On the Vile Arts Radio Show Tonight: Ruxy Cantir

The Vile Arts is back on Subcity Radio and, thank God, he has guests. Drew Taylor is a familiar voice, so we'll get to him later. But check this out...

or listen here...

Actually, by my standards, this is a pretty great show... sure, I manage to mess up the music cues and do my usual boast about how I know Red Bastard. But both Drew and Ruxy are great guests, and cover for my rudeness, bad research and general silliness. 

Ruxy Cantir is a theatre artist born and

raised in Moldova (Eastern Europe). This provided her with a grotesque sense of humour, boney elbows, and a desire to celebrate the odd and the unusual. 

She creates original physical theatre in ensemble and by herself, and believes in the full physical gesture as the epitome of human expression. She is inspired by transformation, highly physical comedy, and embarrassing stories. She strives to create imaginative intensity-filled original work that explores the bizarre manifestations of our fears and desires. Most of her work falls somewhere between styles like Clown, Vaudeville, Physical Comedy, and Movement theatre.
Ruxy received her B.A. in Theatre Arts at Furman University (South Carolina, USA) and her M.F.A. in Ensemble Based Physical Theatre at Dell'Arte International School of Physical Theatre (California) where she came into her own as an “actor-creator,” a mover, and a community arts project lover. She also trained at LAMDA in their Summer Intensive and Physical Theatre Workshops, and David Diamond's Theatre for LivingWorkshop.

Ruxy moved to Glasgow, Scotland in November 2015.

Because this...

Open Art Surgery

Although he would (hopefully) disavow it, a great deal of the energy and charm of Breakin’ Convention comes from the personality of Jonzi D.  He’s been working within both theatrical dance and hip hop since the 1980s – a time when most perceptions of hip hop focused on the rappers - and has become a vital supporter of hop hop theatre, from the lyric-based solo shows that proliferate across England to the increasingly sophisticated fusions of locking, breaking and crumping with Modern Dance.

Open Art Surgery is an appropriate finale to the Traverse’s dance season: six short works, all from Scottish artists presented as works in progress after a week of mentoring in Dance Base at the hands of Jonzi and Curious Seed’s Christine Devaney. From Claricia Kruithof’s opening, claustrophobic solo to Big Tajj, Drew Taylor and Christina Gusthart’s finale three-way of dance, beat-box and poetry, Open Art Surgery is a quick survey of a dynamic scene that can incorporate the expected techniques of hip hop while welcoming other approaches.

With all six pieces still under construction, the territory is frequently more sketched out than completely mapped. But there are healthy signs of artists willing to push beyond boundaries: sweeTe performs a straight up rap but by constantly changing costume reinterprets her rhymes through homely, aggressive and theatrical modes. Jackin’ The Box get sinister for Piece of Mind and Ready Ready Sauce mix it up with Black Swan Dance Theatre is poke at Facebook: Steven Fraser (Heavy Smokers) and Will Thornton (Product) have an already brooding duet in Diamond Life,

All of these pieces – along with the two untitled works that began and finished the showcase – deconstructed the idea that hip hop is limited in its vocabulary. Topped and tailed by Jonzi’s enthusiastic cheerleading (and a DJ set by the UK DMC champion Ritchie Ruftone), Open Art Surgery is a testament to a dance scene that sometimes thrives beneath the radar, and a happy statement that choreography need not be confined to obscure ideas.