Previews Aug 1-2 14:40 (53mins) £7.00
Aug 3-11,13-18,20-25 14:40 (53mins) £10.00 (£8.00)
Zoo Southside

Exhilarating, intriguing dance with original electronica soundclash score

Inspired by a world of falsified freedoms and spoon-fed desires RISE incorporates a dynamic breakbeat score to create addictive uncompromising dance.

Trapped in their images, five hooded figures cut across society to challenge the twitching landscape that sustains and detains them. RISE takes the audience into the heart of our claustrophobic communities - in cities, in the media, in the loneliness of the crowd.

Musically RISE expresses itself through multiple genres of electronica and drum'n bass creating a hard and edgy platform but one that also has space for unexpected beautiful melodies and songs. Created with the band Sion (Jow_Fishy & Guy Wood) and incorporating exceptional existing tracks by Berlin based artist Pole, Susumo Yakota, Aphex Twin and reggae superstar Gentleman, Rise finds its inventive shape in the shadows of a mesmerising sonic world.

Choreography is by Tom Dale and is performed by Tom with four other exceptional dancers. Tom trained at Laban London and while there his piece Eddystone Raver, set to unreleased Squarepusher music, was broadcast by BBC2. He won Laban's award for outstanding achievement in choreography and since training has worked with many leading choreographers including a spell in Mathew Bourne's Adventures In Motion Pictures acclaimed Swan Lake.

'A fascinating piece of work, thrilling to watch. Tom Dale's choreography is sinuous and feral'
Brian Brady Head of Theatre Programme LABAN

With his own company he has developed his own unique and unpredictable style. Although expressed largely through raw and aggressive movement it is strongly influenced by classical and contemporary styles and includes moments of complex, refined precision and great beauty. Influences range from hip hop to ballet to Japanese Butoh to club culture.

RISE offers a performance that will provoke and intrigue.

www.tomdale.org.uk

 

Reviews

Five hooded figures explore how progress and technological advances affect life in our claustrophobic, insular society. Choreographer Tom Dale's intensely beguiling work sucks the breath right out of you and glues you to your seat with its flawless technical display and continuously inventive choreography. Taking inspiration from leftfield electronica and IDM, the soundtrack is a crackling onslaught of glitched out break beats from the likes of Aphex Twin and Susumu Yokota. The dark, brooding atmosphere is heightened by the space defining lighting that reduces the space and further locks in the intensity of the performance. At times though, this relentless melancholy can become oppressive, and the piece could do with a few lighter moments. Regardless, this is exhilarating, thought provoking dance.

Three Weeks 4/5

http://www.britishtheatreguide.info/otherresources/fringe/fringe08-20.htm#R

If I have to think of one single phrase that sums up Tom Dale's Rise, I would say that it is the mesmerizing fluidity transporting wave upon wave of evocation and assuring cohesion of the various styles of movement. Five hooded dancers converge and diverge sinuously, expressing the tension and isolation as well as the striving for interaction and connectedness that is the lot of contemporary urban youth. A melange of music by SION, POLE, Susumo Yakota, Aphex Twin and GENTLEMAN colludes with the movement to render the performance utterly transfixing and redolent with confused emotions. Rise is at one and the same time exhilaratingly beautiful and simmering with danger.
Dale is an outstanding dancer and a thoughtful choreographer. A graduate of Laban London, he is able to invigorate the contemporary dance scene with his engagement, researching the forces that impact on humans in modern technological societies. He crosses boundaries of style seamlessly. Rise should delight audiences of all ages, but equally it should be given funding to tour to places where contemporary dance is never seen, because it has the potential to engage new audiences and draw in young people in challenging new ways.
Highly recommended.
Jackie Fletcher

British Theatre Guide *****

TOM Dale's love of electronic music and loathing of how society shapes, or misshapes, individuals was the starting point for Rise. The Essex-born choreographer, and semi-finalist of London's prestigious Place Prize for dance, has spent the past seven years shaping his company's style.

It's still not easy to put your finger on it, blending as it does a contemporary dance language with the odd hip-hop move and touch of balletic grace, creating a fluidity of movement that holds you in its grasp.
However, it's not just Dale's choreography and the technical ease of the five dancers that sets Rise apart, it's also the impact it has on our surroundings. The atmosphere created in Zoo Southside belies the large performance area and spacious seating. Shadowy light, a heavy bass rhythm and the dancers' dark, hooded outfits all conspire to create a closed-in world where nothing good can happen. An oppressive air hangs over us all, as the dancers move through the imaginary urban space or hide beneath bars of scaffolding.
Dale's original inspiration for the work was the way in which institutions, technology and the media can clog up our minds in a way we have little or no control over – a perceived sense of claustrophobia inside our heads, which he replicates on the dance floor.
The constantly evolving soundtrack flows smoothly from electronica, through drum and bass and onto joyful reggae as the dancers finally leave their solo pursuits behind for a moment of dynamic unison; a brief ray of hope amongst the prevailing darkness. At times the music has an abrasive edge, but this is juxtaposed by the smooth movement of the dancers.
With so much dance and physical theatre on the Fringe to choose from, much of which favours on-stage busyness and paraphernalia, it's refreshing to see such a simple piece.
By KELLY APTER

Scotsman ****