Northern School of Contemporary Dance dancer Antonio Bukhar Ssebuuma: Performed with Trio Agile at York Late Music’s Freedom Dances concert
Trio Agile is as versatile as its name implies. Susie Hodder-Williams plays flute, alto flute or piccolo with Chris Caldwell concentrating on alto sax and bass clarinet, while Richard Horne handles all manner of percussion, tuned and otherwise. It’s an unusual combo but it offered 11 composers plenty of scope.
The two wind players collaborated on two pieces of their own making, Prelude, which was slow and winding, and Light Dances, where virtuoso sax inspired livelier, tighter movements in the dancers.
In general, more rhythmic music produced more discernible dance steps, whereas slower scores resulted in less legwork and more waving of arms – and thus less clear-cut connections between music and movement.
Two regulars on the Late Music roster delivered pieces that were essentially balletic. The clockwork momentum of David Lancaster’s The Compendium Of Ingenious Mechanical Devices, featuring bass clarinet, cowbells and woodblock, proved ideal backing for Antonio Bukhar Ssebuuma’s twirling solo.
The underlying minimalism of Steve Crowther’s Once Upon A Time Harlequin Met His Columbine ideally pictured Columbine (piccolo) and Harlequin (bass clarinet) with two dancers playing hide-and-seek against piano backing.
Tom Armstrong’s fascinating potpourri of sounds in Aunt Maria’s Dancing Master, including tea cups and pebbles, inspired more classical steps and leaps. Paul Honey’s flickering Pizzica was well matched with mercurial, puckish movements. The evening took its title from a telling piece by James Else, where two dancers intertwined to sinuous backing.
All of the music had more or less instant appeal, although not all suggested dance. Other composers involved were Angela Elizabeth Slater, David Power and Athena Corcoran-Tadd. But perhaps the most fascinating, and certainly the most unusual, was the raga by Supriya Nagarajan, in which the composer herself chanted and the dancers moved more closely together as the vocals became increasingly urgent. It was that kind of evening, full of delightful surprises.
Review by Martin Dreyer