Summit Dance Theatre will be performing two works, ‘re-imaginings’ of Rudolf Laban’s original dance works, Drumstick and Nacht:
Dancing Drumstick is a rebellion against the Dalcroze method of music visualisation and music inspired movement. It is Laban’s attempt to shift dance away from the constraints of music. ‘Drumstick’ rejects the Dalcroze method of music visualisation, so musicians follow the dancers, with sections of live improvisation in performance where musicians respond to dancer’s movement in real time. Counterpoint of movement and sound proved interesting for Laban and he moved away from set ‘codified’ steps to reveal its potential, exploring how rhythm and patterns of the mind and spirit manifest in movement. The division of time in the natural movements of the human being ‘has nothing to do with metric rhythmic systems’… they follow another law’. (Laban, 1912).
Nacht is a political satire, exposing the underbelly of the Weimar Period. Laban refers to his distaste of ‘dollars, deceit and depravity’. The work has four sections and examines the superficialities of social etiquette in ‘Smart Set’, the greed of ‘Stockbrokers’, the way ‘Tanz Bars’ were used for political propaganda and the ‘Monotony’ of work and labour. ‘1920’s Berlin…starving but sexy.’
Booking can be found here http://www.surrey.ac.uk/arts/dance/summit-dance-theatre