CriticalDance Forum

<B>Vincent Dance Theatre</B> <BR>17th & 18th October 2001 <BR> <BR>'Impressive performers show a startling physicality. This show matters emotionally, and pushes dance forward as it does so.' The Stage <BR> <BR>DROP DEAD GORGEOUS <BR>Soundtrack: John Avery <BR>Set Design: Richard Lowdon <BR> <BR>Suppose you stood facing a wall of photographs from your unlived life, in a country torn apart by war, what alliances would you make? Thrown together with strangers, in a place where much is forbidden and nothing is permanent, what action would you take? What would you find to believe in? Drop Dead Gorgeous is made in Poland , where tensions of European drama have been played out on the flesh and nerves of a large nation. As World War atrocities resurface across mainland Europe, Vincent Dance Theatre's thought provoking new production contemplates power, courage, laughter and forgetting. This is Vincent Dance Theatre's first co-production with Poland's Dada von Bzüdlöw Theatre, created and performed by six prominent performers. Drop Dead Gorgeous is physical theatre at it's raw and political best. <BR> <BR>Bonnie Bird Theatre, Laban Centre London Laurie Grove, London SE14 6NH <BR>Box Office Tel: +44 (0)20 8692 4070 Tickets: <BR>£6.50 / £5 (concs) Performance starts at 7.30pm <BR> <P>

<P><B>Drop Dead Gorgeous</B><BR>by Donald Hutera<P>Purcell Room<BR> <BR> <BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Charlotte Vincent and members of her Sheffield-based Vincent Dance Theatre devised Drop Dead Gorgeous last summer, with Poland’s Dada von Bzüdlöw Theatre. The show, touring the UK until March 11, is a study of civilian apocalypse in a state of wartime emergency. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE><BR> <BR><A HREF="http://www.thetimes.co.uk/newspaper/0,,172-219853,00.html" TARGET=_blank><B>more...</B></A>

<B>Outside in, Clore Studio Upstairs, Royal Opera House<BR>Vincent Dance Theatre, Purcell, London<BR>New talent in from the cold<BR>Nadine Meisner<BR>04 March 2002</B><BR> <BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>One of several Royal Opera House open-door schemes, Outside In is a catalytic process. Choreographers from the outside merge with the dancers inside and the Clore Studio serves as the crucible. This year's programme, curated by the Royal Ballet soloist Jenny Tattersall, showcased five pieces, so most results were introductory hellos rather than full-blown statements<HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P><BR><A HREF="http://enjoyment.independent.co.uk/theatre/reviews/story.jsp?story=251100" TARGET=_blank><B>more...</B></A><P>

Review in The Times.

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<img src="http://www.vincentdt.com/gpunch1.jpg" alt="" />
<small>"Punch Drunk", photograph by Hugo Glendinning</small>

VINCENT DANCE THEATRE
10th Anniversary Production

PUNCH DRUNK

Artistic Director: Charlotte Vincent
Set Design: Richard Lowdon
Soundtrack: John Avery

Vincent Dance Theatre celebrates 10 years of making original, compelling and provocative dance theatre with a journey into the world of vaudeville and burlesque. Join the party as we tour our latest full-length live production PUNCH DRUNK.

We have created an online e.flier to give you a taste of the new production: www.eflier.co.uk/punchdrunk
(cut and paste the link into your browser if clicking on it doesn't take you there)

Against a backdrop of decaying grandeur, PUNCH DRUNK¹s six extraordinary performers move like ghosts through a disused theatre. Slipping in and out of half remembered acts, they piece together the tatters of a show long since past its prime. Emotionally raw and darkly humorous, PUNCH DRUNK exposes the blood, sweat and tears behind the risqué routines, acrobatic feats and clever turns.

Fresh from creating new work in Taiwan and Austria, Artistic Director Charlotte Vincent has assembled an international cast including Artistic Associate TC Howard, Polish VDT performers Patrycja Kujawska, Aurora Lubos and Janusz Orlik, Jerwood Award winning aerialist Lindsey Butcher, and Norwegian newcomer Geir Hytten.

LISTINGS
October

Nuffield Theatre, Lancaster
8 & 9 October at 8pm
01524 594151
www.nuffieldtheatre.com

Arena Theatre, Wolverhampton
12 October at 7.30pm
01902 321321
www.arena.wlv.ac.uk

Lyceum Theatre, Sheffield
15 & 16 October at 7.45pm
0114 249 6000
www.sheffieldtheatres.co.uk

Lakeside Arts Centre, Nottingham
19 October at 8pm
0115 846 7777
www.lakesidearts.org.uk

EM Forster Theatre, Tonbridge School, Tonbridge
20 October at 7.30pm
01732 361908
www.tonbridge-school.co.uk

Riley Theatre, Northern School of Contemporary Dance, Leeds
23 October at 7.30pm
0113 219 3018
www.nscd.ac.uk

Mercury Theatre, Colchester
27 October at 7.30pm
01206 573948
www.mercurytheatre.co.uk

Stanwix Arts Theatre, Carlisle
29 October at 8pm
01228 534664
www.tulliehouse.co.uk

November

Exeter Phoenix
8 & 9 November at 8pm
01392 667080
www.exeterphoenix.org.uk

Arc Theatre, Trowbridge
11 November at 7.30pm
01225 756376/766241
www.arctheatre.org.uk

Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh
13 November at 8pm
0131 228 1404
www.traverse.co.uk

For more information go to www.vincentdt.com

PUNCH DRUNK is commissioned by Sheffield Theatres and Nuffield Theatre, Lancaster, and funded by Arts Council England and the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation. Charlotte Vincent is a Yorkshire Dance Partner. VDT is regularly funded by Arts Council England, Yorkshire.

<small>[ 13 September 2004, 03:05 AM: Message edited by: Stuart Sweeney ]</small>

Punch Drunk
By Kevin Berry for The Stage

The set for Punch Drunk could serve as a background for a significant painting, perhaps a forgotten Lautrec. What we see is the backstage area of a disused theatre. Curtains, weighted ropes, chairs, rows of lights and numerous props from vaudeville and burlesque acts lie in disarray. The dancers are lost souls worn down by the hard work of dancing. They reveal fragments from half-forgotten performances and moments from real or imagined liasons.

click for more

VIRTUAL BRIGHTON MAGAZINE
Monday 21st March
Punch Drunk @ Gardner Arts Centre

Silence; Vincent Dance Theatre’s Punch Drunk starts in silence. Patrycja Kujawska stands poised before a curtain draped opening, her ivory gown and feathered hat assign grandeur to a growing sense of vulnerability.

She looks like Clytemnestra in the Greek tragedy Agamemnon awaiting the horrors to come. A constant series of false entrances through the white curtains bring in touches of humour, but the sense of repetition creates a building tension. The balance of emotions created in the first few minutes is representative of the entire production.

Dance and music transcend language: they shake off it’s shackles and bear universal witness to the truth. This is why it is so hard to explain any good dance production; if it was so easily out into words it would have been play or novel. Essentially, the core themes here are sexuality and sex, mixed in with a dark sense of the tragic. If it is a work that contains fun, it is also a work that lacks hope for those caught within it.

There is an inevitability of sorrow for its character, as fleeting moments oj joy are often tarnished by secrets and regret. There are undertones of sexual violence, flirtation, list and a sense of cross gendering- where a men become women and vice versa. The so-called norm are overturned and the petit-bourgeois fictions of common sense and decency are exposed to the light, where they will surely wilt. Most relationships here seem troubles and even dangerous, but they have authenticity. It is in the scenes of sexual violence and dark intent that the troubled undercurrents of society are revealed.

Musically, the production encompasses many elements including jazz, and classical. The quality of the dancing was superb, and all were well able to tackle the varied routines, solo and group dances, that challenged them. In addition they danced in character; their movements carried the kind of nuance usually conveyed by words. They conquered language, and actually developed their identities as the production moved on. The choreography was stunning. This is a highly developed and intricate dance-based production. I have not seen work by Vincent Dance Theatre before, but I will surely do so again.

Howard Young 2005

EDINBURGHGUIDE.COM
13th November 2004
For lovers of live performance.

Coming to Edinburgh for the first time Vincent dance Theatre’s Punch Drunk left the audience buzzing with delight and hoping they’ll return soon.

The set suggests the stage and wings of a theatre that is running down. In silence a tall but faded fan dancer, Patrycja Kujawska, tries to find a better way to enter through the gauze white curtains, it’s clear she’s seen better days. Then a pair of squabbling tiny women appear leaping, scrabbling like mice about the stage, one blond, wide eyed and comic, Aurora Lubos the other dark, more muscular and feisty TC Howard.

An enigmatic man, Geir Hytten, observes. Then when he intervenes it’s clear he has a abusive nature, hurling Kujawska so that when stripping music starts to by played on the Wurlitzer Kujawska’s dancer, through she appears to be in charge of the other dancers their employer possibly, it’s clear he has some control of her. As she strips, it’s a relief when she finds the courage to stop.

Arriving via one of the circus ropes is a basque wearing aerialist, Lindsey Bucher, her skill of moving suspended in the air balletic and amazing. The movement and characterisation by each of the cast is premiere cru as they dance solos, duos and ensemble pieces. But most breathtaking of all is Janusz Orlik who towards the beginning dances like a female balletic swan, his arms so precise and eloquent. Then later, clad in a singlet and tight subtly flowered pants Orlik dances with immense grace, his long legs and finely crafted movement releasing a wholly convincing female soul.

From Charlotte Vincent’s direction and the dancers’ devising we find many funny moments-showering in a tin bath, wings falling off ballerina, musical chairs to conventionally recorded Bach and the whole company’s ensemble dance routine to Mr Sandman and Avalon on the Wurlitzer. When the dancers go to the more classical techniques the absence of the normal tutus and tights reveal how much the classical ballet owns to gentleman and woman wanting to see the erotic nature of the human form concealed in the clothing of high culture.

Punch Drunk lasts an hour and forty minutes with no interval and contains within it dance, theatre, beauty, cruelty, superb artistic acrobatics, elements of performance art all served up by a company of artists at the top of their game.

Thelma Good

THE HERALD
15th November, 2004
Punch Drunk, Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh


Twenty-four hours after watching Forced Entertainment going to town with elements of vaudeville and rock gigs in Bloody Mess, I’m watching another Sheffield-based company- Vincent Dance Theatre- dipping their talented toes in faded burlesque, the Follies and 1930s cabaret with Punch Drunk. A founding member of Forced Ents- Richard Lowdon- has designed VDT’s set, an assemblage of gauzy swathes, battered chairs and rudimentary dressing-rooms. Once onstage, however, Charlotte Vincent’s ideas go their own way, thanks, in no small measure, to the versatility of the six performers. They don’t just hoof it like variety troupers, they play musical instruments, throw in bursts of acrobatics and even take the ropes for some aerial work.

It adds up to all-out, hard-working 100 minutes of (mostly) high-speed activity. Which is where Vincent’s underlying theme is to be found: for Punch Drunk is about the punishment meted out, and taken, in the name of entertainment. When TC Howard and Aurora Lubos first arrive onstage, they’re scrapping like two harum-scarum kids. As the show progresses, both will suffer abusive treatment from the man in the group and will be forced to do turns that have no dignity and are unpleasant: Lubos in swimsuit, getting soaked by a “waterfall” in an aquatic ballet, is but one example. Are they ghosts, in some cyclical limbo? Or fallen stars, trying to recapture glory? Why do they put themselves through hell, yet come up smiling? It’s a fierce, dark, yet edgily- funny production from a multi-talented, multi-national company celebrating 10successful years of the show going on, regardless.

Mary Brennan


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Videos
Punch Drunk Video
Interview with Charlotte Vincent

BROKEN CHORDS
TOURING AUTUMN 2005 / SPRING 2006
Directed by Charlotte Vincent
Set Design by Richard Lowdon
Violin Sonatas Heinrich von Biber
With original score by John Avery
Artistic Associate TC Howard
Lighting Design by James Harrison
Costumes by Amanda Griffin
Made and Performed by Darren Anderson, Alex Catona, Lee Clayden, TC Howard, Patrycja Kujawska, Aurora Lubos, Ellie McDonald, Janusz Orlik

Following the sell out success of Punch Drunk, Vincent Dance Theatre's new production, Broken Chords, is a reflection on growing older and growing up for eight multi-talented performers.

Set on a sparse wooden stage, with a huge chandelier overhead and surrounded by piles of wooden chairs, Broken Chords brings together musicians who dance and dancers who play to chronicle the intimate relationships that shape our lives. The work exposes the split second moments in your life where everything changes, where nothing seems tangible or fixed, and everything falls away.

Featuring live string arrangements based on the violin sonatas of baroque composer Heinrich von Biber. Broken Chords combines demanding dance, virtuoso musicianship, dark humour and playful theatricality.

Check the new website:
http://www.vincentdt.co.uk

http://www.edinburghguide.com/aande/theatre/dance/revd_05/broken_chords_vincent.shtml

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