The Lady Vanishes

Dudendance Theatre are creating an out-door performance work within Abbey sites along the Scottish Borders Abbey Way as an in-situ “pop-up” performance and for a special event to mark the Commonwealth Games celebration.  Historically the Scottish Borders were one of the most turbulent and anarchic places in Britain with constant disputes during the Scottish Wars of Independence.   2014 will see the Scottish Referendum and the celebration of the 1st World War BORDERLANDS will be a poetic metaphor - a subtle evocation of what it means to be invaded. 

Inspired by paintings of the Renaissance, the costumes by Canadian designer HEATHER MACCRIMMON are stylistically a combination of ecclesiastical costume and armour designed for shape- shifting and movement flow. The slow meditative pace and sculptural quality of the performance will unfold like a dream around the audience who will discover different “views” of the choreography through and into the ruins. 

Dudendance will be based in the Borders for three months from April 2013. Weekly workshop sessions with professional local dancers, young people and members of Dudendance including Brasilian collaborator Dora de Andrade will build the performance material.  A "fragment" of the project will be presented as part of Historic Scotland / The Red Field "Fragment Project" on 5th April 2013 at Melrose Abbey with full scale performance interventions throughout June 2013. We are planning 3-4 sites including: Kelso town square and Abbey, Jedburgh Abbey, Melrose and Dryburgh Abbey where we will be joined by Borders choir Andate led by John Stone. Finally in October the project will re-locate to Huntly Aberdeenshire where a summer school and autumn holiday rehearsal for young people will result in a large scale outdoor performance at Huntly Castle for Huntly Halloween Festival. The outdoor work will be accompanies by a specially commissioned sound-score by FABIANA GALANTE in collaboration with a Huntly choir.

About the artists:

Heather MacCrimmon, Berlin/Toronto – costume for film, theatre and dance

Heather designs costumes for film, television, theatre and contemporary dance. She has worked with many choreographers and companies in Berlin and Toronto amongst them: Susanna Hood, Serge Bennathan (Banff), Marie-Josee Chartier (Dance-Makers), Heidi Strauss, Yvonne Ng, Claudia Moore. Companies include: Fabrik-Potsdam, Berlin Tanzfabrik, T-Werk, Dancemakers Toronto, Winnipeg Ballet and Theatre de Complicite London. For Dudendance Heather has created the costume for Spaceman and collaborated on Into the Wild.

Fabiana Galante, Argentina - sound artists and musician

Fabiana Galante is considered to be Argentina’s foremost experimental pianist and composer. She has won critical acclaim for establishing the avant-garde music festival Experimenta and Instantes Sonoras and collaborated with high profile artists such as Kazuo Ohno. During her MA study in Scotland at the RSAMD she performed at the CCA, Tramway, Northern College in Aberdeen , Dundee and St. Andrew’s Universities and premiered work by Scottish composer Ross Campbell . She has worked with Dudendance since 2001 and also created experimental music for the Huntly Pipe Band, collaborated with violinist Paul Anderson and performed in the SOUND festival.

Clea Wallis and Paul Rous – artistic directors Dudendance

Clea and Paul met at Camberwell Art School in 1984 and formed Dudendance with a group of seven performers and art students. Clea subsequently studied under expressionist choreographer Anna Sokolov in New York and Pina Bausch in Wuppertal Germany. Paul worked with Laurie Booth and Motionhouse, taught in prisons, formed his own company and performed for several companies including Dance Unlimited.

Dudendance have created over twenty works having been based in London, Glasgow, Aberdeenshire and working internationally in Germany, Canada, and South America. Recent site-specific productions include Into the Wild and This Side of Paradise made with young people in Huntly. A strong link to South America since 1992 has resulted in co-production, tours, film projects and interchange in Brazil and Argentina.