Off Kilter: Scottish, But Not As We Know It

1 Jan 2010 in Dance & Drama, Highland

MARK FISHER sets for the scene for the return of the revived, restored and refreshed version of an irreverent dance take on Scottishness

THE DATE was 2004. The scene was Eden Court Theatre in Inverness. Morag Deyes was feeling nervous. Here she was, in the heart of the Highlands, and she was about to launch an assault on her own audience.

The performance about to hit the stage was a tongue-in-cheek dance by Steinvor Palsson called ‘Scots Wi Hay. The short piece had as its satirical target such couthie 1970s television shows as Thingummyjig and The White Heather Club, and poked fun at the idea of trying to sex up something so traditional as Highland dancing. Would the audience even get the joke? And if they did, how would they react? Deyes held her breath.

Innit Innat - Daniel Aing, Lisa Sinclair and Tony Mills (© Andy Ross)

Innit Innat - Daniel Aing, Lisa Sinclair and Tony Mills (© Andy Ross)

“It’s kitsch and as camp as hell, and I love it, but it throws down the gauntlet to the traditions of Scotland,” she says today, sitting in Edinburgh’s Dance Base where she is artistic director. “I thought I was going to get lynched when the curtain went up and there were these ladies with their ringlets and their stiff frocks. But it was hilarious and the audience got it immediately.”

That performance was part of an early incarnation of Off Kilter, a variety-style compendium of Scottish dance that takes a defiantly broad definition of the country’s culture. Launched in Edinburgh just before Hogmanay with a boost from the Scottish government’s Expo fund, the new ‘revived, restored and refreshed show features every form of dance from classical Indian to hip hop, drawing on the skills of top choreographers from home and abroad. Featuring a new artwork by Nairn resident John Byrne, it is cheeky, celebratory and a challenge to received wisdom.

“We start with a Highland dance, but the Highlands to me aren’t about shortbread tins, golf and whisky, they are spooky, dark and cold, they are about mystery, peat bogs and strangeness,” says Deyes. “It’s a bit gothic, in my opinion. My image of the Highlands is based a lot on Alan Warner’s books. So the Highland dance segues into a piece that’s about impish wickedness.”

The production’s iconoclastic approach recalls the attitude of Martyn Bennett, the musician who fused bagpipes and urban beats before his premature death in 2005. It is his music that serves as the soundtrack to Frank McConnell’s hip hop piece. “Bennett has always symbolised to me one of the tenets of Off Kilter, which is about seeing yourself in a different way,” says Deyes.

Gemmill's Goal - Tony Mills, Errol White and Allan Irvine (© Andy Ross)

Gemmill's Goal - Tony Mills, Errol White and Allan Irvine (© Andy Ross)

Having seen how the first version could work, Deyes has kept the format but changed the content. Three pieces remain – all of them developed further – but the greater part of the show is new, not least two specially commissioned world premieres from internationally acclaimed choreographers.

The first of these is by Ashley Page, the man credited with revitalising Scottish Ballet since he took over as artistic director in 2003. Deyes gave him an open brief – the only restriction being a 15-minute time limit – but she did suggest some Scottish music he might like to consider. One of them, a selection of Hebridean psalms, failed to set his creativity alight. The other, a collection of songs by the late great poet and humorist Ivor Cutler, had an altogether different effect.

“One of the joyful moments of putting Off Kilter together was that I got to introduce somebody to Ivor Cutler and to watch their face as they got it,” says Deyes. “Ashley is so delighted it by it. It was his childrens reactions that sold it. They came running through, saying, ‘Play that again, it was so funny. He’s chosen a lovely suite of songs and it makes sense – the three dancers take a surreal journey of Ivor-esqueness.”

It might sound odd for a Royal Ballet-trained choreographer to be working to the rhythms of Good Morning! How are You? Shut Up, Cockadoodledon’t and half-a-dozen more off-beat songs from Cutler’s 1967 album Ludo (produced by no less a figure than George Martin after Cutler had appeared in the Beatles’ Magical Mystery Tour), but Page says they are joy to dance to. “Ludo is the most musical of his albums,” he says over lunch in Glasgow’s Tramway, the new base for Scottish Ballet. “There’s a pulse there and the speed of the faster ones is quite ferocious, so you have to be careful how you choreograph to it. But I find it very choreograph-able.”

The second big name brought on board by Deyes is New York’s Mark Morris. A two-time Olivier Award-winner, Morris has been friends with Deyes ever since they hit it off at an Edinburgh International Festival party after one of his acclaimed performances in 1992. “I was wearing a spectacular pair of earrings and some great tartan trousers,” she recalls. “He said, ‘Fabulous earrings.’ I said, ‘You can borrow them,’ and that was it.”

Small Street - Amy Park (© Andy Ross)

Small Street - Amy Park (© Andy Ross)

For Off Kilter, Morris is working with three dancers on a piece set to some of the Scottish songs written by Beethoven in the early 1800s. “I started talking to him about Off Kilter after the first outing five years ago, so he had a flavour of what the show was about,” says Deyes, still giddy with excitement after a trip to the choreographer’s Brooklyn studio for a sneak preview. “There are not many people you would call a genius, but I do think Mark has got that genius streak in him. Sometimes he does edgy, strange stuff, but this is not like that; it’s very balletic and there’s a great deal of exuberance.”

Morris and Page are the names that will catch the eye of promoters – and there are already early hopes that Off Kilter will tour to China and Canada – but Deyes insists that all the contributions will sit confidently alongside each other. The various choreographers involved are experts in their field, whether that is Highland or hip hop. Together, they will project a more nuanced image of contemporary Scotland than your average tourist-pleasing dance show. This, promises Deyes, will be no Scottish Riverdance.

“It would have been too simple – and boring – to put together a show that was just about Scotland, one where everyone would go and say, ‘Yes, I recognise that about Scotland,” she says. ‘I want people to say, “I don’t recognise that about Scotland,” and yet it is. It’s almost a by-product that its Scottish. For you to put in some Indian dance or some edgy contemporary dance is complimentary to Scotland. Its like a compilation album with lots of tracks and the concept is Scotland.”

Off Kilter is at Eden Court Theatre, Inverness, on 26- 27 January 2010.
© Mark Fisher, 2010

Links