British integrated dance company CandoCo comes to Prague to perform in the Archa Theatre
Press Release from June 1, 2001
CandoCo
Sunbyrne
I Hastened Through My Death Scene To Catch Your Last Act
June 6., 7. and 8., 2001 at 8 pm.
CandoCo Dance Company started in London in 1991. Celeste Dandeker and Adam Benjamin decided to take ideas explored during dance workshops for physically handicapped artists. They decided to create a new style of dance in a unique way, integrating a dance company which incorporates healthy and physically handicapped dancers. During its few years of due existence, the company built a name for itself as a world famous dance comapny. CandoCo performs the contemporary dance theatre of the highest quality and gives a special accent on perfection and comprehension of its spectators. The company collaborates with world-known choreographers to create new works using the unique power of the company.
The Archa Theatre will present two new pieces by artists representing the diversity of contemporary dance in the 21st Century. For the first time, Prague audiences will have the opportunity to meet the famous choreographers Javier de Frutos and Doug Elkins.
I Hastened Through My Death Scene to Catch Your Last Act is the new 30 minute work by De Frutos. Based on 'One Arm' a short story by Tennessee Williams, it is a wonderfully atmospheric piece, beautifully lit by Michael Mannion. The soundtrack is a deconstructed score from a little known 50's Broadway musical 'Peter Pan', and suggests the resistence to change, an inability to face the consequences of getting older. De Frutos has created an impressively electric 'theatrical' work without falling prey to hammy acting or portentous moments. The movement is sparse but finely judged. He uses the dancers wonderfully and it is refreshingly irrelevant whether they use wheelchairs or not.
In complete contrast, Sunbyrne by the New York choreographer Doug Elkins is a campy, fun romp through a few Beach Boys numbers which allows the company to really let loose and dance their (sparkly) socks off. It's shallow, meaningless and very kitsch but great fun. Elkins draws from a variety of sources and his own background in breakdance and hip-hop informs this piece and makes it very accessible. Although hardly a choreographic masterwork, one or two of the duets - particularly those set to the David Byrne/Talking Heads tracks - are very nicely crafted.
Artistic Director: Celeste Dandeker
Choreography: Javier de Frutos, Doug Elkins
Performing: Cowan Suzanne, Koch Jürg, Marsh Kate, Machado Pedro, McLay Andrew, Nilsen Stine, O´Brien Welly
"Transfixing. Transcendent. Gorgeous. Glorious. Idiosyncratic. Imaginative. Energetic. Enthusiastic. Colourful. Kinetic. Kaleidoscopic. Moving. Mesmerizing. The choreography of Doug Elkins is all that and more. It is brilliant, yet so accessible as to nearly believe the true genius of it all."
Philadelphia City News, USA
"Anyone can do raw passion but few would think it out with as much devastating care as de Frutos...(he shows the power of a great, observant theatrical artist, who well deserved the South Bank Show´s dance award."
Ismene Brown, The Sunday Telegraph, London
"Six years ago, CandoCo reinvented the boundaries of dance by proving that virtuosity wasn´t confined to the able-bodied. They perfom work of poignant grace and shocking physical bravado. They also stripped disability art of its last vestiges of political correctness."
The Guardian
Presented with the cooperation of the British Council, Prague.
This production also received the support of the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic.