PCD - Rise Again

Many thanks for Preston College Dance for inviting me along to see their end of year show, ‘Rise Again’ at the Charter Theatre, Preston, on Thursday 30th June 2022. The show consisted of 27 pieces, mainly focused on dance, with a few numbers including live vocals and musical theatre elements.

It would be very fair to say that each number performed was to the highest of qualities, bordering on professional level. I walked away from this evening of theatre so proud and humbled by the standard of talent that is being created within Preston, and super excited to know dance is still very much alive in the area.

For the sake of this review, I have to classify this as an adult production, as the students ranged from college years to degree level. That being said, it was extremely difficult to differentiate between those at the beginning of their further education and those finishing their degree level training.

The level of technique, across many disciplines of dance, were outstanding. All numbers were perfectly drilled, using many choreographic techniques, interesting use of staging and spacing, and used variations of combinations of dancers to make varying statements. I full applaud each and every performer involved in this production. I am sure they will all go very far in their careers if they chose to stay within this industry.

Lighting and costumes were extremely detailed throughout and amplified each number to its fullest.

With the number of pieces involved within this production, I am choosing to call out my personal top 5 numbers of notability, in chronological order from the show:

Jet Set, choreographed by Laura Bragagini, was a super strong opening for the show. The piece could be described as a fusion of acro jazz, musical theatre style au fait to Jerome Robins, and show dance. The female dancers looked fabulous in their shiny blue leotards and gave the audience full belt from start to finish including quadruple pirouettes, high kicks galore and tonnes of tricks and box split leaps, all amongst singing to the track flawlessly. Midway through the number, 4 strong male dancers were interjected into the choreography, who were equally as drilled and trained as the females. The dance manipulated bodies and space in some very dynamic ways and I loved the human aeroplane tableau created. This was such a strong opening for the show and set a high standard, which cannot be faulted throughout.

Hallelujah was choreographed and performed as a solo by Natasha Mitchell. This was a very brave performance and for me was one of the humblest of the show, most probably as there was only one focal point throughout the show, so was less busy, and gave the pace of the entire show a breath. The dance was lyrical / contemporary, showed excellent technique from Natasha, utilised the entire space of the stage and juxtaposed moments of stillness, some popping and jerking, with the flow of the lyrical. There were nice moments within the choreography which amplified the lyric of the song.

Salute, choreographed by Josh Wharmby, would be understated by saying this was one of the fiercest pieces of dance I have ever seen. There was popping, locking, ticking, grinding a plenty. The choreography was almost soldier-like, and could not have been more tight as a unit. The lighting for this number was particularly strong mixing red side light and flood creating sharp shadow, and pure white strobe, which extremely enhanced the choreography.

My personal favourite piece was Act Now, choreographed by Maxine Bowers. The piece was of strong contemporary style, mixing some of Graham’s walks and lines, with strong contact improvisation, some really poignant dance theatre style moments, such as the human tower surrounded by bodies reaching up to it, it very much reminded me of some of Pina Bauche’s works. The piece was underpinned by a soundscape and projection visual of real people’s opinions and views of Global Warming. The red hue of the lighting amplified the drama of the piece. This was a stunning piece of art created and was beautifully performed by all dancers.

This brings me to the last piece to call out, Cabaret, choreographed by Maxine Bowers. This was a rendition of 2 big numbers from the musical Cabaret; Welcome, soloed by Nathaniel Ingham as Emcee, and Cabaret, soloed by Ellen Dickinson as Sally Bowles. Nat opened the number and was the epitimisation of the Fosse style. He was angular, grotesque, yet charming and endearing. His French / German accent was flawless and characterised these numbers in a manner am sure Fosse would have been proud of. Ellen’s version of Cabaret was also super strong, giving the sass and some of the disturbances of this character. The chorus added much to enhance both these numbers, I felt they were too pretty and perfect with the show smiles and upright choreography throughout. Compared to the more authentic to Fosse's originality embodied by the characterisations of Sally and Emcee personally would have preferred to have seen this as a continuation throughout. This isn't a comment on the performances by any means, more that I personally love the raw, vaudeville, ugliness of some of the characters of Fosse’s work, particularly those in Cabaret.

Overall, I was totally blown away by this show and wish all those graduating the very best in their next steps and looking forward to seeing some of the performers again soon.

 

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