@ King’s Theatre, Edinburgh, on Tue 26 May 2015
In an art form where timing, balance and accurate footwork are key, tonight’s performance from the Edinburgh College Dancers has some problems to overcome.
The show starts positively with the famous announcement by then Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain, stating that Britain is at war with Germany. The focus of the show is to be a commemoration of the 70th anniversary of VE Day, and the programme tells the audience that “each piece will focus on a different aspect of World War 2 taking us through the emotional journey of six years of life stories,” but if this is the intention it’s lost on me.
The producers of the show do try to intertwine each story with a recurrent theme of British flags (all audience members are also given one on arrival) and a symbolic red coat, but it feels forced and doesn’t help the audience understand what is going on in all of the life stories.
Aside from the confusing storyline, however, the biggest problem with the show is the dancers’ lack of synchronicity and some very noticeable balance problems. If this was a High School show this would be no problem, but these are dancers who have chosen to make dance their life and study it day in, day out. Is it the lack of footwear? Lack of practice? Nerves? Or is it just a case of the wrong style?
I ask this last question as there is a ray of light in tonight’s show – the choreography of Rosalind Lynch. These dances do portray the stories effectively and show off the dancers’ abilities so we can see that there is definitely some quality at Edinburgh College. Lynch’s second dance in particular is wonderful and for the first time tonight I sit up in my seat and want it to keep on going. It is a jazz dance, and the style, energy and movements are ‘on point’ so I can’t help but wonder – if this is what the dancers are best at, why is it the only jazz number in the show?
They have a wonderful theatre to perform in, great lighting, super ideas and some clever staging but it is, nonetheless, disappointing. It could have been so much better.