“This show is exactly what it says on the tin,” says Joan Clevillé, artistic director of the Dundee Rep-based Scottish Dance Theatre.
He’s speaking of course about the company’s new production Pirates!
“It’s a piece about pirates, but perhaps more pirates of the imagination.”
It’s a dance-theatre show, he continues, with script and dialogue to accompany dance from the company’s ten-piece adult ensemble.
“We follow two friends, Daisy and Tom, who go on an adventure. They get swept away into Tom’s imagination, and because he reads lots of pirate books and writes pirate stories, they’re swept into a pirate story.
“Characters including Captain Sandy Rogers and her crew meet sea creatures, a bunch of zombies and the villain, Sandy’s enemy, the pirate hunter Admiral O’Greed.
“It’s a journey for families, for children, that takes you on a ride on a boat and under the water. There’s lots of humour, and hopefully a beautiful takeaway around friendship and identity.
“How do we grow by being ourselves and by meeting other people?”
Pirates! to be a ‘spectacle’ for Dundee Rep audiences
Scottish Dance Theatre wanted to invest in a big production with a sense of spectacle about it, says Clevillé.
It has a grand set, colourful costumes, specially-composed music and is 90 minutes long, with an interval. The larger cast, he continues, is also unusual for a dance show for younger audiences.
It sounds like it has much in common with the Rep’s blockbuster Christmas shows.
“That’s exactly right,” he says. “The ambition is to create a high-quality dance production, but one with the magic, engagement and accessibility of one of the Rep’s Christmas shows. We think it’s important to bring some joy to families right now, they’re going through so much.
“There’s a lot of play in the piece. What attracts me to pirates is their creative energy and the idea that they live by their own rules, on the outside of society.
“There’s a lot of fun to be had with that, so our pirates play games like Walk the Plank, but instead of throwing people overboard, they jump acrobatically on a crash mat.
“Another game is Finding the Treasure, where we hide something amongst the audience, who direct the performers to find it.
“There’s also a lot of storytelling, I think it’s super-important to have characters that are relatable, that you can identify with, as you go on a journey. As they change and they learn things, I hope we feel the same way together.”
‘I only discovered dance when I was 16’
Clevillé came to Scottish Dance Theatre as a dancer in 2009, then left in 2013 to start his own Dundee-based dance company, before returning as artistic director in 2019.
This is his first production for families since coming back.
“I see it as part of our responsibility to introduce dance to younger audiences,” says Clevillé.
“Perhaps, like myself (at that age), many of them don’t know dance exists, I only discovered it when I was 16. Of course, I knew there was something called dance, but not that I could do it or what it looked like.
“I was terrible at school sports, I didn’t like the competitive element, but when I discovered dance I thought, here’s a way I can be physical and also creative. To open children’s eyes to that is important.
“The company has done that in the past, when I was a dancer, and so it felt right to us to develop something for younger audiences, because they are the audience of the future and they deserve it.”
He believes there will be more life in Pirates! after these shows; in fact it’s already scheduled for a ten-day run at The Place in London, home of London Contemporary Dance School, just before Christmas.
“It’s the biggest contemporary dance centre in the UK, we’re very proud of that,” says Clevillé.
“We see this as hopefully the beginning of more Pirates! performances, we’re inviting loads of promoters and representatives from other venues in Scotland, we hope to tour it in 2024.
“Why not to do it again at the Rep too? There still will be many people who won’t have seen it. We hope it’s going to have a long, healthy life.”
Pirates! is at Dundee Rep Theatre from Tuesday June 13 until Saturday June 17. www.dundeerep.co.uk
