JENNIE MACFIE enjoys a magical final performance in the Bodycurrents project SUCH IS the interest in dance generated by television shows like Strictly Come Dancing that demand for dance classes is at an all time high all over the country but in remote areas of the Highlands, finding professional dancers to teach dance is well-nigh impossible.
Hence the innovative Bodycurrents project initiated by plan B and Eden Court and supported by Highland Council, which put eight professional 'dance catalysts' into four waterside communities – Dornie, Lybster, Fort William and Aviemore – for nine months, teaching dance to as wide a range of local people as possible. They were also working towards spectacular outdoor community performances in each location, either on the water or as close to it as possible.
The first performance, WaterForce, took place at Eilean Donan at the end of March, and so dire was the weather that this reviewer did not venture out, although the show went on, minus a marquee which the gales had felled the previous night. Such are the hazards of events outdoors early in the Highland spring….
At Fort William Spring was still late, and though the afternoon show was bathed in sunshine, the evening show took place in typically dreich weather but was worth the drenching. Everyone in Lochaber seemed to be dancing, from small children through to teenagers and older folk, including the local T'ai Chi group and a set of feisty wheelchair-users who duetted exuberantly with their carers.
The show opened with a dancer writhing, mermaid-like, across the water inside a huge transparent ball, as a boat bearing the band Babelfish approached the lock at the top of Neptune's Staircase. As the boat made its way down the ladder of locks, a different group performed on stages set at each level and imaginatively signposted by fish with fingers to direct the audience.
There was something for everyone, from Louise Marshall's exuberant onboard hoofing to Will Thorburn's lovely capoeira-inflected choreography; his groups created height by lifting each other with a flowing sureness more usually seen in professionals. What could he accomplish with the more experienced youngsters of Y Dance?
Meanwhile the sound of Babelfish – Adam Sutherland's fiddle, Bo Jingham's flute, and John Somerville's accordion, backed up by Peatbog Faeries' drummer Iain Copeland and Blazin Fiddles' pianist Andy Thorburn – floating across the water against the spectacular backdrop of Ben Nevis was purely magical.
A third event, Hidden Depths, took place at Lybster Harbour in the Caithness in early June, and the performances concluded at Loch Morlich. Summer finally arrived in the Highlands; fingers of sunlight highlighted the still snow-spattered Cairngorms, and a warm, hazy light bathed Loch Morlich, apparently twinned for the day with Lake Garda.
By the shore in the Caledonian pinewoods children played a huge wooden xylophone stained with rainbow colours; a spider's web of rope hung, spangled with CDs on which young dancers had drawn pictures and written lines like “I enjoyed the Moonwalk because it was HARD!” and “This was the most fun I have had in my whole life!!”, while beyond, a Dali-esque red canopy sheltered a heap of televisions on which videoclips of the project were screened.
The audience gathered gradually on the sandy beach in front of the shining infinity stage on the loch, while dogs chased sticks and intrepid small children splashed and paddled until the show started. Aerial work in two cocoon-like swings dangling from a tripod of rough hewn tree trunks, parkour, acrobatics, and lots of dancing ensued, and a very good time was had by all.
The communities, dance artists and crews involved had put their hearts into these events, but unfortunately Bodycurrents was ill-served by an uninspiring website which seemed to begrudge any information, while if there were signs on the A82 or the A9 to encourage the public towards the locations, this reviewer did not see them, despite being in unfamiliar territory and on the lookout.
Imaginative, Highland-wide, community-based, Bodycurrents should have been shouted from the rooftops for all to hear, particularly when it was, according to Highland Council's website, funded to the tune of £590,000.
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