Since moving to Sneinton in late 2013, I have developed a real sense of pride about the area, as well a desire to see the market in particular becoming the thriving hub it used to be many years ago, the true heart of the Creative Quarter.
Work is progressing and each week seems to bring a little more buzz, but to find out Dance 4 was bringing a part of Nottdance to the market felt like the rest of the city had reached out. I had to get down there, not just to see the performance, but to see how the performance was received.
Artist Florence Peake has been making work since 1995 and trained in dance as a previous student of Rosemary Butcher (see previous review). Like Rosemary, she chooses to combine it with other art forms: drawing, painting and sculpture being her main choices.
Lay Me Down is a work that’s designed to interrupt, to make people stop, stare and question. Peake choreographs her dancers to rest on sculptured mirrored boards, intervening with the space and its occupants. Dancers lie alone or in heaps, some covered with colourful material.
Passers by were intrigued and, with such an army of support from Dance 4, there was no shortage of people for folk to ask ‘what’s going on?!’ It almost got awkward when one gent took advantage of a free board to practise his break dancing moves but a gentle explanation of the work was well received and he left with a wave and a smile, even returning ten minutes later for a second look.
Dance 4’s programme producer, Stuart Allen, first spotted Lay Me Down at Greenwich Peninsula last year. “It was something I really felt we had to bring to Nottingham,” he said. Bringing dance to new audiences is part of the festival’s aim and the three venues chosen seemed like the perfect mix – the train station to catch visitors, Sneinton to acknowledge the city’s creative heart, and the Contemporary for those already attuned.
Florence Peake’s Lay Me Down was performed at various venues across the city on Saturday 7 and Sunday 8 March 2015, including Nottingham Train Station, Sneinton Market and outside Nottingham Contemporary.
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