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More of a Preview than a ReviewDateline: 16th October, 2004Last week, in North East News, we reported that the Sakoba Dance Company was to premiere its latest work, Aseju, at Stockton's Arc on 15th and 16th October. Arc's marketing department had invited me to see the show and I was keen to do so, but could only manage the Friday matinee. No problem from their end, so off I went. I am improving. The last couple of times I went to the venue it took me twenty minutes to reach Stockton and thirty minutes to find the Arc! This time I drove straight to it, thus arriving almost 45 minutes early. There was quite a buzz about the place: I arrived at the same time as a group of students who were clearly from a dance course at one of the local colleges (or possibly the university). Not much later a long crocodile of impeccably uniformed schoolgirls also turned up. The cafe/bar filled up and at last it was time to go into the theatre. The show was introduced by Arc's director and it soon became clear we were not to see Aseju: the company yes, but not the piece I had come to see. Onto the stage came the company's artistic director and choreographer, Nigerian-born Bode Lawal, who intoriduced a group of primary school children who had been working with the company during the week. They performed the dance they had learned and then Lawal taught the audience an African song. We were introduced to musician Dennis Adorsoo, who performed a solo dance. Then Lawal and the company showed how they started devising their work, with them following his lead in a series of increasingly complicated moves. Next he "volunteered" a number of people from the audience to come onstage and learn a short dance, choosing, among others, two of the girls of the school, one of the dance students' lecturers and a member of the Arc front-of-house staff (who was, it has to be said, terrific!). Finally the company performed an extract from Aseju. This is a fusion of African and European contemporary dance. The complexity and sheer physicality of the movement was quite astounding and left us all wanting more. Aseju (which means "excess") it deals with the common day-to-day emotions of anger, frustration, jealousy and revenge that all humen beings encounter. Afterwards, speaking to Lawal and company manager Carole Nissen, I was keen to find out where I could see the whole piece. There is, it turns out, a performance tonight at Berwick-upon-Tweed, but I'll be at the Theatre Royal in Newcastle, so there is no review of Aseju. Or not yet, for it is to tour in the new year and I'll be able to catch it at Hexham in January So let this little preview suffice until we can have a proper review then. Articles Indices:
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