Verve Living Up To Its Name

Verve is the Northern School of Contemporary Dance's post-graduate touring dance company. The company's dancers are all current NSCD MA students on the verge of their careers as professional artists, and their talent is formidable, as you'd expect from one of the country's leading dance schools.

These young dancers had the chance to display their exceptional talents in a variety of dance styles during the triple-bill programme at Leeds Playhouse.

The first piece, A Field of Beauty, choreographed by Verve’s Artistic Director, Matteo Marfoglia, was a gorgeous blend of languid sensuousness punctured by moments of almost spasmodic frenzy. In the same way, the dark staging was illuminated by simple spotlights focused on individual dancers and large golden discs, which the performers used to reflect and refract the light. Inspired by the idea of beauty as subjective and diverse, various ideas were brought to mind throughout the piece: a beating heart, a blossoming flower, a Haute Couture fashion shoot, and Botticelli's Birth of Venus. Music from around the world underlines different concepts of beauty, and the final extract, a 1930’s Italian love song, drives this home as the performers seem disconnected from its style and rhythm. The sweeping violins of the song evoke images of Hollywood starlets waltzing around a ballroom, while our dancers, slightly off-beat, dance to their own tune, unaffected by the audience's expectations.

For the second piece, Forget-me-not, choreographer Joy Alpuerto Ritter collaborated with the dancers to create a narrative of family journeys and portraits. The result is a celebration of family life in all its complexity—the joy of birthdays and marriages, as well as the friction that arises between families during these events, the challenges of growing old, and the grief of losing loved ones. 

Within these scenes are moments of humour, fun, love, and laughter, as well as competitiveness, anger, and sadness. Each dancer carries flowers, offered as gifts of congratulations or condolence, cradled like a child, or thrown by a bride to jostling guests. The dancers hold a mirror up to the intricacies of familial relationships, and it’s easy to catch glimpses of your own family in those reflections. And although family seems to be everywhere, all the time, sometimes overwhelmingly so, the frequent appearance of an isolated figure standing quietly at the edge of the stage was a reminder that loneliness is as much a part of family life as togetherness and of the transience of life.

During the intermission, the audience was asked to leave the auditorium so that the crew could prepare the stage for the final piece—a performance by the whole company of (LA)HORDE’s People Used to Die. On reentering the auditorium, we found that the stage had been stripped back to the bare minimum, opening up the full space with equipment and storage cases pushed back to the walls, creating a huge industrial-style space. This wasn’t just about creating an appropriate backdrop for the Hard Jump/Jumpstyle choreography; it immediately became clear that the company needed every inch of that stage because this piece of work really moves! 

In theory, this is a simple, repetitive routine performed in unison and changing direction at the end of each phrase—a kind of urban line-dance—but it is relentless. The strength and stamina required to keep pace are astounding, and some of this energy is supplied by a powerful industrial beat that drives the dancers on. Dancers come and go, taking a much-deserved break every few minutes to catch their breath before sprinting back to the group to join in and keep this powerhouse in motion, performed by the whole company. The effect is exhilarating and exhausting.

Dancers from NSCD's CAT scheme introduced the evening with a brief performance as an added bonus. Based on the idea of saying goodbye—or not—to the past, this group of young artists brought to life a bittersweet reflection on leaving childhood behind and taking their first steps into independence. In Home Sweet Home, performed largely as an ensemble work, a pair of dancers emerge at various points to suggest a parent-child relationship that evolves with time. At first, this couple works in close unison, each directing and manipulating the others’ movements; they break apart, return to each other, and then ultimately separate permanently—one dancer making her way through the crowd and off the stage while the other looks on from the wing. This piece covered a lot of ground in only 6 minutes and was a really moving experience.

Contemporary dance can sometimes be a bit more challenging than more traditional forms, but however you feel about it, a good dance company will always leave you thinking—often for days. NSCD’s VERVE is undeniably one of these.

Verve appears on:
Sat 18 May York Theatre Royal, York
Fri 24 & Sat 25 May Riley Theatre, Leeds

More information here