Hosted by Dance Base Artistic Director Tony Mills

Featuring Work from Wayne Chang, Jennifer Cullen, Julia Lau, Joshua Effi and Ursula Manandhar 

Additional Information May Be Located Here

There are two areas of Scotland’s cultural majesty which often find themselves with a (perceived) barrier of accessibility for new or unfamiliar audiences – Spoken Word and Dance. And where tremendous groups like Loud Poets or celebrations of Spoken Word like STANZA offer an insight for the former, Scotland benefits from some of the most accessible and encouraging Dance venues and groups such as Dance Base, whose recent showcase offered a magnificently encouraging view into what goes on in the stages of development from dancers working in Scotland.

Offering mentorship and guidance, their recent Hip Hop Showcase aids in developing work from their Live & Direct Artists. Each of the five pieces this evening stands apart for their representative work, technique, and ability to sow movement into traditional and experimental storytelling mechanics of self-expression. Even where common threads in narrative emerge, the mentorship and guidance with Dance Base and artistic director (and host) Tony Mills gives each new performance its shape and form of expression. This networking showcase offers audiences the opportunity to gain experience from and offer insight into some of Scotland’s leading performers in the field.

Following each group of showcases (split between three, then two), Mills invites the dancers back onto the stage to engage with the audience through a series of buzzwords and questions, directed both to and from the audience, to open up the thought process behind each piece, and offer a more in-depth insight into the process and mentorship which went on behind the scenes the week before. Informal enough to maintain a professional level for experienced dancers and any looking to engage with artform for the first time, culminating in a full-group question and answer, – but more vitally – a celebration of the work which has gone on and the future which presents itself. And what a bright one it is.

Usually a tricky task, kicking off events, Wayne Chang’s evolving performance successfully shifts through shades of humour and accessibility to a more sinister element of what lies beneath – allowing their physicality and movement to move along with the narrative, initially open and almost playful into a contorted springlock of ill-intention and surprise. Jennifer Cullen’s remarkably intimate showcase ties the pops and locks of hip-hop into the jitters and bodily convulsions of anxiety and mental stresses – often utilising some incredible nineties-era crunking. To elaborate the feelings of mental health into language is complex: to interpret it into movement can be even more intricate. Cullen makes it natural, open, and honest in their trust with the audience and the entire process. Equally as intimate, though approaching from a distinct perspective and experience, Julia Lau’s is the first to incorporate more traditional elements of theatricality with canvases to offer short-cuts and insight to enhance the movements of their performance: a portrait (pun fully intended) into expectations, self and familial, which flows with urgency and insight. 

Vulnerable, Joshua Effi’s initial steps as someone far cooler than you’ll ever hope to continue the depth and honesty all the pieces have shared across the evening. But more than just the mental and emotional insight, Effi’s work and shifting levels of performance demonstrate the levels of physical and discipline all the dancers have honed through their craft. It also comes with a clever use of the space’s lighting and entire performance area, dipping us into the light and dark of it all, Effi using the entire space to their advantage. While Ursula Manandhar’s exceptional piece demonstrates some of the evening’s most elaborate and snap pacing, a fluid sense of instinctual emotion and connection with one’s body that skips inherent thought and moves directly from feeling to movement: mesmeric.

What is happening in Dance Base is the future of Scotland’s dance theatre, and in shaping form and techniques of movement. The residency’s aim to support and nurture hip-hop artists in a safe space enabling experimentation and development to highlight new dance theatre work is paramount to the continuation and exploration of what emerging talents can achieve. A fantastic event for those familiar with, or curious about, the goings on at Dance Base where you can come for the talent, and stay for the dancing.

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