Lost In Translation

I think it worked when the band came on stage with the dancers and started interacting cos that's a bit more how flamenco usually is; people gathered around the dancers a bit closer and more interaction between dancers/musicians/audience. Made it feel a bit more interactive and close-quarters.

What a shame the reveiwer hasn't thought to recognise in her review the outstanding, highly trained and highly skilled flamenco artists who performed a world premiere in our Birmingham venue. I can't deny that this is not a good venue for dance (in general), but we were priveleged to see some of the best flamenco brought to this country and brought to Birmingham. We are lucky that in recent years someone with skill and knowledge is programming this work in our city. Those of us taking up the opportunity to see this work over the last couple of years are learning to be a more informed audience - but it is unlikely that British audiences will respond in the way a Spanish audience would in Spain, the whole atmosphere and cultural understanding cannot be created overnight.

I heartily applaud these artists, the Dance Festival and the promoter involved. I do not applaud the reviewer for being so arrogant as to applaud herself for being more 'educated' than the general paying audience.

Sally and David; you’ve both made lots of points here that I really want to respond to individually, but this comment is going to end up longer than the blog itself, so I’m just going to say what I think the main issue is here: THIS IS NOT A REVIEW. THIS IS A BLOG. They are very different beasts. A blog is essentially a diary, a journal of someone’s experience. A review is a critical study of a performance. For the purpose of this blog I am not a dance critic; I am a festival-goer. And I want to bring the whole experience of the festival to people – and this is more than just the performances.

The Post already has 3 arts journalists reviewing the festival, both in print and online. To have another straightforward critical dance reviewer would be pointless repetition.

What blogs are good at is drawing attention to and raising questions about the marginal issues; the ‘tangents’ if you like, the ‘asides’, the issues that aren’t in the mainstream. This is why I have talked a lot about issues surrounding dance and festivals e.g. public art, venues, atmosphere, audience etc. It conveys more of a festival experience rather than a dance expert delivering a critique. Imagine a Glastonbury Festival diary that didn’t involve comment on sliding around in mud or the state of the toilets as well enjoying the music! I am purposefully talking around the subject, not being ‘distracted’!

It also means that more people can enter the discussion; which is the life-blood of blogs; so in fact your comments are more than welcome! Blogs get more people involved in more ways than a critical review ever could. Not everyone is a dance expert, but everyone can certainly get involved with issues about the atmosphere of a show or how they felt about dancers taking over their public space etc.

Sally, I am slightly confused as to why you thought ‘the reviewer’ (who is, in fact, not a reviewer, but a blogger; as previously discussed) thought she was more educated than the audience? Does she not say that she tried flamenco and gave up after only 4 lessons? That’s hardly a superior, educated vantage point! Perhaps it was because she mentioned flamenco shows in Spain – well, that wasn’t anything to do with education, that was happening to be in the right place at the right time and fortunate enough to experience something amazing. Again; EXPERIENCE is the key word here; one experience (Spain) was more simply enjoyable than the other (Birmingham) and the blogger is simply exploring why; particularly as the standard and ingenuity of the flamenco itself was actually better in Birmingham than it was in Madrid. If it wasn’t the flamenco itself, then what made one experience more enjoyable than the other? Atmosphere – which is, largely, people and place: audience and venue.

Which brings me to David’s comment about tiresome comparisons between traditionalist flamenco tablao and a more contemporary stage show. This is a good point, but again a blog isn’t the time or the place to go into technicalities of flamenco tradition. I was impressed by the diversity and ingenuity of how they explored different elements of flamenco in En Sus 13, and I am the last person to ever think that certain things should only ever be done in a certain way – which in fact I state in this very blog post! The simple fact is that, as a diarist, one of those experiences (which again is the key point here) ended up being one of the best nights of my life, and the other was simply a display of great flamenco.

Re. the Town Hall – do I not clearly state: ‘I’m not knocking the Town Hall, it’s an impressive venue’? It is an impressive venue. And it was an impressive show. But the 2 didn’t somehow work together as well as I would have thought. It’s like chocolate and spaghetti; both great, but you wouldn’t want to put them together. If you read more of my blog posts you’ll see the youth dance show that I was so impressed with also took place in the Town Hall; and that really worked - with all the young people running around and making great use of the space.

I’d like to finish this what has now become an essay with a response to David’s comment that it’s not a ‘good advert for Birmingham’: believe me; I am the last person to be berating the arts in Brum. I am deeply passionate about the arts in this region and massively excited about the IDFB – (again, see earlier posts) In fact, I have been so relentlessly complimentary to the IDFB up to this point that people started suspecting I was on commission! Again, see earlier comments: ‘I am yet to see an IDFB show that I haven’t gushed about. It’s getting a bit boring’ for example ..

The very reason why I wanted to write this blog (which, incidentally, I am doing unpaid) is because I am passionate about dance and the dance scene in Birmingham; which I think is one of its great strengths. I am also passionate about audiences, which is why I wanted to bring more of a festival experience to people rather than a series of detached critical reviews; which, I hoped, would bring more of a sense of festival to the festival rather than just reviewing performances taking place across the city – which essentially is no different from the norm. I also wanted to give more people more opportunity to get involved. As already stated; blogs invite comment and discussion far more than an abstruse critical review from an expert. You will also notice that I include myself in the audience for En Sus 13 - I refer to us as ‘we’ not ‘they’. As stated, I am a festival-goer; I am an audience member experiencing the festival, I am not there to offer an expert technical critique. I say we were a disappointing audience simply because the skill was so outstanding I believed it was owed a few more whoops and cheers than it got, rather than being looked at like you’d just killed someone’s pet for doing so.

There is far more that I could say here, but I think that a) you should read the whole blog to get more of a feel for what I’m doing here and b) I think the main point is just to remember that this is NOT a review; it’s a blog. It’s essentially a festival-goers diary. I am going to talk around the subject a lot, and observe different things than would a dance critic. There is plenty of good, straightforward critical reviewing going on already, you don’t need more. Perhaps I should have made that clearer from the beginning – I will endeavour to do so from here on in.

In the meantime – thanks for commenting! It shows that this blog is working, so keep it up!