Traverse One, Edinburgh, 1 April 2010, and touring

The Life and Times of Girl A (Photo - Andrew Ross)

FRESH FROM London, Janet Smith’s company chose the intimacy of the Traverse for a three-night run rather than their usual single night at the much larger Festival Theatre. The vertiginous rake of the Traverse’s seating highlights a choreographer’s use of the floor, which added to the appreciation of both works in this evening’s programme.

First up was Ben Duke’s work The Life and Times of Girl A. What is it about Frenchwomen? They seem to acquire elegance and chic with their mother’s milk; Lyon’s Solene Weinachter in the title role also had acting talent, demonstrated in live projected closeups, and comic timing, but above all an extra quality which can perhaps be summed up as ‘lovable'; an enviable asset for a performer – just look at Darcey Bussell’s career trajectory.

But SDT is not about star-making machinery; it is a repertory dance company, and the strength of camaraderie amongst the dancers is palpable both on and off stage. This is a company which is comfortable with itself, unafraid both individually and collectively to reveal and share secrets.

Duke’s work started as a deconstruction of the film-making process, shot through with humour, but the word ‘Times’ in the title turned out to be more than a cliche. The increasingly panicstricken attempts of Girl A to control her actors and turn back time gradually revealed a darker story.

Humour gave way first to unease, and then something oblique and disturbing. The music ranged across the full range of genres, from Bach to dub, and the use of spoken text and live projected film was a rare, very welcome example of other media being interwoven with dance as a necessary part of the narrative, rather than in a nod to funding fashion.

Dancers can sometimes be seen as self-effacing puppets of a choreographer; one of the things that made both the works in this programme engaging at every level was the way the dancers were actively encouraged to be individuals. Dancers who are not just bodies, dancers with hearts and souls and – yes – minds.

N.Q.R., a reference to the medical acronym ‘Not Quite Right’, formerly used on patients’ notes to describe unexplained difference, demonstrated this at every level. Three choreographers – Janet Smith, Marc Brew and SDT’s Dance Agent for Change, Caroline Bowditch – working together, two of whom would in the past have found that acronym on their notes, is unprecedented.

The result was not just a complex but a multiplex work, devised with the dancers, arising from the strength of their friendship and openness with each other and with the audience. From the moment Bowditch’s hands, followed by, in a very moving moment, her feet, appeared above the rim of a white perspex box, N.Q.R. was astringently refreshing.

Robin Mason’s cello was fully integrated into the work, as were Brew and Bowditch’s wheelchairs; a brief duet for James Macgillivray and Bowditch had the audience holding its breath. Dance doesn’t get more inclusive, or more thought-provoking, than this.

SDT perform this programme at Eden Court Theatre, Inverness, on 15 April 2010 (plus an SDT Interactive presentation on 16 April 2010), and a programme including The Life and Times of Girl A with three other works at Sabhal Mor Ostaig, Isle of Skye, on 27 April.

© Jennie Macfie, 2010

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• Jennie Macfie