Empire Theatre, Eden Court, Inverness, 12 August 2012

THIS was the first time Inverness had seen Scotland’s youth dance company since Anna Kenrick took over from Andy Howitt last year and on one showing, they seem to be blossoming even more than before.

THERE were five pieces in this programme, including one which could have held its own against many a professional company. But to begin at the beginning….the curtain raiser was an intricately crafted piece for school-age dancers who’d spent a week on Skye this summer working with Yvonne Young. Only a week to produce a very impressive result. Some individual dancers had the effortless lightness and grace that characterises promise in even the untutored dancer and they all acquitted themselves well.

Dancers from Project Y

Kerry Nicholls’ Carmine followed, with a lattice of twenty-two dancers clad in crimson tunics, simply but artfully lit by Simon Gane to make their shadows on the backcloth part of the piece. These older dancers have longer to prepare, and it showed in some creditably tidy unison work and a satisfying smoothness of execution.

The choreographers do not make many concessions to the relative inexperience of the company; Natasha’s Gilmore’s Butterflies after the interval demanded almost too much of them in the way of strength and balance, with some taxing lifts and falls, including half the company lying prone and supporting the standing weight of the other half while rotating slowly. Twice. They managed, but only just. The music was a remix of Tinie Tempah’s dancefloor anthem ‘Passout’, and the dancers’ enjoyment was evident in the closing exuberant leaps, stamps and turns.

This was followed by the undoubted highlight of the evening, Human Rites, a magnificent meditation on violence in black and white. It swiftly became evident that choreographer Thomas Small had reached a perfect level of understanding with his dancers. Having seen several Project Y programmes, it seems that most choreographers, used to working with small numbers of dancers, find the rare chance to work with nearly two dozen dancers slightly intoxicating and thus keep all of them on stage all the time.

Small, however, was not afraid to break the company into smaller units and move them on and off stage in groups and make the most of the only two male dancers. Dramatically lit with two floor lights, the result was satisfying, intense, and, as near as makes no odds, the equal of many professional works that have graced the Eden Court stages. The neatly stitched soundtrack assisted rather than dominated the dancers and ended with Charlie Chaplin’s great final speech from The Great Dictator – “Greed has poisoned men’s souls – has barricaded the world with hate; has goose-stepped us into misery and bloodshed …” written in1940 but just as relevant today as then. Alas.

Topically, the evening closed with an Olympic feel, but the Olympics in question seemed to be London 1948, with the dancers clad in enchanting pastel tea dresses and lit with a warm, golden light. As a work it suffered by following on the heels of Human Rites but gradually won the audience over with its delicate, witty charm, allowing the dancers to show us their humour as well as their dancing skills. A Million Eyes Are On You, made by Anna Kenrick to a soundtrack by Quee Macarthur, contained some lovely details and promised well for the company’s future.

© Jennie Macfie, 2012

Links

• Project Y
• Jennie Macfie