Dancin’ Oxford, keen to entice new audiences, believes that Richard Chappell Dance performances are a good place to start.
“if you just want to sit back and watch some wonderful dance for the first time, then our shows work well. We want our work to be cathartic and moving”
“The thing I stress to anyone who attends our performances is that it’s not about us,” Richard Chappell says.
“Regardless of your past interest in dance or theatre, we want you to feel welcome. I believe there is a general fear that some people feel that they aren’t artsy enough to appreciate contemporary dance.
“But if your experience of the performance is different from the person next to you, that’s what makes the evening unique and special to you.
“Which is why Richard Chappell Dance makes work which is deeply emotionally driven. But if you just want to sit back and watch some wonderful dance for the first time, then our shows work well. We want our work to be cathartic and moving.”
Richard’s company has a strong Oxford following due to a really fruitful and collaborative four year relationship with both Dancin’ Oxford and Pegasus.
Together they commissioned and presented his first work At the end we begin and now his latest work Still Touch which can be seen during Dancin Oxford Spring Festival.
In Still Touch, Richard collaborates with sculptor Anna Gillespie, whom he had admired from afar for years. They met and talked for hours realising they shared many values and ways of looking at how human emotion is stored in and let out of the body.
So what’s it about? “The sculptures represent people who are no longer physically present in their lives, perhaps due to bereavement or other circumstances. I want audiences to experience a rage of emotions when they watch this work but ultimately the dance is very celebratory,” Richard explains.
READ MORE ABOUT THE DANCIN OXFORD LINE-UP HERE: http://551.326.mywebsitetransfer.com/a-smorgasbord-of-dance-dancin-oxfords-2020-line-up-is-announced-with-a-packed-programme-for-young-old-singles-couples-and-newcomers/
And was Anna on board from the word go? “One of the great joys of collaborating with Richard Chappell Dance has been the unfolding discovery of the ways in which figurative sculpture and choreography are similar arts despite the fact that they deal with the opposite forces of stasis and movement,” Anna says.
“Both tell a story about what it is to be human, through the exclusive use of the human form. Both attempt to connect with their audiences through barely conscious archetypes that are revealed through dance or the projection of anima on an inanimate sculptural form.
“It is an interest in these profound emotional realities of being a human being that Richard Chappell and I recognised in each others work,” she adds.
Their collaboration led to the creation of Still Touch last year for the Royal Opera House’s Month of Sundays Festival, and Dancin’ Oxford and Pegasus Theatre’s Moving with the Times.
So what does Richard feel that Anna lends him? “Her sculptures have enabled me to question what parts of my choreography are shown through motion and which are formed through image.
“Creating Still Touch was a new experience for everyone, but a joyful one that really celebrates the connection of the cast and collaborators,” he says.
“We hope it translates into a very personal and moving experience for audiences, where people feel welcomed into the work with open arms.”
Richard Chappell’s Still Touch is at Pegasus on Friday 6 March as part of Dancin’ Oxford.
For more info on Dancin’ Oxford go to http://www.dancinoxford.co.uk\
