A no to dirty dancing as even stage floor gets a health check...
CHOREOGRAPHER Lynne Page is relishing the chance to be in a room with dancers again. But she’s treading carefully!
The premises for rehearsing a new show that included olivier award-winning star Katie Brayben, four artists from the Royal Ballet, two of her closest professional dancing colleagues, plus a top flight string quartet — and a celebrated flute player — had to be Covid-secured. And then there was the dance floor itself.
Page and her associates tracked down special performance flooring with antimicrobial properties built in. ‘I realised that the first thing dancers do is lie on the floor,’ she said ‘They put their hands on the floor. They move on and off the floor. And this covering we have is extra protection.’ extra on top of the temperature taking, hand sanitising, and other safety protocols directors and stage managers now require before a show can be put on in front of an audience.
During lockdown, Page fretted about the legions of dancers she’d worked with over the years, on West end and Broadway shows, Royal Ballet productions and films and pop videos.
‘They were taking dance class in the tiniest spaces, in their homes,’ Page told me. ‘Like an olympic athlete, unless a dancer can really stretch, they are trapped — like caged birds.’
Those thoughts formed the basis of a show that she has called Wingspan. Page remembered
putting on a community dance project last year at a cavernous new building called Bridgepoint in Rye. She approached Sarah and David Kowitz, its owners, who allowed her to transform Bridgepoint into a performance venue.
The Kowitzes offered much practical advice, too. page has ensured that her band of freelancers, on stage and off, will be paid via ticket sales for the three performances from September 26 (2.30pm, gala at 7.30pm; and a final matinee show the following day).
The rehearsals and show will also be recorded on film. Brayben will perform two numbers including, appropriately, The Birds by Elbow, rearranged for a string quartet. page has created a pas de Deux for Royal Ballet artists Leticia Dias and Joseph aumeer (who also performs for the paris Opera Ballet) and new choreographic solos for Royal Ballet artists ashley Dean and Francisco Serrano.
She and the dancers have found the unusual circumstances liberating. ‘i’ve seen ashley Dean do lots of Fairy solos, so i said: “What do you want to do?!” We had this amazing day where she took her pointe shoes off and danced in her socks — she just let her hair down. The kind of thing she probably wouldn’t be able to do on the Royal Opera House stage.’
page has taken as much care with the safety of the audience as she has with the content of Wingspan.
She and others will double as safety wardens on performance days, handing out specially designed visors as they seat members of the audience at cabaret tables spaced out around the stage.
page is already planning another show in Rye. and she’s hoping to persuade Rosalie Craig, another Olivier award winner, to perform. ■ details at bridgepointrye.com