Torque
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An exploration of the relationship of human and animal gesture and play. Torque was created and performed for The Falling Light Tour 2008.
“Torque proved what an intelligent dance maker she is.” The Scotsman
- Torque
- by Janis Claxton Dance
- 2008
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Set to Johan Sebastian Bach Partita #2 for violin transcribed for viola, Torque was origionally created with a Scottish Arts Council Creative Development grant & in residencies at Dance House Glasgow & DanceHouse Dublin
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Reviews
Janis Claxton Dance: Torque
The Herald“There are several wonderful moments in Torque, when we’re carried back to Enclosure 44, the remarkable and radical installation piece that Janis Claxton Dance staged in Edinburgh Zoo during this year’s Fringe. Playful moments, tender moments, fraught moments with hands becoming paw-like, heads cocking to one side, bodies hunkering as the dancers inhabited the power shifts and snugglings that Claxton had observed in her zoo researches. ?..Then, as now, the work was far from gimmickry or mimicry. Now Torque, with its live on-stage accompaniment – Bach’s Partita No 2 played, but on viola, by Michael Beeston – reinforces the instinctive humanity that shares in how other animals behave. And on a wry note, it ends with the dancers staring out at us, as in a zoo. Which, like Enclosure 44, raises fascinating questions of why we like to watch, and maybe how we define art, performance, dance.”
