Stockholm Resource Pack - Frantic Assembly

Their dance
We wanted something that belongs to them. Intimate, sexy,
challenging, it is also exclusive to them. When they dance
they are showing the world they are a couple. The world
can only watch in awe.
We wanted them to possess a physicality that might not
have been seen in previous Frantic shows. Knowing nothing
about ballroom dancing and being avid avoiders of any
Saturday night celebrity dance competitions we envisaged
the performers developing a hybrid style of movement that
could look genuine but was not necessarily stuck in any
one style. The point was not that they were certain type of
dancers, just that they loved to dance.
This new physical language would allow us to present the
joy they find in it and then revisit it at other, less
applicable, times. Kali's need to dance contests with Todd's
need to cook. When he submits we might see that the
moves are not merely repeated but have become angry or
inherently dangerous by now being executed on the
surfaces of a working kitchen.
Georgina Lamb and Samuel James
Photo Manuel Harlan
There is nothing new in this approach. It is simply the use
of motif, repetition and retrograde that any dance piece
would employ. What is important to us is that the dance
feels different each time for the characters. They are aware
of the differing context for each dance. They are aware of
the heightened challenge, or the tension of the moment. As
this context changes so do their reasons for pulling each
other tight. It is not merely repetition. The moves express
the characters growing passion, anger, jealousy, insecurity,
desire and desperation.
In early development we set our performers the task of
making up some ballroom type material (we said ballroom
without really knowing what that meant but the actors
seemed to know). They created some lovely and joyful
moves that I am sure a panel of experts might slaughter
but to our uninitiated eyes, they looked just right.
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