Universal Hall, Findhorn, 16 November 2011

FIRST a declaration of interest; this reviewer, wearing a different hat, promoted one of the first shows of this cross-genre project earlier this year, in April.

It is a delight to report that the Shoogle Project has fulfilled the already considerable promise of its beginnings. Its mission is to break down barriers – barriers between genres, barriers between performers and audience, barriers formed in our own minds about our dance skills, or lack of them.

Shoogle the night away (www.ciorstain-photography.com)

Before the show the dancers and musicians, dressed in everyday clothes, wandered through the auditorium chatting to old friends and making new ones. When a casual consensus was reached that it was time to start, they  sauntered onto the dance floor, and stage, and as Shooglenifty began to play the first tune in a seamless set which stretched to a full, indefatigable hour, the dancers charmed audience members into joining them in a loose-limbed ‘Gay Gordons’.

The night evolved with choreographed interludes interspersed with exuberant sequences of dancing with the audience, creating a tightly woven whole in which it became increasingly impossible to tell the professional dancers from the rest.

The skill of Frank McConnell’s choreography was to expand on moves from traditional dance and playground games, keeping them always within the bounds of possibility for untrained dancers, even the lifts. Synchronisation happened occasionally which felt natural rather than untidy; the dance equivalent of Gaelic psalm-singing. The only longeur was an extended ‘slo-mo’ sequence in the first half which didn’t say much of interest while putting an added burden on the hardworking dancers – slow movements are the hardest.

But the overall result was continuous subliminal encouragement for the non-professionals to extend their own natural dance repertoire; audience members who had had to be coaxed on stage at the beginning were by the end of the evening running on at the hint of an invitation and throwing some pretty impressive shapes. All targeted barriers successfully broken down.

The Shoogle Project is at heart a village ceilidh, albeit a village blessed with an unusually high proportion of gifted dancers and musicians. The genius of plan B has been to take the quintessential Highland format and transmute it, lock, stock and whisky-ageing barrel, into a show which could tour anywhere in the country, or beyond.

It’s often said, truthfully, that the muscles you exercise most at a ceilidh are your smile muscles. In a sane world, the Shoogle Project would be available on the NHS, but until we get there, just go and see it whenever and wherever you can. You’ll have the time of your life.

The Shoogle Project is at Banff Town Hall on 19 November, and Eden Court Theatre, Inverness, on 25 November 2011.

© Jennie Macfie, 2011

Links

• plan B
• Shooglenifty
• Jennie Macfie