A feast of outdoor dance: Derby Festé 2023

Various Venues, Derby
September 23, 2023

The Saturday of this year’s 15th edition of Deby Festé saw a fair bit of sunshine, even if it wasn’t the warmest day ever. That must have been quite a relief given the in and out nature of the weather this summer. Very healthy audiences thrilled to the extremely varied dance and physical theatre performances staged outdoors across the city centre, almost all of which were free of charge.

Created earlier this year, Lungs of Our City is the latest outdoor work from Hereford-based 2Faced Dance Company.

In the Market Place, set around a roughly four-metre tall ‘tree’ created from scaffolding, three male performers inhabit a desolate space. The soundtrack from Ukrainian quartet DakhaBrakha, the blackened remains of the tree, and the overalls and masks worn by the dancers all suggest a world that has been destroyed. Perhaps by war, perhaps by pollution. Almost certainly by humankind. When they climb the tree and look out, you imagine they see nothing but a barren world.

The athletic choreography makes full use of the set. The dancers (Sam Buswell, John Robinson and Lew Baker) climb the tree’s trunk and leap over its roots. They give support to each other, physically and emotionally. As the music gets more strident and the energy builds, the mood slowly changes. Glimmers of optimism that all is not yet lost appear. A few metal leaves are tied on the tree. First shoots. New Life. Hope. Until it ends with a party-like feel, the dance exuberant and unrestrained.

After the show, the audience were invited to write their hopes on leaves and add them to wishing tree. Some were quite moving.

2Faced Dance were one of the companies who lost their National Portfolio Organisation (NPO) status and funding in the last round. Artistic director Tamsin Fitzgerald told me afterwards just how much of a shock it was, but that she was determined not to give up. Perhaps there’s something of their situation and outlook in Lungs of Our City too. It’s certainly good to see carrying on and still putting out quality work.

Also in the Market Place, and similarly performed on and around a tree, albeit this time constructed of willow around a steel frame, was Forests by Birmingham circus and physical theatre company Rogue Play.

The 25-minute version of show may only be half the length of it’s indoor sister, but it still packs quite a punch as it challenges deforestation and the displacement of wildlife and indigenous peoples. As the excellent trio of Fleur Hall, Shaq Shadare and Kim Wildborne climbed and danced around the tree, a voiceover reminded us how it is the “great protector… static but always moving,” and how it is alive and always “breathing deep.”

There’s some great acrobatics and initially a lot of supporting each other, but discord is not far away. Ropes that appear are brought into the action in innovative ways before, suddenly, the tree is felled, it’s resident origami birds now homeless. It’s not only unexpected, it comes as quite a shock. But it also drives the message home better than any words or dance ever could.

Rogue Play’s Forests had also been part of Festé’s launch the previous evening, the main event of which was Illuminos, which celebrated 25 years of twinning between Derbyshire and Toyota City in Japan with two video projection artworks created specifically for Derby’s Guildhall and Kojaku-ji temple in Toyota City. The evening also saw the premiere of Nikki & JD’s new Fireside at Cathedral Green, a participatory promenade piece in which they invite the audience to share an intimate moment around a campfire.

A short walk brought the chance to see classical dance from an unusual perspective in the shape of Finale by Delrevés, a vertical dance company from Barcelona, who presented their stunningly beautiful aerial ballet complete with tutus and pointe shoes on the side of the tower of the Silk Mill. The highlights were Swan Lake’s ‘Cygnets’ and Nutcracker‘s ‘Waltz of the Flowers,’ but you just had to marvel at it all. I can safely say that it was classical ballet as I never seen it.

A little along the river at the Riverside Amphitheatre, Joss Arnott Dance presented their visceral, fast-paced and loud in every sense of the word work, Rush. Performed to a cinematic percussive score by James Keane, it tends to simmer, sitting right on the edge before periodically exploding into life. When it does so, it’s as if the dancers are being buffeted by the pounding music.

Rush packs a lot in. The choreography itself cleverly and very neatly interweaves solos with commanding unison moments. Each of those solos told us something of the dancers. Yue Ying Ho was all power, grace and superb accuracy and control. Shannon Kate Platt was powerful too but slightly looser, wilder. There are tender, quieter moments too, most notably a duet for Dominic Coffey and Charley Mitchell.

Parade – The Giant Wheel by Autin Dance Theatre saw five dancers take a 4-metre tall giant wooded water wheel on a short journey along the riverside. The carefully choreographed procession quickly lost impact, however. There are static moments that apparently “celebrate the tension and fracture between our individual identities and our shared collective humanity,” although on this occasion that didn’t communicate itself to me.

Also on the Saturday and inside a huge 60ft performance space called The Whale (yes, it did look like one!), Circo Rum Ba Ba led audiences through the life and journeys of an ancient leatherback turtle and a whale and their fight to survive. The environmental theme continued elsewhere with Highly Sprung’s Castaway, which explores the impact of today’s throwaway society on our waterways; and Wildernests by Handmade Theatre, a family friendly show with music, storytelling and puppets, inspired by the natural world around us.

In the evening, TOTEMS by Compagnie des Quidams saw huge evanescent figures dressed in long coats wander through the crowds with controlled imbalances and incessant swirls.

It was a very impressive two days programming. Among other shows, Def Motion, a Midlands-based crew of deaf, hard of hearing and neurodiverse artists performed their street dance-based Cog in the Wheel, whilst Farm Yard Circus was a farm-life inspired circus spectacle. Daryl & Co and Mimbre presented Look Mum, No Hands, a tale of friendship and growing up; whilst Simple Cypher brought their trademark hip-hop and circus fusion to proceedings in Roll Model. Vanhulle Dance’s Dovetail was another coming together, this time of breakin’ and martial arts in a high-energy duet, and Tom Dale Company brought a taste of VR with Surge VR.

Noise, colour and community. Innovation and creativity. The Festé Saturday really sparkled, even if I was a little chill by the evening.