Dramaturgy Out: Old Kent Road @ Edfringe 2017

Fall Out

Old Kent Road

Previews:

4 – 6 Aug | 16.30 | £10.00 (£8.00) | 40 mins

Opening:

8 – 13 Aug |16.30 | £12.00 (£10.00) | 40 mins

Dance Base (Venue 22)

14–16 Grassmarket, Edinburgh

0131 225 5525 | dancebase.co.uk 

Fall Out takes audiences on an experimental ride, using a live band, quintessential jazz and tap dancing to understand the journey of falling out of love.

Old Kent Road make their Edinburgh Festival Fringe debut with Fall Out. The show begins a journey through quintessential jazz, entangling movement within the graceful perspective of tap dance.

Lead by a live band, conversations of question and answer between soloists of the band and the performers, expose emotions and trigger manoeuvres back and forth between each art form on stage.

What was the inspiration for this performance?

‘Fall Out’ is loosely inspired by falling out of love, falling out of the thought of conventional tap dance. Showing raw relationships between the music and dance. I was (and still am) inspired by the tap dancers around me to create a show that shows a polished skill level. Using conversations of question and answer between the dancers and the band to expose emotions and trigger manoeuvres between each form.

Is performance still a good space for the public discussion of ideas?

For me performance is a safe place to discuss challenging ideas and conflicting points of view. But at the end of the day, performance must still be entertaining.

How did you become interested in making performance?

I have always been interested in theatre as I grew up in my mother’s dancing school so I regularly performed and saw my mother creating shows. I really became aware that there weren't any tap dance shows/ performances in London/ UK and this got to me. 

We have so many people studying dance especially tap dance and nowhere for them to be showing what they can do. I am a innovator in our tap dance community (its small) and i was dancing with the best people in the UK regularly so it was just about putting all those people in a studio at one time with an idea and creating work to show the world.

Is there any particular approach to the making of the show?

I love to work directly with the musicians to create the right feel with the choreography and vice versa. I followed a path in creating an order that would take the audience on a journey though many aspects of the dance showing them as much history, relevance, musical ideas, skilled footwork as I could, love for the form that all the dancers have.

Does the show fit with your usual productions?

This is the first show i have created so i guess yes! I am currently co-choreographing a new show called ‘Dirty.Tap.Funk’ which has a totally different feel and energy to it.

What do you hope that the audience will experience?

They will understand the traditions of tap dance linked with new ideas and musical interpretations of this generation. They should leave knowing there is a side of the dance that flourished before and after musical theatre became big in the West End and Broadway. They may also be intrigued to experience percussion from a different type of instrument being used to create music.

What strategies did you consider towards shaping this audience experience?
I want to share my love of tap dance and I want people to understand how important it is as a dance form and musicianship. So for me making it accessible to as many people as I could was very important. I used many styles of music to be able to captivate a range of ages and communities. People from any language background could watch the show and appreciate its beauty. The lyrics are relevant but the language of rhythm is far more important.

Using the sparse set up of wooden boards on which the dancers perform, Fall Out pushes the boundaries of strength and intensity through the bare sounds of music and dance, articulated through complex rhythms and spectacularly technical performance.

A passionate group of tap dancers, who are together raising the game in the UK tap dance scene, the company aim to share their expertise through distinctive choreography, paying homage to the history of jazz culture along the way.

The show is presented by Old Kent Road, who were founded by Artistic Director Avalon Rathgeb in 2014, with the aim of gathering the very best tap dancers and musicians, to create unique passionate tap choreography.

Talking about the company, Avalon Rathgeb said:“My vision is for tap dance to be seen by people of all ages, backgrounds, genders and cultures. To see the positivity the form brings and to showcase our most proficient dancers in one show, accomplishing something that they love.”

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  Artistic Director: Avalon RathgebCompany Manager/Rehearsal Director: Lexi BradburnProducer: Jim Croxford for Theatre BenchLighting Designer: James McKeogh Sound Engineer: George Hider
  Dancers: Adele Joel, Ryan Campbell-Birch, Jamie Spall, Alastair Crosswell & Helen DuffyBand: Flavio Li Vingi (drums), Ollie Haycock (guitar), Hannah Jackson (vocals), Annette Walker (keys)
  
  
  

About Old Kent Road:

• Old Kent Road train weekly, to share ideas and experiences, and have now developed a company language and a body of work. In 2015 they were invited to share the first stage of ‘Fall Out’ at Resolution - the UK’s biggest dance festival.
• In 2016 the company were awarded Arts Council England funding to create and perform the first full-length show of Fall Out, which was performed at the Blue Elephant Theatre, as part of Brighton Tap Festival Gala and at the Tabernacle in London. www.oldkentroadtap.com
  

About Dance Base:

• Dance Base is Scotland’s National Centre for Dance, situated in Edinburgh, and encourages and celebrates the potential for dance in everyone. Providing classes and workshops for the community, masterclasses and residencies for professional dancers, and an extensive programme of outreach work, Dance Base reaches out to inspire wellbeing and creativity, and cultivates a future for dance in local, national and international communities. Dance Base is a Regularly Funded Organisation (RFO).
• Dance Base’s festival programme is curated by Artistic Director, Morag Deyes, MBE.

• Dance Base’s Festival 2017 programme has 21 shows from 12 countries including Scotland, England, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Argentina, Canada, Egypt, India, Lebanon, Palestine, South Korea and Taiwan.
• During the Festival, Dance Base supports performers and visiting companies in Edinburgh with a special programme of classes and workshops. It offers a high-class venue for professionals to rehearse, a space for their practice and low-cost studio hire.
• Throughout the year, the £7m dance facility is visited over 50,000 times, for 130+ different classes and workshops. Alongside this, Dance Base’s professional programme exists to support and nurture professional dancers and their work at all levels through classes, workshops, and a programme of residencies.
• Dance Base was recently accepted as a member of the European Dancehouse Network (EDN). With its acceptance as a full member of EDN, Dance Base is making history for dance in Scotland as it is the first Scottish dance house to be accepted to the network; opening opportunities for Scottish dance artists.