Clare Sinclair finds the fifth dance festival to be a mixed bag.
Go Dance 12 is a dance festival in its 5th year, aiming to showcase dance from across the Scottish community. Held at the Theatre Royal, it has brought together over 1000 dancers in a shared passion for live performance. Every night of their programme has a different bill with different groups performing over different evenings.
Watching on Friday night the show is presented by Alan McHugh – donned smartly in a black kilt – taking us through the itinerary of the evening introducing the acts and the ideas behind the performances they bring. Unfortunately, his translations are sorely needed throughout the night as the performances unfold.
Community performance will never be as slick as a honed professional piece, yet some of the acts on offer this evening have the feel of a ‘worst auditions’ show reel. In general, the performances are under-rehearsed – dancers out of time with each other with greatly mixed ability create a sloppy look to their choreography. This is a frustrating evening, as it is clear that with more work and choreography to enhance the group strength – rather than one stand-out individual – these dances could have been greatly improved.
Yet there were some groups who stood out from the crowd. The Claire Burns School of Dance brought the piece ‘A New Beginning’ – while their hip-hop section was too safe by far, they excelled with their group choreography which was strong and most importantly completely in sync with each other. While Jazz Art UK dedicated a lovely piece to the late Raymond Kaye who worked with the group and displayed in this a level of professionalism and great talent.
Closing off the bill for Friday were Anniesland College – as students of dance it was expected that this would be a strong performance, and the first half was. Two members of this group are part of Got to Dance’s final on Sky 1 as members of Fear of the Unknown – and here the whole group were on a different level from the other groups.
Part of the difficulty of this evening was the length of the individual pieces; rather than three or four minute bursts of excellence per group, we were given at least double the length of mixed ability and a lacklustre mixture of styles. Festivals such as Go Dance 12 should continue strong – dance in the community is a much needed art but the onus is on the individual groups to up the ante to make community dance stand out from the crowd.
Go Dance 12's run has ended.
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