Monday, November 01, 2004

Cutting comment and choreography

IN a world where small dance companies come and go (go, mostly), London-based Ricochet Dance Company has been around a while. Set up in 1989, it has recently done some rebounding worthy of its name when it morphed into Ricochet Dance Productions in order to embrace the worlds of film, new media and visual arts.

Not more multi-media, I hear you sigh. But one half of this new double bill, at least, is the real deal. While everybody and their dog has a film backdrop in their dance shows these days, Ricochet takes the bold step of programming a stand-alone dance film or “video dance” alongside Aussie choreographer Lucy Guerin’s live piece for six dancers, This Is Your Life.

Dance film is a hugely exciting art- form, but woefully underexposed. Normally confined to specialist festivals, it is great to see it screened for a general audience . The idea for the 28-minute film The Truth originated, not with the choreographers (Paulo Ribeiro and Fin Walker), but with director Katrina McPherson and editor Simon Fildes.
Sunday Herald