Performance / 26-26 April 2019

For now we see through a mirror, darkly

Tickets: 14-16
Show Time: 7.30pm

 
This eerie and mystical dance performance has been created in collaboration and performed with Jo Hellier and Peter McMaster. The performance includes a Visual Description developed in collaboration with Juliana Capes, which describes and interprets that which cannot be seen, but is present. The description is an accessibility function for visually impaired audiences but also functions to give access to understanding the abstract content for those who are sighted.
The performance uses movement, text, light, costume and a painted backdrop. The content of the piece includes summoning of the devil, abstracted voice and stylized, minimal movement.
It is a bright space, light spring from deep below and from behind. There is nowhere to hide. There are 3 obscured vertical figures; a blood sack, a towering meat stack (or stink horn) and a jelly beast. The 3 figures signify the 3 different fires in the work: The inner fire, the secret fire and the dark fire that stimulates the other two.
Four winds blow through and it is time to journey through the gloom. This highly cryptic pictorial world can be placed under the slogan of its favourite motif – a smiling snake, a dying sun and the gentle droppings of unclean slime. Sometimes the image will spin into the abyss, and sometimes stand at the centre, and sometimes it spreads flat into broad space.
Dark matter is brought to life through great heat and distilled up to twelve times. This phase lasts for a long time so one should be patient. The terror of the situation gives us a moist hug and the most fabulous sphere of wrath, for it is here that the chaotic blood tunnel opens and we visualise the golden nugget. Evocation at its best, for now we see through a mirror, darkly.
Developed through the National Theatre of Scotland’s Starter Programme (supported by McGlashan Charitable Trust), The Work Room, Beacon Arts Centre and Reykjavik Dance Festival. Supported by the National Lottery through Creative Scotland and Take Me Somewhere.
See more for less with our bundle offer and see two shows for €25 (€22 concession). Simply select your tickets and the discount will automatically apply at checkout.

Credits

Choreography/Concept: Louise Ahl
Created and performed by: Jo Hellier, Peter McMaster and Ultimate Dancer
Visual Description: Company in collaboration with Juliana Capes
Dramaturgy: Crystal Cooper
Scenic Painter: Charlotte Powell
Ultimate Dancer Twitter: @Ultimate_Dancer
Ultimate Dancer Facebook: /UltimateDancer
Ultimate Dancer Instagram: @ultimatedancer666
Louise Ahl / Ultimate Dancer website: https://louiseahl.com/
Jo Hellier website: https://cargocollective.com/johellier
Peter McMaster website: https://www.petermcmaster.org/
Juliana Capes website: https://www.julianacapes.co.uk

Press

[stars-4] “Louise Ahl yet again balancing provocatively on the cusp between sly spoof and an uplifting quest for images and rituals that can give meaningful expression to existence.” The Herald 

Funding

Louise Ahl is a Glasgow-based artist originally from Sweden, making experimental and choreographic performance work. She creates both solo and collaborative multi-art-form pieces under the guise of Ultimate Dancer.
Louise makes work around the metaphysical and mystical, using movement, voice, light, sonics and language. Her work has shown nationally and internationally and has been supported through Creative Scotland, Arts Council England and the Swedish Arts Grants Committee.
Louise was a New Associated Artist at Yorkshire Dance in 2012, a Tramway Associated Artist in 2015/16 and a 2017/18 recipient of the Starter Artist award through the National Theatre of Scotland.

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