Scottish Dance Theatre, The Place, London
By Zoe Anderson
06 April 2004

Scottish Dance Theatre is a small company with a growing reputation. Since Janet Smith took over as director seven years ago, the company has been touring more widely, in larger venues and with a more ambitious repertoire. The current tour shows works made for the company within the past year; two have commissioned scores. New choreography is a gamble, and these works are patchy. But it’s a direct, lively performance.

The strongest piece is Sean Feldman’s Moment. Seven dancers run in and out of solos and group dances, tilting and swinging. Tim Motzer’s new score moves from electronic bleeps to gasps and voices. Feldman gets more imaginative as soon as the human voice comes in. A long section of laboured breathing and speech is set as a duet for Philippa White and Baptiste Bourgougnon. They circle around each other, closing and separating. As White steps towards Bourgougnon, she tips right over into a fall. Each time, he catches her and turns, swinging her round with him. It’s a lurching, dipping spin, a fall that starts to look like a waltz.