Brewing up some Dramaturgy: Marc Brew @ Edfringe 2015

The Fringe

What inspired this production: did you begin with an idea or a script or an object?
Marc Brew:I felt it was the moment in my life post car accident 18 years to share my up close and personal experience of the journey of acceptance of rediscovering my body and claiming ownership of who I am and my disability. For now, I am….

Why bring your work to the  Edinburgh Fringe?
I have always wanted to present my work at the fringe as felt it was a great platform to present work to a wider audience and international promoters but have never been successful with funding to present work at the fringe but felt this work was particularly important and a personal investment I was willing to risk  take for the work to be seen at the Edinburgh Fringe.


What can the audience expect to see and feel - or even think - of your production?
A personal experience they can relate to that is honest and moving with beautiful imagery capitulating the journey we experience through life.

The Dramaturgy Questions

How would you explain the relevance - or otherwise - of dramaturgy within your work?
 Very relevant. It was important for me to ensure the the meaning and concept was threaded through the work. I had something to say and wanted to share my story so its important dramaturgically that the audience are able to relate to the work.

What particular traditions and influences would you acknowledge on your work -  have any particular artists, or genres inspired you and do you see yourself within their tradition?
I come from a traditional background of classical ballet and contemporary dance that has informed my artistry but as a creator I look for clear imagery and creating atmospheres/environments that are real and honest, humane that people can relate to.

Do you have a particular process of making that you could describe - where it begins, how you develop it, and whether there is any collaboration in the process?
 It starts with the concept/idea that I have and am interested in exploring. I then bring on board a creative team to collaborate with me to research and develop the idea/concept and then we make the work he work together and feed of each other creatively to make the best work we can.

What do you feel the role of the audience is, in terms of making the meaning of your work? 
The audience is important to me. I want them to have an experience and feel something, to be moved and question, to discuss and think about the work they have had been present to experience.

Dance International Glasgow 2015

A major new celebration of dance for Glasgow and Scotland will take place from Friday 24 April to Saturday 6 June

Venues across the city host over 40 events across 6 weeks, including 6 world premieres plus a host of UK premieres, family shows, workshops, exhibitions and talks

The world premiere of Barrowland Ballet’s hotly-anticipated new show Whiteout on 29th and 30th April. Created by Tramway Associate Artist Natasha Gilmore (Glasgow Girls, Tiger, The River)Whiteout is a deeply personal dance theatre show bi-racial relationships and features new music by Luke Sutherland (Mogwai).

Two world premieres from Tramway Associate Artist Marc Brew. In For Now, I am… (26th & 27th May) Marc creates an intimate solo- for the first time since his life-changing car accident in 1997-  whilst Exalt (24th & 25th April), created by Marc in association with Scottish Ballet and Indepen-dance 4 promises to rock the boundaries of ballet

World premieres from some of the brightest and most intriguing talents in contemporary dance, including Tramway associate artist Ultimate Dancer’s look at the alternative dark reality of occult ritual in Holy Smoke (15th & 16th May) and Colette Sadler’s Geist (5th & 6th May), a celebration of subverting the relationship between the living and the non-living.

The Tramway, Sadlers Wells and Dance4 co-commission of Jérôme Bel’s iconic and award winning The Show Must Go On from the renowned Candoco Dance Company (22nd & 23rd May)

From Lithuania, the UK premiere of Home Trip (15th & 16th May) by Low Air Urban Dance Theatre- a dazzling fusion of street dance, music, theatre and literature focusing on the relationships between parents and their adult children.

Double bills from some of the top names in contemporary dance, including Aakash Odedra’s Murmur and Ink (29th & 30th May), charting his relationship with his childhood dyslexia and his grandmother’s tattoos respectively and legendary performer-provocateurs Jonathan Burrows and Matteo Fargion revisiting their classic pieces Both Sitting Duet and The Cow Piece together with new show Body Not Fit For Purpose (25th & 26th April).

Hong Kong City Contemporary Dance Company with their interactive video installation Hyperchoreography (24th April – 10th May), which allows the viewer to control the dancers’ movements, plus Jumping Frames (1st & 2nd May), showcasing the best in dance made specifically for the screen in China.

Sadler’s Wells exhilarating new dance show for children Varmints (1st May), based on the award-winning book by Helen Ward

Free community events to get everyone up and dancing, including the DIG Day of Dance (15th May) taking everything from tea dances to hip hop to community centres across the city.

Professional development workshops and discussions for practitioners at all levels with some of the industry’s leading names

“Dance International Glasgow is the new biennial dance event for Glasgow and Scotland” said Councillor Archie Graham, Chair of Glasgow Life. “DIG, produced by Tramway, is a growing collaboration between dance artists, promoters, venues and communities. From the end of April right through to the first weekend of June, venues across Glasgow will host new work ranging from ballet to Lithuanian street dance, from Scottish Dance Theatre to spectacular children’s dance from Sadlers Wells, from having your first go at contact improvisation or kathak, to accepting an invitation to dance from Jo Fong. DIG is over a month of events that will make you laugh and cry, question and be challenged – and dance!”

Janet Archer, CEO at Creative Scotland, said: "We congratulate Tramway and Glasgow Arts on producing Dance International Glasgow, a new and inspiring dance festival responding to an escalating growth in interest in dance by people of all ages. It’s great to see such an imaginative programme launching this first festival with many outstanding performers, artists and organisationstaking part, including internationally significant Scottish dance artists working across different choreographic styles.”




DIG will have a particular focus on inclusive dance as an evolving art form, including the two world premieres from Marc Brew, the first performance of Jérôme Bel’s superb The Show Must Go On by a mixed ability company and Luke Bell and Jo Verrent’s award-winning exhibition on how audiences react to bodies that are ‘different’ Take Me To Your Bed (16th May – 6th June). In Dialogue (23rd & 24th May) will be two days of investigation by influential artists, practitioners and innovators from the worlds of dance, disability and performance, aiming to advance the level and clarity of artistic and critical dialogue within the inclusive dance sector.

Nocturne: Marc Brew 002

Introducing Marc Brew's triple bill at Tramway, Nocturne has none of the melancholic shades suggested by its name and influence (Whistler's Nocturne). Rather, it is a lively pas de quartre, bouncing across a pair of double beds and evoking the sexual excitement of new love against the comfortable sensuality of the old.

Using the double beds as trampoline like stages, and gradually merging the beds into a single central mattress, Brew captures sensual joy in a series of dynamic duets - there is even a cheeky humour when the characters throw off the covers and fling clothes across the stage, abandoning the restraint that their balletic discipline established in the early movements. The bed becomes the place of fun, of connection - only the ponderous spoken word segment hints at the more disappointing possibilities of the night, acting as a sharp contrast to the dancer's acrobatic mingling.

As a programmatic first piece, Nocturne establishes a clear style: Brew emphasises the line of classical ballet, adding a rough and ready energy, wry wit and sense of fun. Indeed, the cheeky grin that briefly flashes across his lips during the applause is like a signature to his style - modest, confident and charming.

Remember When: Marc Brew 001

For his solo, Remember When, Marc Brew draws on his ballet experience to craft a piece of touching fragility: against the huge video  projection backdrop, Brew sits in one corner, vulnerable and rotating his arms through a cycle of often jerky and abrupt sequences. Despite the scale of the projection,  which features Brew performing similar movements in a shopping centre, obscured by an escalator and filmed through glass, Brew's delicate presence cultivates an intimacy, while his careful placement of hands and fluid shifts in shape imitate thoughts tumbling before being tamed into order.

Against the broader, sensual scope of Nocturne, Remember When is poignant and lonely: melancholic cello evokes the grand solos of ballet and Brew's stillness of body contrasts with the agitated flow of his arms and neck. Yet it affirms that Brew is capable of adapting his classical training towards a deeply personal choreography and perfectly captures the enchanting sadness that accompanies recollection of times less lonely in solitude.

Arts Poker: What we saw last week...

15:30

Welcome to the first weekly Vile Arts Poker Contest. The rules are simple, because I am making them up as we go along,and fixing them so I win. Today's competitors are Gareth K Vile and Eric Karoulla - reigning champion and young pretender. Welcome Eric.

Why thank you for having me, Gareth. I'm not entirely sure about this competition, sir.

The rules are that you get to pick three arts events that you have seen in the past month. And we pit them against each other, to see who saw the best stuff and has the best taste.

Ooh, sounds like fun! However, you are a judge and a competitor, so how is this fair? Best taste is subjective - going back to your favourite argument about radical subjectivity - but isn't it always about what we can get tickets to?

Don't mention that. Anyway, you can go first. Tell me about something you've seen, and give a quick, spirited description...

Sonata For A Man and A Boy was quite exciting! Not only the exploration of the relationship between a music teacher and a student, but also an examination of what it is to be an adult - in this case, a grown man - and what it is to be a child.

Saw that at the Macrobert, in Stirling. I think it's heading to the Traverse next month.

Okay, so did this have music in it? The sonata suggests that there would be some... and what did you like about it, apart from it mirroring our friendship - with me as the music teacher, of course.

Yes, there was live music - the two played solos and duets on the cello. It was quite fascinating to see how they went from two separate instruments, to playing on the same one, when their 'voices' were in harmony with each other.

So what was it all about? And how did the music reflect the story?

Well, the narrative started off with a grown man - played by Greg Sinclair - playing with wooden figurines, and asking "Are you ready?". This phrase was used multiple times for various things, like the beginning of the 'class'. The story itself didn't really develop as a linear evolution - it essentially showed moments where a man behaves more like a boy, and a boy behaves more like a man. At some point, the boy puts on the man's blazer and takes over the role of teacher. 

As for the music, it was a sonata played over and over again - like a practice tune at a music lesson. It helped the story move along mainly through the role reversal, since both of them prove equally capable of playing the intricate melody.

Well, as far as music and performance goes, I'm raising you Marc Brew's Fusional Fragments... Brew's superb choreography allied with Dame Evelyn Glennie. The dancers took their cues from Glennie's wild live drumming - she paced the stage like a wild, matriarchal deity, provoking heads to nod in the audience and casting Brew's ballet-influenced movements as an atavistic, tribal ecstasy.

For music, I will put in PSB - Public Service Broadcasting - who played in Nice 'n' Sleazy's last week. They were phenomenal. They didn't even speak! All and any sound was produced from either the synthesizer they had, or the assortment of instruments - including a banjo - they had brought along. 

Meanwhile, they didn't really have to perform anything aside from the music, since they had brought with them clips of films that matched to their War Room EP. Dark music, but it really sat well with its theme!

Also, do you actually know what 'atavistic' means, Vile?

It means a biological throwback - like the slight tail I have at the base of my spine. That's why i don't like performances that last more than an hour - it hurts if I sit on it...

If we are going pure music, I raise you Mugenkyo Taiko Drummers. Nearly three hours of loud, fast and rocking Japanese drumming. from the first professional Taiko group in the UK. They had their teacher over, so we got a few sips from the source - he pulled out this drum that was wired up to sound like a bass guitar, and got into a serious improvisation jam with his student.

That covers both of your shows I think - a student/teacher relationship played out in performance of music, some seriously heavy beats... and they explained a little about the music, too. Mugenkyo are beautifully tough, too: there is something almost military about their precision,and melodramatic in the way they switch drums and bang hell out of the beats. When the percussion starts to find a melody, it's astounding... I was transported to another place... tribal energy strikes again...

Meanwhile, I got to the Frock On Frock Off Sunday Bizarre, at the glue factory, which involved plenty of live art interaction, as well as screenings of three short films by Lock Up Your Daughters. It was quite a fun day, with varying tones, ranging from Foxy's (of Foxy & Husk) emotive miming to a chat about consent with Harry Giles. Also, present was Ian Nulty with his Sauna persona! 

Prior to the Olympiad, there was a Query Queery discussion, which allowed us to debate what it was to be a member of the LGBTQ society and whether or not the Q was relevant.

Interaction win!

I think you do win, and I regret missing that:Tranny and Roseannah were great fun on our show last week, and although I caught one night of the cabaret - with great acts - I had the feeling that it was part of a broader agenda.

It seems as if Frock Frock Off was uniting queer sexuality with what I would call "queer performance" - not in any sexual sense, but just in the sense of being other. It's an ambition project, and sending a day on it would be far more profitable than just one evening - when I reviewed the show, I felt that it was pointing to something. Whereas you went to the source.

Well, looks like I can't win even when I make up the rules. Your prize is... a delicious baked potato I made in the microwave.