nottdance 2005
29 April - 18 May 2005
nottdance 2005 takes its outstanding international programme to the streets, landmarks and unexpected corners of Nottingham with a characteristically bold festival of dance, performance art, installations, film and outdoor work. The city will be home to artists from Britain, Europe, North America and Canada, each exploring the theme 'There's no place like home': what 'home' means and if it's a place or a state of mind. Highlights include: the Deborah Hay Company, Goat Island performance group, the UK premier of the Red Shoe Delivery Service, the British debut of the charismatic US performance artist and eBay Power Seller AC Dickson and 'Wonderfully Grimm' - a new children's show from Sean Tuan John and Belgian choreographer Bert van Gorp.
Many events are FREE. Tickets range from £2.50 to £10.00. For more information or to receive a free brochure call 0115 912 3400, or visit www.dance4.co.uk. For tickets call the box office on 0115 941 9419.

Images can also be downloaded direct from www.dance4.co.uk/nottdance05/pressarea

Tickets prices range from £2.50 - £10.00. Many events are FREE, some require advance seat reservation. Contact the Box office: 0115 941 9419
Broadway film events: 0115 952 6611
Minicom: 0115 947 6100
Info line: 0115 912 3400
Or visit www.dance4.co.uk

Contact: Anita Morris t: 01943 603311 / m: 07976 584 592 or Shona Galletly
t: 01943 603311 / m: 07813 796 733 at Anita Morris Associates for further information and images.
Email: anita@anitamorrisassociates.co.uk / shona@anitamorrisassociates.co.uk

Hi shona and thanks for the notice regarding the next Nott Dance, one of the most important dance festivals in the UK each year and held in high esteem by many in Continental Europe as well as here.

This would be better placed in our "Modern Dance" forum, so I'll move it there.

stewarpm posted 14 April 2005 07:19 AM
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nottdance Festival
29 April - 18 May 2005
JEROME BEL, DEBORAH HAY, THE GOB SQUAD, RED SHOE DELIVERY SERVICE, ROSEMARY LEE & NIC SANDIFORD, SEAN TUAN JOHN & BERT VAN GORP, LYNDA GAUDREAU, AC DICKSON, JULIET ROBSON, HEIDI TIKKA, JIM BUCHANAN, GOAT ISLAND!
nottdance 2005, from 29 April to 18 May, brings together a characteristically bold selection of dance, performance art, installations, film and outdoor work, which explores the theme 'There's no place like home', and celebrates the City of Nottingham with extraordinary dance experiences from around the world.

A strong North America contingent is headed-up by the brilliant Deborah Hay Dance Company with two performances of 'Match Adaptations'. Goat Island Performance Group make a welcome return to the Festival as part of their UK tour with a double performance: ‘When will the September roses bloom? Last night was only a comedy’. Entertainment is guaranteed in the hands of performance artist Andrew Dickson with 'AC Dickson - Ebay Power Seller'. While residents and visitors alike can hope on to MK Guth's ‘Red Shoe Delivery Service’, for a free taxi ride on the condition of donning a pair of red sparkly boots. The festival also hosts the UK premiere of 'Time Flies', a unique sound and video installation by one of Canada's most celebrated dance makers, Lynda Gaudreau.

British and European artists are play an equally strong role in nottdace 2005. Sean Tuan John, 'the new bad boy of British Dance', and Flemish choreographer Bert van Gorp, create their first production for children, 'Wonderfully Grimm', which uncovers the fantastical and cruel nature of the Grimm Fairytales, and delves in to what really lurks behind the happily ever after.

Rosemary Lee and Nic Sandiland's 'Remote Dancing' offers a new multi media experience enabling visitors to Nottingham Castle to become both dancer and choreographer in an intimate pas de deux, with sound composition by Graeme Miller. The Castle takes centre stage once again with a stunning new work by one of Europe's leading land artists, Jim Buchanan: 'Labyrinth', will illuminate pathways around dusk drawing audiences of all ages along its flowing curves, unwittingly creating a compelling choreography which can be traced the following day by the ghostly footprints of the mass movement that remain on the surface.

Gob Squad, a collective of UK and German artists, invite audiences to enter the realms of voyeurism in the relaxed surroundings of the Park Plaza Hotel in 'Room Service' and 'Help Me Make It Through The Night'. While Finnish Artist Heidi Tikka combines new technology and real objects in the setting of St Peter's Church, giving visitors the chance to explore the tender and unique relationship between parent and child.

French artist Jérôme Bel, makes a welcome return to nottdance with his characteristic cunning schemes and incomparable humour, to re-present his very first piece for the festival 'theatre of things', performed by Bel and fellow countryman Frédéric Seguette.

Throughout May Juliet Robson will work with a group of international artists to explore the festival’s theme in Dance 4's series of international artist laboratories, entitled 'Line of Enquiry'.

This year, the festival’s discussion programme aims to provoke creative and critical debate. In addition to post show talks with the writer and critic Donald Hutera, the British artist Wendy Houstoun performs a new work in progress which explores the thinking behind the making of a piece of work.

Dance 4’s Show Room at the Broadway Cinema presents a selection of film shorts by regional artists, which reveal the secret lives of seemingly familiar Nottinghamshire locations, journeys and inhabitants, screened alongside innovative film shorts from around the world, drawn from the Dance Films Association (USA) Dance on Camera 2005 series. The programme also includes the Nottingham exploits of the Red Shoe Delivery Service. Broadway Cinema’s own matinée programme also complements nottdance this year with wonderfully nostalgic screenings of Seven Brides for Seven Brothers and The Red Shoes.

In what will be Jane Greenfield's last year as Festival Director, she explains what makes this year different:
"We’ve worked hard this year to develop a programme which will appeal to the widest community, giving everyone the opportunity to take part in some way. Whether it's light labyrinths at Nottingham Castle or a free taxi ride home wearing a pair of sparkly boots, we hope nottdance 2005 really celebrates the streets, landmarks and historic buildings of our home with a truly international programme"
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BOX OFFICE 0115 912 3400
INFO LINE 0115 912 3400

Nottdance 05, Sandfield Centre Nottingham, 30th April. Nom donné par l'auteur. [Name given by the author]. Choreographed by Jérôme Bel. Performed by Jérôme Bel and Frédéric Seguette.

Cast: Two men, a vacuum cleaner, a hair dryer (both with long leads plugged into a socket centre back stage), a tin of table salt, a small patterned carpet rug, a large French dictionary (Le Robert), a torch, a stool, a plastic children's ball, a pair of old ice skates, four capital letters - N, S, O, E - cut from white polystyrene representing the four cardinal points of the compass (in French).

Definition: A series of tableaux combining groups of the above, initially the two men putting pairs of objects together; Examples (1): salt pored on bank note; (2) hair dryer blowing air sucked up by vacuum cleaner nozzle (both items switched on). Then, having rotated the rug and cardinal points, creating combinations of increasingly bizarre complexity and ironic conceptual sophistication; Example (3); stool, man 1, ball, lined up. Man 2 kicks stool over, kicks man 1 hard in ####, boots ball into black back curtain.

Characteristic quality: economic manipulation of objects between each tableau, followed by stillness for audience to appreciate visual affect and ponder conceptual implications, or to anticipate ensuing actions (as in example 3).

Rationale: exhaustive exploration of all possible combinations of objects and their properties - people treated as material, inanimate objects presented choreographically in time, space, and exploiting qualities of 'line'.

Note 1: tension between logical progression of this exploration and irrational meanings generated by combinations. Example (4): Man sits on rug, closes dictionary with edge of rug in it as bookmark, then folds other side of rug over to wrap self up like a rough sleeper.

Note 2: Tension also between deadpan, matter of fact manner of performers throughout and ironic associations generated by some tableaux. Example (5): man points vacuum cleaner (switched on) at open dictionary on right side of stage while level with him on left other man points hair dryer to blow air into his mouth out of which emerges haltingly, word by word, as if involuntarily, the dictionary definition of 'Air' (in French).
Discussion: psychological confusion of different orders of reality - in example 5, physical properties of air with conceptual properties of dictionary definition of air.

Example (6): torch shining at stool placed on rug; shadow of stool on rug traced with poured salt, making white shadow. Then while clearing away and setting up next tableau, rug lifted up to display the white 'shadow' which 'fades' as salt runs off rug onto lino; small firm shake of rug to dislodge final traces of 'shadow'.
Discussion: psychological confusion as before but this time in minds of audience rather than performers. Powerful affect at sense of loss.

History and context: first performed 1994, Nom donné par l'auteur is one of Bel's earliest pieces still in repertory. Over the years, almost the entire oeuvre of Bel's work presented at Nottdance, this being last Nottdance programmed by Jane Greenfield who among British promoter has done most to introduce Bel's work in the UK. In post-show discussion Bel stated that he was only showing it here now because Nottingham audiences knew his other work. Viewed as early work, Nom donné… appears to rehearse lexicon of concerns and devices within Bel's oeuvre. Typical of many early works in general, every aspect of Nom donné… is so controlled and carefully constructed that the performer has little opportunity for interpretation. There is little room to take the kinds of risks manipulating the relationship between performative presence and audience expectation that is typical of Bel's later works.

Derivation of title: 'Nom donné par l'auteur' is the definition in Le Robert of 'titre' [title].