Loom Ensemble brings Art Monastery performance to Dubai

Loom Ensemble's Dubai-based cohort returned to the city this month after half a year away, to begin a residency of performance and workshops at thejamjar. The fruits of their Art Monastery residency in Italy during their time away, which they refined over an international tour, premiered at thejamjar this weekend as a contemporary theatre performance they call "Prime".

The central theme of the performance is a relationship that becomes increasingly tempestuous as one of the two characters, played by Neva Cockrell, finds herself unable to relate to her partner, played by Raphael Sacks. The tension and lack of meaningful communication in their relationship is portrayed using an array of visual, verbal, physical and vocal metaphors -- some with more than one dimension of allusion.

The play features beautiful choreography and appropriate pacing, with some particularly interesting motifs expressed through color and clothing. A keen observer will notice a few internal cross-references in the narrative, and see aspects of the broader themes in seemingly mundane actions or words. Much is also added by the tactical lighting and playback sound, which were technically executed very well.

The many questions and interpretations from audience members were addressed during the short discussion session that followed, in which the inspirations and process behind the project were also described.

Horrible Histories Barmy Britain

The Horrible Histories musical comedy theatre show returned to Dubai this weekend with Barmy Britain, a journey through British history. Although it was staged this time in the huge Madinat Theatre, and with more showtime options from which to choose, I nonetheless made a relatively early booking, as the show is immensely popular. I'm not sure how many other adult fans of the TV show were in the audience, as almost everyone else seemed to be accompanying children. Even I was the only one, though, who cares? As a history geek, I could not miss it.

No material from the TV series was used in the hour-long show, as far as I recall from the former, but the two-man cast still had some great sketches scripted and songs composed to bring alive British historical facts and figures, from Boudica to Charles I to Victoria. The HH TV show tradition of contrasting historical contexts with modern culture ad absurdum could be seen in some of the sketches, such as Queen Elizabeth going undercover, and the Dick Turpin story done in the style of a reality TV show. The actors did well for the number of very diverse roles they had to play, pulling quick costume changes between sketches, and delivering a very energetic performance all through.

So while the show was oriented towards a child audience (with a couple of sing-along games and such), I still found most of it engaging at my level, and certainly very educational.

Roaring rhythms with The Swing Revue and Lindy Hop

I went down to Jazz Pizza Express this Wednesday to watch Dubai's latest manifestation of the vintage invasion: The Swing Revue. The 5-piece swing band and the vocalist together played several hits from the Age of Swing, as well as swing-paced covers of jazz standards by the likes of Ella Fitzgerald. The band -- playing trumpet, drum, piano, double bass, and guitar -- had a great swing rhythm, and its members also did well as backup singers during the call-and-response sequences. Their rendition of the rebel anthem "Momma Don't Allow" was especially fun.

In addition, the space just off stage left was cleared for use by the Dubai-based enthusiasts of swing dancing, Lindy Hop Dubai, who drop in an hour early for dance lessons before the weekly gig. Between two and three couples would hit the floor at a time, swinging and jiving to the live music. The band would also occasionally step down and play right next to them, adding to the swing-era atmosphere of the place.

Congratulations also to the venue, Pizza Express JLT, for being declared the best-run in the Pizza Express restaurant family.

Rooftop Rhythms Dubai

Part of the revamp of the Boutique 7 Hotel near where I live was a new urban music and dance basement lounge they named "ego". I wanted to check it out at some point, and having previously attended a Rooftop Rhythms spoken word event in Abu Dhabi, I made their third Dubai installment (bottom) the occasion to visit the venue. The place has a cool look and the music during the post-event regular Friday night program was quite good, so I stayed afterwards a bit longer than I had originally planned (top right).

The event itself was very entertaining, including performances by spoken word artists both established in and new to the art. Two of the highlights of the evening were performances by hip hop artist Marcel Lteif (top left) and Dana Dajani (top right). Other notable performances were the first by a Filipino artist at RR, as well as a musical intermission by a talented flautist (bottom left). It also happened to be birthday of RR's founder and emcee, Dorian Paul Rogers, so the evening featured a cake moment (bottom right).

Trojan Women by Resuscitation Theatre

Abu Dhabi theatre group Resuscitation Theatre kept up the tradition of creative adaptation in the city's theatre scene, bringing Euripides' classic Greek tragedy The Trojan Women to the National Theatre stage as Trojan Women: A Very Moving Tale.

The play, which ran for about an hour, started off with a very action-filled and dynamic opening segment depicting the sack of Troy, followed by scenes in which the Trojan women lament and negotiate their fate as the Achaeans pick them off one by one, for slavery or death. The script was transposed into modern times, with the Achaeans wearing Western boot camp military uniforms and dog tags, and the Trojan women wearing paint-splattered, torn clothes. Props, however, still connected with the epic era.

Trojan Women included a significant amount of excellent physical theatre and dance -- par for the course in a Resuscitation Theatre play, but featuring choreographic collaboration with Dubai-based experimental theatre group Loom Ensemble this time around. There were a few singing segments, which I thought were handled very well too. Background music, however, made it difficult to hear some actors' lines from a distance if one was seated closer to a speaker; perhaps more projection was required if an actor is at stage extremes when background music is playing.

It was a job well done by all cast members with the singing and dancing; it can't have been easy to get what must have been varying amounts of experience to the level where everyone can hold their own in a synchronized dance and harmonized song. Acting-wise, I liked Felicia Corral's physical and fiercely expressive Cassandra, as well as Samah Konia's performance as a weary and pragmatic Hecuba. Aditya Vikram Jha did well as Talthybius, and Daughters of Troy, Safia and Sarah Al Mansouri, were impressive for child actors.

Looming large in Dubai theatre

Visiting Loom Ensemble members Sasha Bogdanowitsch and Michael Bauer joined their now Dubai-based fellow members Raphael Sacks and Neva Cockrell at thejamjar, staging their experimental play Say I Am You for the first time here. While the Dubai-based members have been running workshops and short public performances at the same venue for some time now, this marks their debut feature play in the UAE, and is a testament to the potential of online collaboration in theatre production.

We have had plays in the genre in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, including ones featuring dance, but the ensemble brought in something fresh with laudable integration of excellent synchronized singing, and live music performance by actors who often made use of unconventional instruments like panpipes.

Multiple stories taking place in different times and places took turns onstage as they interwove on approach to a shared conclusion. Some of the cast play roles in different stories, so there had to be a lot of quick costume changes. I think the play's greatest strength is the colorful and well-written characters, along with some memorable bits of dialogue for those paying close attention. Michael's performance was especially commendable. I also liked the light use of props (which included visual projection, symbolic objects and found objects), and the use of lighting. A new semi-stepped seating arrangement greatly helped with the visibility of lower parts of stage space. After the show, the Q&A session with the cast and director answered many of our burning questions.

A couple of days later, performing as the Loom Vocal Trio at The Fridge's Fridge Concert Series, Sasha and Raphael sang together with Kate Hamilton, who also directed Say I Am You, and is herself a rather talented singer. Much of the music that night was composed by Sasha too, with cryptic and elemental lyrics sung in forms somewhere between monastic chanting and communal tribal song. Some of the instruments from the play were used in this concert, including a jaw harp in a mesmerizing solo by Sasha.

Verse, vibe and Will at Rooftop Rhythms #17

A strange confluence of non-events permitted me a Friday evening free enough to drive down to Abu Dhabi and join the wordsmiths of the city's Rooftop Rhythms at their 17th open mic, at the Hilton Capital Grand.

Dorian

The organizer/emcee, Dorian, kept the energy up with charm and (sometimes deliberately groansome) humor, and the DJ set the mood with some wonderfully bouncy tunes. The weather was pleasant enough for the outdoor poolside section of the rooftop bar venue to be opened up -- a good thing too, because a LOT of people turned up. A projector above the stage played a (slightly distracting when performances were in progress) slideshow of images from what I presume were past open mics.

Will McInerney

We listened to several spoken word pieces about family, technology, love, and such; many of these were very relatable and clever. A couple of my favorites were the ones about sibling relationships and the one about GPS (in the case of the latter, until it started getting preachy well beyond the ceremonial deism threshold). In addition to the spoken, some sung and others rapped, adding further diversity to the talent buffet. Visiting American spoken word celebrity Will McInerney was also at the event, and delighted us with a few intense performances.

Burning Fresh with Loom Ensemble at thejamjar

After my third foiled attempt at attending the monthly "Theatre-making" workshops by Dubai performing arts newcomers, Loom Ensemble, I was determined to not miss the post-workshop performance. I saw a little snippet of it at thejamjar at the end of one of 3rd Mondays' August event, so I was curious to see how it was progressing. Chart course to Dubai, warp 9.

The performance is, after all, an evolving work, and the first I've seen in Dubai to follow a prototyping model with public participation. And we did have an open chat right after with the Ensemble's Raphael Sacks and Neva Cockrell, who were also the sole performers of the piece.

The contemporary play, titled Burning Fresh began with a preview of a song segment and dance segment from later in the play. Moving along, it incorporated a lot of mime, dance and physical theatre around the lines, punctuated by haunting a capella singing, occasionally with sometimes-awkward audience participation. The latter, along with the extent to which the performance should or should not develop its story (yes, it has one) were debated after the performance, among other topics. The play is not due to be staged for a few more months, so it will surely see some more moulding and whittling before then.

Ciaran Fox and Serik Iskakov jazz and swing at The Gramercy DIFC

We have few jazz/swing vocalists here in Dubai, and few of those are male, so it's a treat to see one perform live. Among their ranks, Irish vocalist Ciaran Fox stands out for doing much justice to the genres. I had seen him perform once as part of The Fridge's Kalubela ensemble show, and the next time at a bustling "men's night" last season, so I scheduled an evening with a friend at The Gramercy in the DIFC to check out his regular Monday night gig in relative peace.

The Gramercy, with its wood screens, soft lighting, high ceiling and decoratively oxidized mirrors, is an appropriate venue for this kind of music. The stage area was also well-placed, and lit better that at some of the other venues I've been. I've actually been here a few times before, mainly for stand-up comedy.

Accompanied by prolific saxophone player Serik Iskakov, Fox reinterpreted various popular songs on request, throwing in some old standards of jazz, swing and blues. This gentleman has clearly trained his voice for his chosen genres, most noticeably the ability to hold a prolonged note. When he asked for more requests, I suggested "anything from Kalubela", and he obliged with Frankie Valli's "Can't Take My Eyes Off You". Iskakov took on another one of my requests - for Duke Ellington's "It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)" - as a sax solo. And once he figured out that I was there for some old school, Fox belted a series of delightful jazz hits my way.

Floetics spoken and sung at PizzaExpress JLT

Dana Dajani and Layla K

Dana Dajani's spoken word and Layla K's sung lyrics mingled under blue and red light, the Floetics duo's show ringing in venue PizzaExpress JLT's first weekend as a licensed establishment. With Jeremiah & The Lucky Strikes providing accompaniment, they combined poetic stanzas with refrains from pop hits like Wicked Game and Valerie in a pleasantly unique performance, and in what I believe is their first gig as headliners since they began performing a little over a year ago.

Pizza Calabrese

PizzaExpress JLT is a fairly easy place to get to. I was happy to return after good gastronomic and musical experiences during my first visit, which was on International Jazz Day this year, and which featured a casual string of jam sessions. We tried the Calabrese pizza this time, and enjoyed its delightful piquancy, fresh cheese and delicious sausage.

Floetics ended their show with their playful original "Arabian Boy", which makes for a great showcase of their respective skills. Video of it embedded here (not my own):

Boy Meets Girl - Waiting For A Star To Fall (1988)

"I wish I didn't feel so strong about you
Like happiness and love revolve around you ..."

Chihiro Yonekura - Winter Wish

Beautiful love song from the Love Hina Christmas special

 

S Club 7 - Never Had A Dream Come True

SC7's best, oozing late-90s-flavored sap all over.

Love Song of a Code Monkey

For all the "code monkeys" out there ... the runaway hit by Jonathan Coulton ... with a cute dance by a geekette!

最後一次 (Zui Hou Yi Ci) MV

A short but beautiful song about undying love.

Lyrics:

在我最後一次 閉上眼睛之前
我想對你說 我愛你
在你懷裡 捨不得放棄
心理有千萬語 還沒有說給你聽
我使勁全力 不想閉上眼睛
這次告別就不能 再相遇
不能再陪你 但不要忘記
你曾經答應我 你會好好活下去

先走了 去了好遠的地方
不能再陪你看日出 等不到天亮
所有回憶 抹去卻並不容易
生死由天決定 不要太傷心
我永遠愛你

I personally prefer the duet version (the singers of which are apparently Singaporean).