They’re fabulous but flawed, fertile...or is it febrile? Maybe a little freaky or finicky, and sometimes fraught or fragile, too, but frankly funny and fantastic.

And they’re all female.
 
Veteran dance-lover and journalist Donald 'The Times' Hutera hosts an evening of performances in celebration of International Women’s Day on March 8, 2016 in The Library at Willesden Green. It’s the first time that this beautiful new venue will be hosting dance, and thus serves as a calling card for similar events being held there in the future.

GOlive was born in Kentish Town in 2013 as a month-long, dance-based performance festival and, as it evolved, creative arts laboratory for a wide range of women and men who are interested in taking risks, making discoveries and generating fresh thoughts and serious fun. It has since spread to Oxford and Winchester, with plans to venture further afield.
 
Specialising in short, sharp and surprising works in an intimate setting, Women GOlive offers up an assortment of global flavours from a uniquely female perspective. This one-night mini-festival is a chance to spend time in the company of a handful of inventive, enquiring and powerful women who span several generations.
 
‘I didn’t plan on becoming the curatorial version of a feminist brother,’ Hutera avows, ‘or, as I now call myself with tongue only partly in cheek, a “fembro.” It came about quite organically when I started selecting and presenting live work at the invitation of GOlive co-founder and producer George Sallis. Most of the submissions we received were from female choreographers, performers and makers. As GOlive has developed it’s become increasingly obvious that many of the plum opportunities elsewhere in the dance sector continue to be offered to men. Meanwhile there are boatloads of women who, for numerous and rather complicated reasons, are being overlooked or given short shrift. I don’t claim that Women GOlive will solve all or, indeed, any of the bigger socio-economic issues. What it can do is shine a light on some truly gifted people and, in its own modest yet vital way, maybe help redress the balance.’
 
At press time the roster of artists taking part in the show at The Library is still to be finalised, but many are GOlive mainstays. They include, in alphabetical order, Avatara Ayuso (an authentic force in dance here represented by a deliciously tasty film called ‘Dance, Pumpkin, Dance!’), Zoi Dimitriou (an astute improviser with a decidedly playful side), My Johansson (whose moves have a curiously unsettling beauty), Susan Kempster (often a figure of tragicomic daring), Sarah Kent (former Time Out visual arts critic turned defiantly funny soloist), Alice Labant (tiny but with a titanic impact), Gloria Sanvicente Amor (darkly mysterious, sensual and yet she can be a clown, too), Simona Scotto (leader of the warmly entertaining mature dancers’ ensemble Counterpoint) and Lorna V (a self-scripted performer with a blazing personality). Among their countries of origin are Australia, Cyprus, France, Greece, Italy, Spain, Sweden and, of course, the UK.
 
‘I’m pleased that GOlive has attracted a group of women so varied in terms of backgrounds, skills and temperaments,’ says Hutera, ‘and so engaging, and proud that The Library at Willesden Green will host us as its first-ever foray into dance. Working together we’ll shape March 8 into what I trust will be an overwhelmingly entertaining way to mark International Women’s Day.’
 
Women GOlive!
7pm, Tuesday 8 March
Library at Willesden Green
95 High Road,
Willesden
London NW10 2SF
Tickets: eventbrite.co.uk

Venue Details

Donald Hutera writes regularly about dance, theatre and the arts for The Times and many other publications and websites. In addition to being a dance dramaturg and performance mentor, he also curates GOlive and co-founded Chelsea Arts Collective aka CAC. @DonaldHutera