The Dublin Fringe Festival is benefiting hugely from the symbiotic relationship between its artistic director Wolfgang Hoffmann and an old Edinburgh church that has become the place to see dance and physical theatre, writes Christine Madden.
IN 1999, Wolfgang Hoffmann, currently artistic director of the Dublin Fringe Festival, visited the Edinburgh Festival Fringe with his Potsdam-based dance company for the first time. At that point, physical theatre, according to public perception, was quite a different animal.
"I remember reading some famous comedian being interviewed about what you want to see in Edinburgh," Hoffmann recalls, "and he was like, everything but the things that had the label 'physical theatre' on it. And I thought like, 'Shit, that's what I'm doing', you know?" Largely due to an initiative Hoffmann undertook after the shock of his company's first Edinburgh experience, the landscape and reception for dance and physical theatre has changed - appropriately - dramatically. His vision led to the establishment of the venue Aurora Nova, which in its few years of existence has received both public and critical acclaim.
Now in its sixth year, the venue, at St Stephen's Church in the Scottish capital, has provided such a quality programme of dance and physical theatre that it won the Guardian award for Best Edinburgh Fringe Venue in 2004. In that year, Hoffmann accepted the additional responsibility of becoming artistic director of the Dublin Fringe. The pay-off for audiences and Irish dance? Not only can both Aurora Nova and the Dublin Fringe be programmed in tandem with each other, but Irish companies get the benefit of working with international artists here as well as a greater chance to wow audiences abroad.
When Hoffmann and his dance company, Fabrik Potsdam, arrived at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the flash aspect of touring to the biggest arts festival in the world quickly faded as the reality of the Fringe meat-market took hold. "We were horrified by the conditions that we were asked to play in, and we flyered like 5,000 flyers a day - and had something like 15 people in the audience at night. It was very disheartening."
What prevented them from returning to Potsdam forever with their tail between their legs was a sudden, unexpected success. "On the seventh day of our run, we got a little tip in the Hot List, and suddenly we had something like 80 people. And the next day we had a five-star review, and we were sold out. The last day they even gave us one of those Fringe Firsts, and we had a queue of 400 people around our venue, which was sold out. And suddenly we were on top of the world. It was completely amazing."
Of course, once they'd got the bug, Fabrik had to return to the Edinburgh Fringe the following year with their piece, Hopeless Dreams, which went on to feature in the Dublin Fringe that year. But Hoffmann's continued frustration with the Edinburgh venue sparked a new vision of venue heaven: "I thought that, if you had a place that was associated with quality, a venue that associated with quality work, people would come and you could risk bringing lesser-known and more quirky and challenging work to the Fringe."
Hoffmann approached the honchos at the Komedia arts and entertainment producers with his idea of a new venue dedicated to dance and physical theatre. They returned to Hoffmann with a disused church, where only the occasional organ recital took place. This might have cowed other venue-manager hopefuls, but Hoffmann saw a building full of possibility. Although the seats could be more comfortable than the fear-of-God-inducing straight-backed pews, they're ideally raked, and the large open space allows for an excellent view of a highly versatile stage area. And, he adds, "I wanted to keep that kind of sacred feel of it, and the work that we presented, that it was almost like a spiritual experience".
The congregational feel to the building lived on in the venue in other ways. The legacy of socialism lives on at Aurora Nova, in its management. The name, for example, not only means "new dawn" in Latin, but also echoes the name of the tank ship Aurora, which fired the first shots in the Russian October Revolution of 1917. Companies are not only encouraged to talk up and promote their colleagues' work, but also to live in communal style, hanging out in the rehearsal and chill-out spaces, helping each other technically, getting massages, eating inexpensive warm lunches provided by the venue, and even cooking for one another at parties.
The Woodstock-like atmosphere of Aurora Nova likely contributes to its tremendous success. As a result, apart from its winning a Best Venue award, its productions reap heaps of their own awards every year, including six Fringe Firsts this past year. One of them went to CoisCéim's production of Knots, which featured in last year's Dublin Fringe and won that festival's Best Production award.
"It was great to be a part of the programme," says David Bolger, CoisCéim's artistic director. "There were companies from all over the world. You're here for a month, you feel a bit like an ambassador, and there's a good buzz around the place. It's like a family."
As Hoffmann is directing both the Aurora Nova and the Dublin Fringe, the former can extend a bit of its funky international vibe to the latter - but it also works the other way around. Some of last year's family performed in the Dublin Fringe 2005, such as Martine Pisani with Sans, Compagnie Laroque with Tropea and the Jo Strømgren Kompani with Hospital, which won last year's Sexiest Production award.
This year, Dublin's Fringe was able to return the favour, sending CoisCéim's Knots and Echo Echo's Resonance to Aurora Nova. Barabbas's quirky production Hairdresser in the House, which also featured at Aurora Nova in August, returns to Ireland to provide entertainment and a few new hair looks to Fringe audiences.
Joining Barabbas, a cluster of international and home-grown companies should help maintain the Aurora Nova vibe over here - including the steady build of interest in contemporary dance and physical. The headline production, Dreamers, by hip-hop dancers Facundo and Martin Lombard (or Los Gamelos, "The Twins"), recreates a dream familiar to many Irish people - that of emigrating to the US and achieving success and status - and the souring of that dream (not getting renewed working visas to stay there). And it's all true: "It's an autobiographical piece," Hoffmann affirms. "If somebody would have written it down, if it wasn't genuine, you would think it was a bit tacky or something, but these guys are so charming that you totally buy it, and they're amazing dancers."
Switching from main to fringe festival this year, Michael Keegan Dolan brings his Fabulous Beast Dance Theatre back to Dublin with a revamped production of The Flowerbed, fresh from its debut at the Barbican in London. And in the programming equivalent of mixing favourite and unfamiliar foods on the plate for sceptical eaters, Hoffmann has created fusion bills of productions that combine Irish with international work. Irish Modern Dance Theatre, which premiered a joint work in Spain with the lyrical title of Silvery Snot, brings that production into a programme with two other companies: Étant Donné, which presents Beauté Plastique; and IMDT's partner in sparkling mucous, Blanca Arrieta, which performs Efecto Mariposa.
Another mixed bill combines Myriad Dance Company with behindtheeyeliesbone, a piece about the physical and metaphysical layers of life, and Schlomit Fundaminsky from Israel, with a duet called Skid Marks. The Fringe includes other Irish companies such as Rex Levitates with a new double bill, Cross Purposes, a dance version of tripping out on speed, and something very different - The Same Jane, which explores memories of movement trapped in the muscles and limbs. There's also a piece about how rough it is to be a woman - I Can't Handle Me, by Fidget Feet - and an intense piece presented by Daghdha Dance Company, Cataplasia, by artists with learning disabilities.
Hoffmann relishes the communal yet international vibe that is beginning to establish itself throughout the Fringe. "I think it has been much easier in terms of having partnerships that aren't purely on a collaborative level, and that it's not about egos and power games," he says, with some relief. For us, the Fringe may be about the cool image and funky shows, but for Hoffmann it's personal. "It's like working in a collective, a co-operative environment. That's what I crave, that kind of artistic exchange is important to me. That's the way I want to deal with people." Who said the 1960s were dead?
