The award winning disabled and non-disabled dance company Candoco Dance Company continue its 25th anniversary year with an Autumn 2016 touring programme, bringing Set and Reset/ Reset and Let’s Talk About Dis to Manchester’s Contact Theatre next week.
With a rotating double bill ranging from the reimagining of Trisha Brown’s classic choreography to improvisation inspired by a documentary film, Candoco demonstrates its commitment to presenting diverse programmes from the playful to the poignant.
For the Autumn tour, Candoco’s regular company of dancers welcomes a new member, Jason Mabana. Jason was born in Belgium and comes from a Filipino/Sicilian heritage. He trained at Rambert and the London Contemporary Dance School. He started his career with Akram Khan Company and has since danced with Shobana Jeyasingh Dance Company, Saju Hari Dance, Wayne McGregor and Darren Ellis.
Each date will see the company perform a double bill of works drawn from the following pieces:
Beheld
In this new commission for Candoco from Alexander Whitley, seven dancers explore the possibilities and constraints of the space around them, forming and reforming to consider how we look and what we see. Alexander Whitley has swiftly become known for his strikingly physical and virtuosic choreography. His new commission for Candoco Beheld, is set to music by composer Nils Frahm and features powerful duets and breath-taking ensemble dancing with huge swathes of fabric.
Let’s Talk About Dis
In his first company commission, visual artist Hetain Patel has created a playful and intimate piece. First performed by Candoco in 2014, Let’s Talk About Dis builds on an exploration of the dancers’ individual personalities and physicalities, interrogating questions of what identity is and how it is formed, challenging audiences to think beyond surface appearances.
Set and Reset/Reset
Candoco’s restaging of the iconic Set and Reset reimagines Trisha Brown’s original material from the company’s unique perspective. Working with Trisha Brown Dance Company associate and ex-dancer Abigail Yager, the company learned the piece’s original choreographic phrases before following an extensive improvisation process based on the same set of instructions that Brown gave to her Company in 1983: keep it simple, act on instinct, stay on the edge, work with visibility and invisibility, get in line.
Notturnino
Brussels-based Swiss choreographer Thomas Hauert’s new piece Notturnino is a playful and poignant work that takes inspiration from the documentary Tosca’s Kiss, a touching film that follows the lives of retired opera singers living in a nursing home in Milan. Hauert has created a tightly structured improvisational score with Candoco’s dancers, resulting in a truly unique experience for each performance.
Speaking about the tour, Stine Nilsen said “This season really pushes the rep system model further than we have before. Showcasing the versatility of our dancers, we are performing a different evening of work in virtually every venue. Each piece throws a different light on its counterpart within the double bill and gives audiences a unique experience of the company’s ability to shift and reshape itself to deliver each choreographer’s vision for their work.”
Candoco, the leading company of disabled and non-disabled dancers is celebrating its 25th anniversary in 2016 with a programme of performances, special events, participation work and international touring. Founded in 1991 by Celeste Dandeker and Adam Benjamin, Candoco quickly grew into the first professional dance company of disabled and non-disabled artists in the UK.
Set and Reset/ Rest and Let’s Talk About Dis will be performed at Contact on Wednesday 16th November, 8pm and Thursday 17th November at 8pm.
For more info and to buy tickets, please visit: http://contactmcr.com/whats-on/59495-candoco-dance-company/
