Ahead of their new tour, National Dance Company Wales director Paul Kaynes talks to John-Paul Davies about their ambitious year ahead.
National Dance Company Wales’ latest, 16-date, tour arrives in Wales this month. Well, one version of it does. Interestingly, Terra Firma, is made up of four thematically-linked pieces, three of which are performed each night.
The Director of the National Dance Company Wales, Paul Kaynes, is excited by the prospect of a tour with real variety. “In each case the evening will include a brand-new work called Atalaÿ, and another called Tundra by the Spanish choreographers Mario Bermudez Gil and Marcos Morau respectively. The third work will alternate between Folk and The Green House, both created by our Resident Choreographer Caroline Finn. Each of the works is rooted in the idea of people’s own place, community or land – for instance Tundra is set in a wintry landscape, evoking the wide-open spaces of Russia.” Even within one night’s performance there is huge contrast. Tundra’s Russian folk-dance inspiration touches on themes of revolution in a bleak and futuristic setting. Atalaÿ is a watchtower, through which the audience are shown windows on different worlds, each bathing in a blissful Mediterranean sun.
Continuing to burrow deep into the themes of community and place, Folk sees NDCWales explore the traditional fairy tale, set somewhere between A Midsummer Night’s Dream and the world of the ‘upside down’ in Stranger Things.
On this mid-scale tour of Welsh venues the company has the “freedom to be daring in terms of set, lighting and space. One of the pieces includes an upside down tree, another, The Green House, is literally a vibrant green house interior; our setting and spaces are evoked through lighting and music as much by physical sets.”
While each of the other pieces are concerned with a firm flooring and what can be created on it, The Green House shifts the ground from underneath and brings the outside world in. But The Green House, is omitted in at some shows in favour of Folk. “The main driver for choosing an evening of dance is that the mix of works will engage our audiences. That doesn’t mean they’re all the same (quite the opposite!) but that they hang together, either thematically or stylistically.”
An intriguing programme that promises a great combination of contrast and unity from three recipients of the Copenhagen Choreography Award, Caroline Finn, Marcos Morau and Mario Bermudez Gil. Another international coup for Wales’ National Dance Company. “Over the years we’ve attracted some of the biggest names in the contemporary dance world, and Marcos Morau certainly falls into this category with his hugely successful company La Veronal from Barcelona. Why do they come? Because of the group of dancers we have and the ethos of the rehearsal room as well as our commitment to realising artists’ vision and design both at home and on tour (not everyone does this!), and because we tour – a lot. It means that a work created for us can be in our repertoire for 3 or even 4 years, and might be performed 50 or even 60 times. That’s rare in the dance world.”
Which begs the question: What next for the company as it goes from strength to strength?
“This year we will be doing three tours of Germany, Austria and Switzerland where they can’t get enough of us! In the autumn we’re co-producing a contemporary dance opera with Music Theatre Wales called Passion by Pascal Dusapin. The summer will see us working with National Youth Arts Wales to train super talented dancers of the future, and throughout 2018 we will be working with older people in the Swansea area, as well as continuing with our Dance for Parkinson’s programme in Cardiff and Blackwood.”
There’s many reasons to be proud of the arts companies that are born of our little nation but NDCWales seems to encompass them all on its own: local, national, international, residential, touring, nursing the aged and nurturing the young. Not only that, they give you four shows for the price of two. You better see it – twice.
Various venues, touring Thurs 8 Feb until May. Tickets: £15/£13 conc. Info: 029 2063 5600 / www.ndcwales.co.uk/en/