'Get those kids out of here. How the dance world fell in love with old people.' <P>Judith Mackrell previews Rosemary Lee's forthcoming show in the context of other examples of dancers up to the age of 70 making thier mark.<P> <A HREF="Http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4171508,00.html" TARGET=_blank>Http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4171508,00.html</A> <p>[This message has been edited by Stuart Sweeney (edited April 18, 2001).]

<B>Rosemary Lee at The Queen Elizabeth Hall</B><P><BR>By Nadine Meisner in The Independent who enjoys the concept and the performers, but finds that the works run out of steam.<P> <BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Too young to go clubbing? Too old to be a Royal Ballet swan? You could join Rosemary Lee's dancers, aged from nine to 76, but clearly remarkable movers with a fair degree of training. Colin McLean, a former infantry commander, monk and chaplain, is a 66-year-old who was born with a dancing gene. His angular body explodes into frenetic bouts of movement, scribbling out jagged, anarchic air calligraphy, the panels of his loose coat flying. Gladys Hillman took up dance on retirement and, at 76, balances and runs with the rest of them. But neither she nor any adult can match the clutch of nine-to-16-year-olds for speed and stamina, demon soloists who twist and jump like slippery fish.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P><BR><A HREF="Http://www.independent.co.uk/story.jsp?story=69867" TARGET=_blank><B>More...</B></A>

Rosemary Lee
Behind the scenes with...From Southbank Magazine

British-born dancer and choreographer Rosemary Lee has a long history of creating innovative large-scale dance and mixedmedia projects. After graduating from the Laban Centre in 1981, she worked in New York before returning to Britain in 1985.

Her most recent work at the South Bank Centre, Passage (2001), set groups of dancers against filmed backdrops.

click for more

Some thoughts on Rosemary Lee's Remote Dancing:

From what I had read about this new collaborative work (with Nic Sandiland) using cutting-edge technology, and having worked with her 12 years ago, I really wanted to have some kind of transformative experience interacting with Remote Dancing.

I liked the setup/ layout: it was open, inviting and visually pleasing, if a bit clinical (black and white with weird patches of astro turf), but, unfortunately, not intellectually stimulating or at all mesmerising. After a short while I decided that the whole thing would be great for kids. And as I was leaving, some kids did rush past me into one of the viewing tunnels (ignoring the 'one at time' sign) and started shrieking with delight.

Rosemary Lee is an incredibly talented and inspiring individual, with a
gift for creating poetry out of all types of bodies. But I think she works best in real time, whether it be recorded or live works.

Remote Dancing was for me, just that: remote, without the warmth or the human factor I had come to expect from Lee (such as her short film ‘Boy’), nor was there the quirky, endearingly dry humour typical of Sandiland’s dance video works.

I quite enjoyed Remote Dancing. I liked being in the space with one other figure and the experience of manipulating the figure with my own movement. The concept worked very well, however, I thought the image could be more defined, perhaps filmed at a higher resolution. Also, it would have been interesting to maybe have 3 or 4 other figures surrounding the participant in the space. What i also really enjoyed was watching people using the headphones and following the dance instructions on them.

The installation was great for kids, and I think this comes out out of Rosemary's practice that is centred around children (not exclusively mind you), and is an integral part of the art that she makes. Her last piece 'Apart from the Road' is testimony to this. I feel that as far as dance and technology goes, Rosemary's work is cutting edge and she is very much a pioneer of this sort of work. What i love most is that she demystifies technolgy and dance, makes it accessible to the general public, bringing it to an immediate experience.

Just to respond to you Christine, I returned to the installation by chance after I wrote my first comment and found a lot more people, especially adults, interacting with all three elements: headphones, videos and tunnels. It really came to life under these circumstances, and was a very different scene. Aha, I thought, I get it now. I still think though that cutting edge technology when mixed with art should work to soften the alienation factor as much as possible - one of life's greatest pleasures is watching other real people dance. With this I think you had to work at it a little to make it seem real.