Dance for VE day or lack thereof!

[Pas de Quatre]

If not the appropriate place please move.  

 

It has struck me that there have been no offerings from the dance world to celebrate the 70th anniversary of VE day.  OK it is not a round number like 100 but even so... I saw via facebook an extract of the celebrations in Moscow with some wonderful dancing by the Moiseyev company in Red Square.

 

There were many offerings last year to mark the centenary of the beginning of the First World War. Was nobody in the dance world minded to celebrate the end of the Second World War?  Or do choreographers only want to do angst, rather than joy? 

[John Mallinson]

Coinciding with but not related to VE Day was Rosie Kay's 5 Soldiers. It's now left London for a national tour and SHOULD BE SEEN. Excuse the all-caps but it is that good. Website here http://www.5soldiers.co.uk

[Picturesinthefirelight]

It's only a small thing but my daughter tells me there is a commemoration theme in Hammond Schools show this year.

[along for the ride mum]

I must admit to having exactly the same thought, and more generally, other kinds of commemoration. It all seems to have been a little low key to me. Maybe there will be a more visible commemoration for the 75th?

[Pas de Quatre]

Have you seen 5 Soldiers, John?  I may be able to catch it at Blandford.  How about agewise for my pupils, teenage and above or 18+?

[John Mallinson]

I saw 5 Soldiers on Friday in the Drill Hall of the Rifles Club, a highly appropriate venue. If you look on the links pages for May 3 and 9 there are links for three enthusiastic reviews. The scenario is of five soldiers, four male, one female, drilling, relaxing and letting off steam, going into combat, suffering injury. There is one episode of sexual tension between the woman and the men, but that resolves. It is very cleverly conceived and brilliantly executed. I think teenagers would find it extremely exciting and engrossing - I did! 

[John Mallinson]

Another review today, by Paul Arrowsmith for DanceTabs

[Tykva]

Natalia Kremen Ballet School had their annual performance yesterday at Britten Theatre, Royal College of Music.

One of the numbers was a modern piece,‘Children of War’, performed (at the end of the first part) in memory of the impact of war conflict on children.  Very powerful performance by the children of the school, age 9 to 14, to choreography of Elizaveta Muravieva, one of the teachers of NKBS. "The dance is set to the melody ‘Experience’ by Ludovico Einaudi, with its hauntingly insistent theme. As the music ebbs and flows, the children hold on desperately to what is left of their hopes and dreams through the fear and turmoil of wartime. As conflict ends, they release these same dreams to pursue new realities in the war-ravaged present and to build new dreams in a more hopeful and peaceful future." - this is how the dance is described in the synopsis in the school's show programme. The audience was very much moved by this performance. The students did so well.

Edited May 11, 2015 by Tykva

[Sim]

That is very true, Tykva.  It was a beautiful and very moving piece, danced with such feeling by ones so young.