One dance to show all humanity’s age

“I’m interested in making work that reflects humanity in all its colour and glory,” says choreographer Rosemary Lee.

Her work Threaded Fine comes to Magdalen Green in Dundee tomorrow in a collaboration with Scottish Dance Theatre.

Five hours long, with 24 individual dancers repeating the same 12-minute dance individually and then together at the end, it’s free to attend and designed for audience members to come and go.

That the dancers range from age nine to being in their 70s is key to the work.

“I like working with people of all ages, to see people’s lifespan,” says Lee.

“There’s a sense of the more mature and experienced person here, those who have lived their lives, and those at the very start of their lives.

“Then there are all those in between, which gives a flavour of how people move at different times in their lives.”

The piece was first titled “Circadian” and developed for a beach in Lowestoft – where Lee is from, though she now lives in London – in 2019. Then, it was part of a special 24-hour festival, and each dance took place on the hour.

She put them all together for a show in Malta in 2020, and now it’s come to Scotland for performances in Findhorn and Dundee.

“My intention is to create a ritual-like performance, where you see the same solo, but each time the different people dance it, it feels different,” says Lee.

“Audiences say to me, I see something different every time a person comes out. You have this intimate relationship with one dancer for 12 minutes, but as you watch longer, you get to know the dance and appreciate the differences between each person.

“Then as you get to know the dance more, you anticipate it, which is an unusual situation as an audience member.

“For the dancer it takes courage. It’s nerve-racking stepping into that circle, so the audience becomes a support. We witness their courage and all their personality coming out in a solo which has many qualities, many dynamics. It’s quite energetic, so we sense both their delicacy and their power.”

The show will feature six Scottish Dance Theatre performers and 18 dancers from across Scotland, but the only distinction Lee makes is “professional and non-professional”, because all involved are equal in terms of this performance.

The dance is designed around natural rhythms which connect people, she says – the carbon cycle, our life cycle, the circadian cycle of the day – but if the weather is too bad, the performance will take place indoors at Dundee Rep. Hopefully not, though.

“I came out of theatres to work outdoors, because I feel that art should be for everyone,” says Lee.

“I remember as a child walking into galleries and seeing a Rembrandt free, and there it was for the rest of my life.

“That struck a chord. As an artist now I want to do the same because you don’t need to be an elite audience that understands this work, you just need to be a human being.

“We all dance, we all move, we’re all regulated by these cycles. I would hope the performance will speak to anyone. It’s about being generous to each other as well as seeing each other’s individuality, even though they’re strangers. There’s something beautiful about that. It connects people.”

Threaded Fine, Magdalen Green, Dundee, June 18. www.dundeerep. co.uk

INSPIRING: Threaded Fine is a work intended to display how people move and change depending upon their years.