Trip To Barnsley

Jenny and I arrived in Barnsley at 5pm on Friday 11^th February, took a taxi to our lovely hotel and then sped off to The Civic to join Bawren and the dancers. When we arrived at the theatre the dancers were just finishing their tech rehearsal with Antony our production manager up in the booth controlling the lights and sound. It had been a tough day already; the dancers had worked very hard but were positive about the evening’s performance.

                               (The view from our hotel)

Jenny and I handed out programmes and questionnaires before the show, and it was great to talk to different audience members. A lot of them were big fans -of dance and others had never experienced contemporary dance before but had decided to come along to try something new.

                               (our board outside the theatre)

The show was brilliant, there were new parts I had never seen before that Bawren had changed in the rehearsals between shows, so this made it doubly exciting for me. That is what I find so thrilling about dance, it can be changed at any moment or taken in another direction so easily that even if you don’t feel right about it the first time you choreograph, there are always chances to rearrange and reorganise your material. The dancers had great energy throughout the show and are brilliant and capturing the right emotion both in their face and their movement for the different sections of the piece.

The comments we got about the show afterwards were tremendous, people left with smiles on their faces and we were inundated with comment sheets with very positive feedback. Many people were glad to catch Bawren so they could shake his hand and tell him a hearty well done for such brilliant choreography. The atmosphere from an audience like this leaves you feeling as if your work has been well done, and the dancers were especially pleased upon reading the comments that were made about them.

After the show we went to have dinner in the restaurant beside our hotel, it was great to chat to the dancers, hear stories about previous members of the company and about how Bawren works as a choreographer. The company has become so accustom to change over the years (be that change of dancers or starting a differently themed work) that it doesn’t phase them, it’s all in a days work for them.

Look out for a post soon were I will document a day in the life of a touring company when Tavaziva perform on the 8^th March at ‘The Place’ in London!