“I’m interested in making work that reflects humanity in all its colour and glory,” says choreographer Rosemary Lee.
Her work Threaded Fine comes to Magdalen Green in Dundee tomorrow in a collaboration with Scottish Dance Theatre.
Free, and come and go
Five hours long, with 24 individual dancers repeating the same 12-minute dance individually and then together at the end, it’s free to attend and designed for audience members to come and go.
That the dancers range from age nine to in their 70s is key to the work.
“I like working with people of all ages, to see people’s life span,” says Lee.
“There’s a sense of the more mature and experienced person here, those who have lived their lives, and those at the very start of their lives.
“Then there are all those in between, which gives a flavour of how people move at different times in their lives.”
A ritual-like performance
The piece was first developed as Circadian for a beach in Lowestoft – where Lee is from, although she lives in London – in 2019, although then it was part of a special 24-hour festival, and each dance took place on the hour.
She put them all together for a show in Malta in 2020, and now it’s come to Scotland for performances in Findhorn and Dundee.
“My intention is to create a ritual-like performance, where you see the same solo danced by a nine-year-old as by a 70-year-old, but each time they dance it, it feels different,” says Lee.
“Audiences say to me, I see something different every time the next person comes out.
“You have this intimate relationship with one dancer you’re watching for 12 minutes, but as you watch for longer, you get to know the dance and appreciate the differences between each person.
Unique audience participation
“Then as you get to know the dance, you anticipate it, which is an unusual situation as an audience member.
“For the dancer it takes lot of courage, because it’s nerve-wracking stepping into that circle, so the audience becomes a support.
“We witness their courage and all their personality coming out in a solo which has many qualities, many dynamics. It’s quite energetic, so you sense both their delicacy and their power.”
A range of dancers
The show will feature six Scottish Dance Theatre performers and 18 dancers from across Scotland, but the only distinction Lee makes is “professional and non-professional”, because all involved are equal in terms of this performance.
The dance is designed around natural rhythms which connect people, she says – the carbon cycle, our life cycle, the Circadian cycle of the day – but if the weather is too bad, the performance will take place indoors at Dundee Rep. Hopefully not, though.
“I came out of theatres to work outdoors, because I feel that art should be for everyone,” says Lee.
‘You don’t need to be elite’
“I remember as a child walking into galleries and seeing a Rembrandt for free, and there it was for the rest of my life.
“That really struck a chord when I was little, and as an artist now I want to do the same, because you don’t need to be an elite audience that understands this work, you just need to be a human being.
“We all dance, we all move, we’re all regulated by these cycles,” she continues.
“I would hope the performance will speak to anyone. It’s about being generous to each other as well as seeing each other’s individuality, even though they’re strangers, and there’s something really beautiful about that. It connects people.”
- Threaded Fine is at Magdalen Green, Dundee, on Saturday June 18. www.dundeerep.co.uk
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