TROOP!

TROOP! has toured: Junction, Cambridge; Cut Arts Centre, Suffolk; Colchester Arts Centre, Essex; Purcell Room, SBC, London; Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh with a symposium at London Metropolitan University.

This full length production penetrates the mechanisms that keep standing the ultimate symbol of femininity who, unhooked from biology, domesticity and social/cultural prescription is an endlessly reinvented archetype. The symmetries of the dancing line foreground the unique differences between the show girls who create it: their physicality, history, race (In Josephine Baker's day, before the homogenised 'ideal' represented by post-McCarthy American film of the 50s, showdancers were of all sizes and skin tones, satisfying all tastes.) The line wields power and dominance, but also binds the dancers to repetition, sameness and exposure. These paradoxes yield interweaving narratives that interrogate identity, desire, expression and representation, played out in complex choreographies of the theatricalised female form.

"The debate surrounding the suggested objectification of the showgirl is particularly relevant today amidst a boom in the art of burlesque, which traditionally features dancing girls and striptease, and is a popular feature of the international nightlife scene. Choreographer Jane Turner, who first worked as a showgirl at the Scala Ballet in Barcelona, offers a glimpse into the dynamics of the dancing line via contemporary dance theatre in Troop, which closed a short UK-based tour at London’s Purcell Room in December.
Turner’s cast is fronted by seven dancing girls, each distinguished by a personalised costume – Sam Dightham’s deliciously modern combination of frills and flesh – which befits their sexualised caricature. Think Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs: X-rated. Bashful bats her eyelids and giggles in the manner of a sexy schoolgirl; grumpy stalks around the stage in S&M-style stockings, brandishing a scowl that’s as frightening as any whip.
Turner’s movement material is inspired by “showy” steps and kicks, and the bare-footed dancers overlay a more organic, earthy element until the addition of character shoes transforms them into leggy stereotypes. It also provides the basis for a sequence where each dancer chatters away on a mobile phone (it’s actually a discarded shoe, although it’s so well-acted it may as well be a phone). They gossip and natter while moving around the space – snatches of speech rising up from the hum of voices – seemingly unaware of the audience, who have become voyeuristic witnesses of these private conversations.
Highlights like these are plenty..... Turner’s material is often fresh, her cast of leading ladies well chosen, a convincing performance." Katie Gregory, DANCE TODAY

Artistic Director/Choreographer: Jane Turner
Dancers: Natascha Bisarre, Jo Stobbs, Victoria Chiu, Jessye Parke, Jenny Attwood, Ann Pidcock, Mirjam Gurtner, Tim Taylor, Roland Cox

TROOP can next be seen at
The Hat Factory, Luton, Beds, at 7.30pm on Thursday 8th October in double bill with HERD.