Choreography Political Animal (Gillie Kleiman and Hamish MacPherson)
Photography Hamish MacPherson
Supported by Rajni Shah and Beyond Glorious, LEAP, and Ludus Festival
Presented at Brunswick Centre (London), Ludus Dance (Lancaster), Beeston Park (Leeds), Merrion Centre (Leeds), Bramely Shopping Centre (Leeds) between 2013 and 2015.
A Lyrical Dance Concert is a party in a comedy double act in a cabaret show in a gig in an experimental dance performance. Number-by-ridiculous-number, the lyrics of chart hits past and present are danced out – stretched, turned, lifted and thrown. With joyful irreverence and serious fun, the show insists that pop music belongs to us and can do what we want it to do. Get your glad-rags on, grab a drink and a pal, and giggle along with this mixed-up whirlwind of glamorous divas, guitar solos and gangster rappers…
Choreography Gillie Kleiman and Sara Lindström
Performers Gillie Kleiman and Sara Lindström (2013)/ Eleanor Sikorski (2014/5)
Producer Beckie Darlington (2014/5 tour)
Additional design Susie Green
Photography Martyn Boston / Camilla Greenwell
Supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England. Production and 2013 tour co-produced by Dance4.
Generous crowdfunding donors:
Richard Bliss
Anaïs Bouts
Tony Burch
Lynn Campbell
Iris Chan
Kate Craddock
Kattrin Deufert
Laurent-David Garnier
Ina Dokmo
Claire Hicks
Catherine Hoffman
Cate and Avner Kleiman
Tal Kleiman
Karen Lambæk
Malin Lindström
Solveig and Ingemar Lindström
Christer Lundahl
Alice MacKenzie
Hamish MacPherson
Tom Martin
Matthew Mazzucchi
Marian Milbourne
Angela Miles
Paul O’Keeffe
Joakim Olsson
Nathalie Paris
Hetain Patel
Luke Pell
H Plewis
Thomas Plischke
Verity Quinn
Tim Rubidge
Martina Seitl
Ellie Sikorski
Robbie Synge
Lucy Teed
Ruth Turner
Annabel Turpin
Debbie Waistell
Flora Wellesley Wesley
THANK YOU
At the end of every performance we recorded a music video with the audience members. Only those present got the password - you had to be there! The videos are here: alyricaldanceconcert.wordpress.com/you-had-to-be-there/
As part of our research we asked questions. We shared these questions with other artists, who responded in various ways. You can see these answers here: alyricaldanceconcert.wordpress.com/questions/
Documentation available on request
Jam Café (excerpts), Nottingham, March 2013
Create Theatre, Mansfield, March 2013
Jam Café (full show), Nottingham, March 2013
Mink, Middlesbrough, April 2013
Dance City, Newcastle, April 2013
GIFT, Gateshead, April 2013
Y Theatre, Leicester, June 2013
Newark Palace Theatre, June 2013
Picturedrome, Northampton, June 2013
Create Theatre, Mansfield, June 2013
Lincoln Drill Hall, Lincoln, June 2013
Stratford Circus as part of Dance Umbrella, London, October 2013
Norwich Arts Centre, Norwich, November 2014
Greenwich Dance, London, November 2014
Shoreditch Town Hall, November 2014
Nightingale Theatre at The Basement, Brighton, November 2014
Seven Arts, Leeds, November 2014
Northern Stage, Newcastle, February 2015
The Maltings, Berwick upon Tweed, February 2015
In the first work of the evening, Double Act, the stand-up comics have been silenced, their movements rendered dance. The hand-flicks, chin-strokes, and finger-points of stand-up comedians from around the world are brought together to form an intricate and virtuosic choreography. But it is stand-up, nonetheless, and you will be enthusiastically invited to heckle at the dancers, in a performance that shifts between delicate dancing and eager rabble-rousing. You bring the cheers and claps – we’ll give you the tomatoes to throw, and the reason to throw them.
Imagine what might have happened if the Smack the Pony team met the Muppets and decided to make a moving sculpture, or if Monty Python had taken on Pina Bausch in slow-motion, and you’d come close to the evening’s second work, The Mermaid and The Hammer. Set amongst what could be the contents of Mighty Boosh props storeroom, two dancers move through a world of constant transformations, each scenario as ridiculous as the next. Suspending the punchline for each twist of logic, divas, giraffes and mermaids appear and disappear in a circulating game of joke-hunting.
Choreographed and performed by Gillie Kleiman and Karen Lambæk
Photography Eleanor Sikorski
This work was supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England with additional support from ARC, Newcastle College, Pianofabriek, Vooruit and WorkSpaceBrussels.
ARC, Stockton Arts Centre, October 2012
Chisenhale Dance Space, London, October 2012
BELLY of The Beast, Sadler's Wells, London, January 2013
I like to write to Members of Parliament. I like to write to them because through this I exercise my democratic muscle, muscle that can sometimes get wasted away despairing and complaining about the things that are happening around me. I like to write to them because it reminds me, and them, that elected persons are responsible to the people who live here and not the other way around.
This is a kind of dance, a choreography that re-routes powers with new actions. It’s a movement in and of itself, and it produces new waves of motion. It’s a dance that I could try alone, but that I’d rather do with others. You are invited to join me. I will be waiting, ready to talk about what is important to us, and ready to make moves by writing to those who might be choreographing our worlds in ways we want to rethink.
Public House at Elephant and Castle Shopping Centre, London, July 2012
The Nightingale Theatre, Brighton, January 2013
//BUZZCUT//, Glasgow, March 2013
GIFT, Gateshead, May 2013
Steakhouse Live at Holloway Arts Festival, June 2014
Documentation and blog: democraticdanceteam.wordpress.com
DANCE CLASS: a performance wants to be a show (it wants to shine, be in the limelight).
This performance wants to be a class (it wants you to learn, wear comfy clothes).
In the danceclassperformance all the participants do some dancing and do some watching (even at the same time). It is open to all levels of dancers and spectators. Please bear in mind that all should come in comfortable clothing and be prepared to watch and dance without shoes. You won’t sweat too much, honest.
Choreographer/performer Gillie Kleiman
Artistic advisors Simon Bayly, Gill Clarke
Producer Beckie Darlington
Photography Camilla Greenwell
Trailers Eleanor Sikorski
Documentation Katarzyna Perlak
Supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England
https://vimeo.com/148080514
Battersea Arts Centre, London, May 2011
SPILL, Ipswich, October 2012
BUZZCUT, Glasgow, March 2013
Forest Fringe at The Place, London, March 2015
Dance City, Newcastle, October 2015
Attenborough Arts Centre, Leicester, October 2015
Dance4, Nottingham, October-November 2015
Shoreditch Town Hall, London, November 2015
ARC, Stockton Arts Centre, November 2015
A version for soloist Hannah McDermott from youth group Mania, Dance City, Newcastle, July 2010
Homemade Festival at Chisenhale Dance Space, London, November 2010
Chelsea Theatre, London, November 2010
The Public House at Elephant and Castle Shopping Centre, London, May 2011
The Giant Women present The Greatest Show in Town is a dance performance which promises to be entertaining, virtuosic, and sharp, through beauty and emotion. Whilst showing you the unstoppable power of innovation and blindly following trends, the show achieves historical significance and promises the creation of new paradigms for the dance scene of the future.
Parody, critique, or tragedy about the chase for success? That’s for the audience to decide.
Authors and performers Dragana Bulut, Gillie Kleiman, Lígia Soares
Dramaturge Ana Vujanović
Photography Nina Zeljković
Funders and supporters:
Ministry of Culture Serbia, Belgrade City Council, Station – service for contemporary dance, European Cultural Foundation – STEPbeyond fund, VUK Belgrade, Cultural Centre Stari Grad, CZKD, Mimecentrum, Tanzfabrik, Máquina Agradável, Ministry of Culture Portugal through Máquina Agradável, Rex
Documentation available on request
Centar za kulturnu dekontaminaciju (Centre for Cultural Decontamination), Belgrade, Serbia, 20 and 21 February 2009
Instituto Franco-Portugais (Franco-Portuguese Institute), Lisbon, Portugal 14, 18, 19 April 2009
Serbian National Theatre, as part of Balkan Dance Platform 09, Novi Sad, Serbia, 2 October 2009 (with Milka Djordjevich replacing Lígia Soares)
Aim: to make a duet
Obstacle: our geographical location in distant cities
Solution: production of a Duet-by-Correspondence
An experiment in process and product, fact and fiction, collaboration and communication
We present a duet-by-correspondence in reaction to our physical and professional situations. We cannot be physically together. Our choreographic process is one of writing, back and forth, producing material and taking compositional decisions, via our blog. The product is the process from the page to the stage.
In this show we will lie. We will appear in each other’s imaginings. We will have long one-sided conversations. We will be silent. We will type over one another. We will not listen. We will misinterpret. We will be alone. We will be together. We will dance. We will perform a process. We will perform our process. We will be each other’s audience. We will hide. We will pretend. We will disagree. We will be absolutely honest.
Choreographers/performers Iris Chan and Gillie Kleiman
Photography Lucy Monaghan
Supported by the National Lottery through Arts Council England
Resolution! at The Place, London, 12 January 2009
Public Announcement at Dance City, Newcastle, 8 May 2009
As installation/conversation at WHAT NOW, Siobhan Davies Studios, London, 18 and 19 April 2009
Ophelia is not Dead is a project by the international collection Embassy of. We proposed to one another to each make pieces by this name, which can or cannot relate to the title’s meaning, but that are otherwise unconnected artworks. There are at least eight Ophelias in circulation. Therefore, though this work is a solo, it represents and is included in a wider domain of artistic work in the field of dance and performance worldwide.
This Ophelia is not Dead is a fat girl cabaret.
In cabaret performances (thinking of burlesque or drag, as examples), the artist overstates an element of their identity, existing or not, to the point at which the audience must question their own relation to this identity and body. The re-iterations become so obvious that they can no longer be thought about, making space for something else to happen. This is the mechanism I employ in this work, in a proposition to make fatness watchable.
I tell ‘Yo’ momma’s so fat’ jokes.
I play with the fat flesh of my frame.
I dance to a song called “Look How She Fat”, and another called “Fat Gal”.
The show ain’t over ‘til the fat lady sings, so I sing.
But I also dance, I dance everything I can, the most I can do, I try to give maximum opportunity for the audience to watch this other body – a body that is always special, but even more special in the athlete-dripping world of contemporary dance – in motion. How is it different? What does it do? What happens when it moves?
Choreographer and performer Gillie Kleiman
Mentor Stacy Makishi
Photos by Zuzanna Brzozowska
"Kleiman also plays with the joys of structural balancing – interrupting and splicing her own ‘fat girl cabaret' so that it's more than just the series of dance numbers it claims to be. When we expect show business she does fat wobbling. When we expect fat wobbling she does sexy. Surprises and all, it is neat cabaret entertainment. She delivers the lame alongside the glorious as if they were made for each other. Tampon jokes drift as if on fumes of Earl Grey and anti-climatic anecdotes are positioned into the splits. I can't decide whether she makes these things look normal or whether she looks normal alongside them. Either way, my eyes are on her and they are refusing to blink."
Eleanor Sikorski for Resolution! Review
First in Three at Northern Stage, Newcastle, December 2008
platform00000008 at Star and Shadow Cinema, Newcastle, December 2008
Teatr Nowy, Łódź, Poland, August 2009
REX, Belgrade, October 2009
BLOP at Arnolfini, Bristol, March 2010
Embassy of 4 days and 3 nights, Toihaus, Salzburg, Austria, April 2010
Public Announcement at Dance City, Newcastle, May 2010
Fresh AiR at QMU, London, June 2010
Resolution! at The Place, London, January 2011
WHAT NOW at Siobhan Davies Studios, London, April 2011
Springboard, Corby Cube (presented by Dance4), July 2011
Chelsea Theatre, London, November 2011
GIFT, Gateshead, April 2012
Summer Dancing Festival, Coventry, June 2012
HaZira, Jerusalem, Israel, July 2012
JoJo Festival, Oulu, Finland, September 2012
Dance Diary at Roehampton University, London, November 2012
Anseo, Dublin, May 2013
Private home, Nottingham (presented by Dance4), November 2013
TripSpace, London (presented by BELLYFLOP Magazine), February 2014
