One of my New Year resolutions was to broaden my education in the more eclectic work that is occurring around London. I want see more, try more, taste more. I want to be creatively challenged and artistically excited and I want to tell you lot all about it so you can get out there and catch all the wonderful stuff this wonderful city has to offer!

With this in mind I attended ‘The Place’, the UK’s premier centre for contemporary dance, who are currently holding a month-long event called ‘Resolution 2011’. It consists of series of shows from a huge range of exciting new dance companies. Each evening provides the audience with 3 short pieces.

I know nothing of the intricacies and subtleties of dance so excuse my ignorance as you read this, but be assured that a trip to ‘The Place’ between now and 18^th February will provide you with something you have never seen before.

Heather Leyshon – Treadmill

The ‘hedonistic treadmill’ of life can be relentless, disorientating, yet beautiful and surprising. In translating this, Heather Leyshon’s choreography was astute, and passionately so. Daniela Romo Pozo performed with exciting explosions of grace and power. There was a feeling that the dancers were struggling against the powerful eddy and flow of waves, the waves of fortune and misfortune, climb and fall. I felt there was competition between each dancer, ambition to go the furthest, be the best, it marked me as a poignant reminder of the individual’s struggle to achieve the same goal – to rise out of the waves, to not drown. The use of text in this piece was unnecessary (barring the fact that it provided me with my opening quote ;) the translation was strong enough to stand on its own as a piece of movement. Certainly a choreographer to keep an eye out for.

Antique Dances – Holly Noble – Ternion RE:WORKED

For me there is little to write about this piece. Technically it was good, Brett Murray, as the only male dancer, was leaps and bounds ahead of the others in terms of strength and impulse. The piece was meant to blur the lines of gender but for me it was evidently clear that what had been asked of the female dancers was too much for them. Perhaps my own ignorance of contemporary dance is to blame for the fact that for me this piece was rather empty of purpose.

Soom Company – Yunkyung Song - Goose's Dream

What a breath of fresh air this lot were! Goose’s Dream was honest and endearing in its clumsiness and vulnerability. With each of the performers over the age of 50 there was no room for the pretension and lightning electricity present in the former pieces. There was a more gentle and powerful energy running through this piece, what Song had found with her team was a fluidity of expression that suited the tired frames as they traveled through the space and through the stories of their unique and fascinating lives. From the dancing flirtations of the mature couple to the sexagenarian escort madam, this piece defiantly stated that life doesn’t finish at 50.

As with life there were some decidedly darker moments in this piece, Jill Connick played a faceless, tragic woman, denied the love of a man and that of her child with an openness of movement and spirit that made her almost impossible to watch. Present throughout the piece as a darker element, Connick conveyed a terrifying depth of sadness, and yet a shining example of resilience also, dancing at the end, finally unmasked and unencumbered.

I cannot imagine a single member of the audience left that performance without a smile across their face, so true and funny were the stories portrayed, with such endearing emotional maturity.

Location: The Place

Dates: 06/01/2011 – 18/02/2011

Price: £17 (gets you in to see 2 performances across the next 6months)