When Wendy Martin, Artistic Director of Perth Festival, saw the latest work from the Michael Clark Company at last year’s December Dance Festival in Bruges, Belgium, she felt instinctively that here was a piece that would attract people who don’t normally go to contemporary dance.
A triptych choreographed to music by Erik Satie, Patti Smith and David Bowie, running a tight 85 minutes including interval, she found herself on her feet with the rest of the audience as the work – entitled to a simple, rock ‘n’ roll… song. – climaxed to Bowie’s Aladdin Sane.
Clark, who burst onto the scene in the 1980s as the post-punk wild-child of British dance, has often used Bowie’s songs in his dance pieces. Speaking to The Guardian ahead of the premiere of this latest work at the Barbican in London in December 2016, he said: “I was so shocked by his death, really shocked.”
to a simple, rock ‘n’ roll… song. Photo © Hugo Glendinning
Martin believes that this is one reason why to a simple, rock ‘n’ roll… song. resonates so powerfully. “He made this work after Bowie passed away [in January 2016] so it feels particularly emotionally engaging,”...
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