Jammy Dodgers

In a bold experiment Frauke Requardt and her dancers Maho Ihara, Eva Recacha Garcia and Conor Doyle collaborated with a team of London's most hotwired and acclaimed jazz musicians in an exploration of identity, entertainment and invention.

Recalibrating the relationship between live music and dance, Requardt challenges the way dancers approach and spontaneously appropriate her choreographed material, while a rolling line-up of musicians must acclimatize to farcical and surreal interruptions during their set.

The outcome is an hour-long show full of mischievous humour, dark interruptions and chaotic energy played out in a fantastical atmosphere to an intimately positioned audience.

The premier, which was a great success both in terms of audience capacity and its reception, was performed in The Robin Howard Dance Theatre at The Place. It took place over four nights, and incorporated two different jazz bands. This allowed for audiences to see the show twice and have a different experience and understanding of the way the choreographic material can be read alongside different music.

Back on Track

The piece

Back on Track is three women dancing in unison, almost racing, alongside the fast beats of John Zorn’s jazz, each maintaining a stubborn and fascinating status of individuality. Using humourous textual interludes, tight intricate choreography and an inspired jazz score this stylistic piece challenges the audience’s perception of time and reality.

A performer’s premonition of how the piece will unfold forces the audience to focus acutely on the detail in order to decipher whether the performer was merely jesting or indeed spoke the truth. The dancers move through the steps casually and comfortably, yet everything is intricately choreographed, incorporating pedestrian movement into otherwise abstract contemporary forms.

The result is a neat and charming package which explores the relationship between precision and awkwardness.