Looping: Scotland Overdub

Dundee Rep, August 10

The fine art of collaboration has gone into overdrive with Looping, the latest project from Scottish Dance Theatre.

This “Afropunk street-festival inspired ceilidh culture experience’ ”comes to Scotland (with three performance dates in Wick, Mull and Dundee) featuring music by Optimo, words from acclaimed playwright Kieran Hurley alongside choreography by Brazil’s Felipe de Assis and Rita Aquino. Adding to the project’s community ethos, a number of young people in each performance location will be involved to explore the urban cultures of both Brazil and Scotland.

All of this is being pulled together by Scottish Dance Theatre’s Artistic Director Fleur Darkin, who was inspired to create a Scottish version of the Looping which she witnessed two years ago at the Panorama Festival in Rio.

“It’s an interesting piece of work for our times,” she says. “This project is taglined Dance! Politics! Party! and the show is a gentle encouragement to people to stand up for their rights and raise their voices. We are going through a period where democracy is threatened with ideas polarising people, so diverse voices need to be heard. Certainly in my adult life I have never felt so strongly that people who rule are abusing that privilege. So the format of this show feels an appropriate response.”

Dubbed an “overtly theatrical choreographer”, Fleur Darkin has toured work with SDT across Europe and to China, India, Mexico and Korea. “I care about the meaning of things and I want the audience to connect with the dancers. Dance is stories that come from inside the body, and dancers are on a hunt for feeling or some kind of perfection in execution. It starts with inspiring the dancers to take risks and go deep or push for something new. That part of it is like being a football manager, really enabling their talent to lead us, and believing in them when they don’t believe in themselves!”

In merging Brazilian and Scottish culture, Looping is exploring two unique national heritages, but in the process of making this new version, Fleur found plenty to connect the two countries.

“Brazil and Scotland both have strong and embodied musical folk cultures which lead people and remind us of our strong values, and keep us specific to our own heritage and viewpoint in the face of a whitewashed generic consumerist culture.

“Scotland has its history of trauma and wiping out of culture as does Brazil, and you can hear the murmurings of a new moment and a new way of being in the dance and music worlds. We party and celebrate our hopes, and we dream of new worlds and new forms.

“Money talks, but it can’t dance or sing. Everyone is welcome at this party.”

Looping, to be shown at Dundee Rep, promises an ‘Afro-punk street festival inspired ceilidh culture experience’.