Acrobatics

Amelia’s Magazine | Du Goudron et des Plumes: Barbican London International Mime Festival 2011 Review

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Michelle Lowe-Holder S/S 2011 by Michelle Urvall Nyren
Canadian Michelle Lowe-Holder completed an MA in knitwear at Central Saint Martins and launched her eponymous collection in 2001. She has always included sustainable elements in her collections, view but having children made her think more deeply about her long-term impact. Being mentored by the Centre for Sustainable Fashion was hugely influential in persuading her to work in a fully ethical manner.

Michelle quickly realised that she had always been most interested in the details, so she decided to concentrate on designing accessories in heritage craft styles from all the offcuts that had accumulated in her studio over the years. She has collaborated with photographer Polly Penrose to showcase her new accessories collections through images of unusual beauty.
Michelle Lowe-Holder S/S 2011 by Michelle Urvall Nyren
Michelle Lowe-Holder S/S 2011 by Michelle Urvall Nyren.

Canadian Michelle Lowe-Holder completed an MA in knitwear at Central Saint Martins and launched her eponymous collection in 2001. She has always included sustainable elements in her collections, pills but having children made her think more deeply about her long-term impact. Being mentored by the Centre for Sustainable Fashion was hugely influential in persuading her to work in a fully ethical manner.

Michelle quickly realised that she had always been most interested in the details, site so she decided to concentrate on designing accessories in heritage craft styles from all the offcuts that had accumulated in her studio over the years. She has collaborated with photographer Polly Penrose to showcase her new accessories collections through images of unusual beauty.
Michelle Lowe-Holder S/S 2011 by Michelle Urvall Nyren
Michelle Lowe-Holder S/S 2011 by Michelle Urvall Nyren.

Canadian Michelle Lowe-Holder completed an MA in knitwear at Central Saint Martins and launched her eponymous collection in 2001. She has always included sustainable elements in her collections, click but having children made her think more deeply about her long-term impact. Being mentored by the Centre for Sustainable Fashion was hugely influential in persuading her to work in a fully ethical manner.

Michelle quickly realised that she had always been most interested in the details, web so she decided to concentrate on designing accessories in heritage craft styles from all the offcuts that had accumulated in her studio over the years. She has collaborated with photographer Polly Penrose to showcase her new accessories collections through images of unusual beauty…

Read the rest of this interview and see more illustrations of Michelle Lowe-Holder’s accessories in Amelia’s Compendium of Fashion Illustration, alongside interviews with 44 other ethical fashion designers and 30 fabulous fashion illustrators. You can buy the book here.
Du Goudron et des Plumes Illustration Gemma Smith
Du Goudron et des Plumes by Gemma Smith.

Du Goudron et des Plumes by Compagnie MPTA with Mathurin Bolze started with a swinging platform lowered slowly over the heads of the performers, more about crushing them into the floor. They emerged from beneath, ripping out the innards, transforming the planks into a clanking and clattering playground as the dancers/acrobats/I’m-not-really-sure-what-you-call-them swung adeptly, building and destroying, meeting and parting. Rotating vignettes from everyday life met with random acts of acrobatic grace, often finely tuned for comedic effect – the performers scaling planks to sit, gnome like, at the top, or hanging upside down to mirror each other.

Du Goudron et des Plumes by Ellie Sutton
Du Goudron et des Plumes by Ellie Sutton.

The platform rose, swaying, as paper sheets were unleashed to shadow the manic silhouettes of the characters behind until, in a flurry of motion, the paper was ripped apart. From minimalist jazz to crashing bells the soundtrack was finely tuned to the minutest motion, and as the platform tilted the occupants scrabbled to maintain control, clinging to each other, pushing and pulling. My later reading of the notes tells me this was a metaphor for our unstable future on this earth, and how we can either act together to survive or fail apart. The show ended with them mired in the middle as if aboard a desperate life raft.

Du Goudron et des Plumes Ellie Sutton
Du Goudron et des Plumes by Ellie Sutton.

I’d like to say that I drifted off rather frequently during this show because I’m really pre-occupied with the launch of my new book this Friday, but the fact is I probably would have done anyway… for me, that’s the trouble with theatrical shows that lack a strong narrative. At times the rhythm and flow of the five fluid acrobats had me gripped, but then I would find I’d gone somewhere else entirely as they swung repeatedly from side to side (shit, I don’t have enough drink for 300 guests), the motion acting as a hypnotist’s pendulum to send me off… and when I snapped to the scene had completely changed…a character was half naked smoking a pipe at the end of a plank, the lone girl was cascading through the air astride a rope swing, a man was swinging wildly from the oversized lamp. Director Mathurin Bolze calls this effect “mesmerising patterns.”

Du Goudron et des Plumes by Bertie Simpson
Du Goudron et des Plumes by Bertie Simpson.

This performance was typical of the way that traditional circus skills have been co-opted by mavericks such as Mathurin Bolze to create something much more abstract and intriguing. He certainly seems to be a popular man: the performers took multiple bows and a standing ovation flooded through the packed theatre as the lights came up on the opening night of Du Goudron et des Plumes.

Du Goudron et des Plumes plays at the Barbican as part of Bite until the 29th of January. You can read another interesting review by Ought to be Clowns here. The London International Mime Festival continues until 30th January 2011. My new book, Amelia’s Compendium of Fashion Illustration, is officially launched tomorrow.

Written by Amelia Gregory on Thursday January 27th, 2011 2:31 pm

Categories ,Acrobatics, ,Bertie Simpson, ,Bite, ,Circus, ,Compagnie MPTA, ,dance, ,Du Goudron et des Plumes, ,ecological, ,Ellie Sutton, ,Gemma Smith, ,London International Mime Festival, ,Mathurin Bolze, ,Mime Festival 2011, ,Ought to be Clowns, ,theatre

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Amelia’s Magazine | A review of Companie XY: Le Grand C at CircusFest, Roundhouse, April 2010

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Companie XY-Roundhouse
Companie XY-Roundhouse

I listed the Companie XY performance Le Grand C as part of CircusFest at the Roundhouse mainly because the PR asked nicely and there appeared to be some good deals on tickets. But frankly I didn’t know what to expect – there is hardly any information about this acrobatic circus company from France to be found on the internet. At least, this not in a language I understand.

As the lights dimmed on the central stage the crowd went quiet in anticipation. In the shadows a group of people climbed up each other and then descended. It stayed quiet. And dark. So quiet that I could hear myself sucking loudly on the lemon sherbet I’d picked up from a stand at the London Book Fair earlier. Characters climbed on top of an upright log for no particular reason.

Companie XY-Roundhouse

Let’s be honest here, prostate for the first ten minutes of this performance I was seriously contemplating how I could make a hasty exit without being heard. But then things radically improved; with the addition of music and lighting came life, information pills and verve. Companie XY may only do one thing – climbing on each other’s shoulders in various gravity defying combinations – but they do it very well. The acrobats swirled around and on top of each other, swinging up into handstands, standing on heads, soaring skywards from a see-saw to land gently in the waiting arms of their comrades. It was gasp-inducing stuff and the audience were not shy with their applause.

Companie XY-Roundhouse

On multiple occasions the anticipated stunt failed and the performers came tumbling down to the floor, yet it was almost as if this was to be expected – a morass of acrobats gathered, arms outstretched beneath the four tall human skyscrapers, suggesting that a fall was not an uncommon occurrence. Somehow these mistakes didn’t detract from the performance, instead making the hardest successful stunts seem all the more impressive. We were rooting for these acrobats. A failed move was just the price one pays for attempting something so insane, and it merely served to highlight the extraordinary feats they were performing.

Companie XY-Roundhouse

What didn’t work so well was the confluence of comic interludes and contemporary dance: the hugely influential German choreographer Pina Bausch has a lot to answer for. I went to see the Australian Circa troupe at the Barbican last month, and they too revel in circus with a touch of both comedy and modern dance. Why do circus acts try to be the best of all worlds when what they are naturally best at is combining bizarre contortions with the lightness of humour? Whenever I have seen them dance they appear weighty, their bodies dragging downwards rather than soaring to acrobatic heights.

Companie XY-Roundhouse

Towards the end the entirety of Companie XY burst into a French song – an extraordinary event and one which I can’t imagine from an English company. Harmonies died down to the lone voice of the one man left on stage, who continued singing as he formed the base of the last human tower, his voice wobbling as each extra person clambered upon him. The performers were clearly tired by now and the tension in the Roundhouse was palpable. Would everything come crashing down just as we reached the finale? No, our singer remained steady, gasping his final note as the tower was completed.

Companie XY-Roundhouse

If you can get past the first ten minutes then this performance is the most adrenalin filled way you can spend an hour sitting down. It may veer wildy between the dull and the sublime but it is a must see for those intrigued by the astonishing things that *some* human bodies can do. And a note to Companie XY: less silence and pretentious dance, more music and light comedy.

For more information on tickets and times please see the original listing for this performance here.
You can read a review in The Times here, and in the Guardian here.

Written by Amelia Gregory on Tuesday April 20th, 2010 5:24 pm

Categories ,Acrobatics, ,barbican, ,Circa, ,Circus, ,CircusFest, ,Companie XY, ,dance, ,french, ,Pina Bausch, ,Roundhouse

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