3rd Stage is a dance company which provides a platform for performers from a range of backgrounds who find that dance is an important part of their lives and feel the need to express part of their being through the medium. Performers with a previous professional connection as dancers and/or choreographers – some at the highest professional level – join forces with music makers with the goal of sharing something important about the human condition through performance. For this production they are joined for some pieces by members of 3Motion and Rise, Bristol’s youth dance company.
Their first piece, Just Words, choreographed and performed by Sara Mather, Polly Crockett Robertson an Luke Antysz,explores the psychology behind the use of a word, perhaps echoing Wittgenstein’s dictum, ‘Don’t ask for the meaning ask for the use”. Starting with images as if frozen by a flash gun, it proceeds using the three dancers, to electronic music, through emotion-less movement, seemingly in thrall to the unfamiliar sounds but which is nonetheless rhythmic and geometric, as if escaping from a classical Greek vase. There is a kind of signature movement of wrapping arms over head in a protective gesture which is taken up by others as if meaning is being developed out of usage. As the music changes to strings and piano, as it becomes familiar, the angles become softer. I found myself in the Hepworth garden in St Ives wondering at the strange language, inchoate yet urgent,
The second offering, Invitation Only, choreographed by Steve Johnstone, Kerry Biggin and from Rush, Deanna Roberts was performed by the guest companies and involved a change in aesthetic. Electro beat music heralded some intense and anguished dance, which spilled onto the floor. A deconstructed music box where the various cogs take on a life of their own and some anguished contortions using a piece of elastic, the constrictions from which the dancers struggled to escape, all added to the variety and interest.
The last of the triple bill had a more recognisable narrative feel and was performed to the accompaniment of live folk/country music written and performed by the Ryan O’Reilly band (Ryan and Dave Tamburini). The songs, which inspired the choreography, were sung with clarity and feeling and added to the narrative structure. Set in some kind of transport terminal there were comings and goings, meetings and leave takings, each little story told discretely and with feeling. The light pastel costumes gave the pieces a bright, summery context.
The whole performance was one of variety of mood and style, elegance and anxiety, poise and commitment. The professional dancers were marked by great technique and the youth company by great enthusiasm and accomplishment. Graham Wyles
