FALLEN ANGELS DANCE THEATRE - TRACES THROUGH TIME - CHESTER 01/11/2023

[Jan McNulty]

I’m a bit late reporting back about seeing FADT on 1st November so sorry for that.

 

 

In 2011 a friend invited me to an event at The Lowry on the basis that I had seen Paul Bayes-Kitcher dance with Birmingham Royal Ballet.  I went along not really knowing what to expect but came away feeling very moved and inspired by what we had seen.

 

This “sharing event” was the first event for Fallen Angels Dance Theatre, a dance company which aims to help people in their recovery from addiction.  During the event we saw some dance excerpts performed by Paul and a couple of other professional dancers as well as some people who were in recovery.  Paul and the people in recovery bared their souls and that has been my experience of them ever since.

 

Over the years since then I have seen more sharing events and performances and have never ceased to be moved by them.  The people involved have changed over time but they all share the fact that they are in recovery.

 

For Traces Through Time FADT has collaborated with the New Note Orchestra, an orchestra for addicts in recovery, so for the first time I saw the dance performance accompanied by live music.

 

I thought the music was beautiful, sadly the composer was not credited.

 

The dance was glorious.  Very contemporary in style with a beautiful solo it was an elegant and powerful message of hope.  The group work was slow paced and very effective.  The dancers all performed their hearts and souls out.  Hannah Rudd was the professional dancer performing with the group and she spoke some lines of poetry during the performance.  A member of the orchestra and one of the dancers spoke of their personal gratitude very briefly.  The whole performance was profoundly moving.

 

After the performance there was a Q&A led by Paul and then the audience was invited to stay behind in the bar and meet the performers.

 

It was wonderful to attend such a life-affirming event.

 

 

[Emeralds]

Been meaning to ask if anyone had posted a review about this company (where is @ChrisG 🙂) so am glad to see @Jan McNulty's review, with great photos too- thanks!