During summer 2021 I was invited to choreograph a new work to be performed at the Inside Out Dorset Festival, an international outdoor arts festival that takes place across the county every two years. I had the pleasure of working with Fingerprint Dance, newly formed and ran by practitioner, performer and choreographer Anna Golding. Joined by a team of extraordinary live musicians we created a 20min site responsive work performed at two sites across the festival; Christchurch and Symondsbury Estate.
Fingerprint Dance comprises of dancers from two other groups led by Anna; Grace & Growl a mature dance company and Forest a group of young adults with different abilities. I worked with the company for a week to create ‘Two and a Half’. It was an absolute pleasure to get to know this group of generous, skilled, enthusiastic and thoughtful group of dancers. They rose to artistic challenges, quickly became a company after only a few hours together, navigated working within Covid restrictions with care and performed so beautifully together. We created the piece in five days, with additional rehearsal time, with inclusivity at the heart of the work. Working within themes of appreciation of beauty of the natural landscape, the changing architectural nature of arctic landscape and the brutal, epic, breathtaking calving of glaciers and the natural soundscapes that are inherent, reactive to and aurally striking a part of these landscapes.
With thanks to Anna for the invitation and to the dancers the hugest congratulations for what you achieved. This project will stay with me for a long time to come. Keep scrolling for a review of the piece.
Above images by Emily Alden during a self designed step change project supported by British Council & Arts Council England in 2017.
“The performance of Two and a Half was completely moving and beautiful.”
“Loved it Anna - your work always has a way of making me breathe and take stock. Thank you.”
Fingerprint Dance at Symondsbury Estate.
Fingerprint Dance at Christchurch.
REVIEW by Margie Barbour
Inside Out Dorset is an international outdoor arts festival that takes place across the county every two years. They bring live performance to unexpected places – town centres, village squares, beaches and hilltops – for everyone to enjoy. Symondsbury estate offered the community an opportunity to see an amazing range of free events, from the extraordinary Gaia, a gigantic representation of the earth as seen by the astronauts, to a storytelling tent with local storyteller Martin Maudsley.
One special event involving local dancers was Two and a Half. The members are mature dance company Grace and Growl, who joined forces with Forest, a new performance company of adults with different abilities On a natural green arena, sheltered by massive Chestnut trees, four wheelchair and standing dancers were waiting. The musicians, led by Andrew Dickson, began to play. It was a haunting melody that brought in the dancers, alone or supporting each other. Forming an arc under the trees, looking questioningly out at the audience, the dancers responded to the insistent rhythm, their hands turning, arms reaching up, their bodies twisting and turning.
This highly original piece of dance included using large sheets of blue material, pulled taut by the dancers who swirled across their stage, one moment creating icebergs melting in the Arctic, the next the frozen seas, rising as the glaciers thawed. The dancers were able to show us their different talents, working in pairs using tension and balance, we could see how highly accomplished the Grace and Growl company has become. At other moments, the company danced as one, relying on each other as they reacted to each other’s movements. Mention should be made of one dancer Robert Poulton, joined by the double bass on the stage, he used the musician as the centre of his encircling dance, drawn like the earth orbiting the sun.
The theme of the piece was the 2.5degrees C rise in Arctic sea temperatures since the 1970s. Cornwall based choreographer Emily Alden worked with Fingerprint Dance, a community dance company established by local choreographer and dancer, Anna Golding, to create a highly topical and important new piece of dance theatre for the festival.
To find out more about Anna and Fingerprint Dance visit The Arts Development Company website.
To find out more about Inside Out Dorset visit Active Arts website.