5 SOLDIERS The Body is the Frontline
Rosie Kay’s dancers get right inside the skins, the minds, the very souls of the five as they progress from the rigours of training to the breath-holding intensity of the frontline… It’s highly charged and it screams authenticity. Warfare here isn’t about weapons and armour, but about the physicality and dexterity of the human body, the punishment it can give and the abuse it can take… There’s naked desire and sexual frustration…The final scene leaves you shocked and sobered, with a new humility and a fresh understanding of what gallantry really means. Awesome.” THE STAGE
It is a hard-faced look at the people behind the lines whose training morphs them into one body and yet with each one remaining an individual… While there is laughter there is also incredible pain and realisation that more than simply innocence can be left on the battlefield. Kay’s choreography is strong in physicality with much of the dance replicating the fighting itself, blurring the edges of identity.
Birmingham Post
Kay so wants us to identify with what her five-strong cast is experiencing that she rubs our faces in it. The staging is stark and simple…Veering from playtime to attack and stealth manoeuvres, the show follows a subtle dramatic arc. Thematic strands are revealed gradually, along with hints of characterisation and underlying psychological pressure. Michael Spenceley is the cocky, pent-up sergeant-type and the only one who speaks or, rather, shouts a few statements (“I’m dead! You’re all dead!”). Tomasz Moskal is the quiet, slightly older career soldier who calmly and wordlessly intervenes when tension arises.
As the lone female Tilly Webber strips off her combat gear and, after powdering bare limbs, oozes over the stage oblivious to the wolfish men assisting her. The sudden sexual heat evaporates the instant she’s back in uniform. The most revealing scene is a muscular yet tender duet between Chris Linda and Chris Vann that underscores the ambiguous bonding that can occur in the theatre of war.
DONALD HUTERA THE TIMES
Review of Double Points: K and Supernova 2008-2008
“The jewel in Morag Deyes’ crown this year, Rosie Kay Dance Company is a joy to watch from beginning to end Like Greco, Kay has a captivating on-stage presence, mixing long leg and arm extensions with fast, jerking movement. Dancing in perfect unison with partner Morgan Cloud, she covers the stage with so much choreography, we’re full to bursting by the end. Whether they’re side-by-side or across the floor from each other, their connection is palpable. A Fringe must-see for all dance fans.” THE SCOTSMAN Kelly Apter
“..this exacting duet is an Everest of synchronicity, timing, defined body lines and stamina… For Kay, this choreographic re-interpretation is a triumph. Catch it if you can.” THE HERALD Mary Brennan
“Thank goodness, then, for the inimitable diva of dance, ROSIE KAY. Her last show at the Fringe, The Wild Party, was a hoot and Double Points: K, though is entirely different, is just as exciting. A reinterpretation of Emio Greco’s acclaimed Double Points: Two, this duet- danced by Kay and Morgan Cloud- is high energy, thrilling, pure contemporary dance. To a score that shifts from Bach to electro, Kay and Cloud begin on demi pointe, working up and down a narrow strip of light. From here we’re treated to a glorious mish-mash, from contemporary ballet to juddering robotic movement. At one point she lunges forward and spins one arm so fast she is transformed into a human Catherine Wheel (the fireworks replaced by showers of perspiration). It’s a perfect vehicle for Kay’s capacity for great explosive drama married with technical precision.” Chitra Ramaswamy, SCOTLAND ON SUNDAY
“On to Rosie Kay, and the second piece of abstract dance is a great reminder of what a wonderful dancer she is, and movement choreographed to JS Bach (one of three scores) was particularly breathtaking in its simplicity. One thing is for sure; I will never listen to that great composer in the same way again.” Three Weeks
Throughout the work, Kay and Cloud showed an amazing togetherness. Some sections called for split second timing, which they achieved superbly. Kay calls this ‘synchronicity’, which can perhaps be best explained as two people dancing as one and with one mind, rather than as two in unison. It’s also clearly an intensely demanding piece physically. In a powerful ending, the pair stand facing the audience, the silence broken only by their heavy breathing, before continuing their travels to who knows where.
David Mead, Ballet-dance.co.uk
Rosie Kay dance Company: Double Points: K / Supernova
“Feisty Rosie Kay has created her latest work, Supernova, for five women dancers, celebrating their grace and power in a patterning of pure dance. Its inspiration was the idea of the energy that flares out of dying stars, and there is a fragility, or impermanence within the raw physicality of the piece that is reflected in the works’ soundtrack, layering astral chimes with segments of Vivaldi’s Concerto Grosse in D minor and Drum’n’Bass. Preceding this is Double Points: K, a duet based on a collaboration between Kay and Dutch-based choreographer Emio Greco, and now danced by Kay and Morgan Cloud. Again the music is a brashy mix: Bach’s concerto in A minor comes meshed with dubstep and electronica.”
Judith Mackrell Guardian Guide Preview
Reviews of The Wild Party Tour 2006-2008
“In 2006 Rosie Kay, one of our more enterprising young choreographers, hit a bull’s-eye on the Edinburgh Fringe with a rousing, raucous dance-theatre interpretation of Joseph Mancure March’s cultish, jazz-age narrative poem The Wild Party. This sweaty, sexy little show merits attention, not least because of Kay’s sheer determination to keep it alive.
Kay’s source material is a sharp slice of gin-soaked text, florid yet economical, and centred on a debauched evening that culminates in violence.
Another, more immediate, layer of the work is the framing device used by Kay, the director. The “backstage” tensions between her and her fellow cast members, plus a live jazz trio, are meant to parallel the desire and discord in the script. The postmodern blurring of identities is often clever. Its biggest pay-off is the faux interval, during which you might want to stay put in your seat.
Although not trained as actors, the performers sink their teeth into their roles. With their brawling energy and broad, sardonic deliveries, they sometimes bite down to the funny bone. Body language and movement, however, outstrip spoken text. Kay’s choreography is a strenuously sensual marriage of polished recklessness splattered with lascivious amusements. The dancers push, pull, swing, fling and, at the climax, flail through the mechanics of savage sex. As a bonus, all of it is set to the musicians’ percolating rhythms.” The Times
“The Wild Party lives up to its title, with four characters who are hell-bent on having a good time. Rosie Kay, as lead performer and choreographer, possesses a pitiless eye for the body language of the inebriated, and, in this 75-minute bash, perfectly captures the gaudily self-conscious gestures of the wasted, their slippage between painful deliberation and shambolic blur. With her dramaturg, Ben Payne, Kay has shaped the material into a clever storyline, based on the 1929 poem by Joseph Mancure March, but interleaving scenes from March’s decadent jazz age with those from contemporary alcopop culture.
Through a mixture of dance, live music and text, Kay and her engaging cast tell the story of vaudeville dancer Queenie, whose alcohol-fuddled search for love comes to an inevitably bad and bloody end. It is Queenie’s fate that holds up a mirror to her 21st-century counterparts, as they too stumble towards self-destruction. Kay has found a deft way of looking at today’s binge culture without being didactic.
…The exception is a duet in which Queenie has sex with her lover. Their lonely, piston-pump interaction raises the language to a metaphorical incisiveness. Kay’s is a sparky talent “
The Guardian Judith Mackrell
“When Joseph Moncure March’s steamy jazz age verse novel The Wild Party was first published it was considered so racy that it was banned in some parts of the United States. After seemingly being lost for several decades, the poem was used as the inspiration for a number of plays and musicals.
The whole work is delivered as a story within a story of performers putting on a show with the dancers dropping in and out of character. It is constantly driven forwards by the rhythmic, almost musical nature of the poem’s words, spoken by the dancers, and a live jazz trio who somehow manage to keep up with the manic pace of events. Kay and her company so engaged the audience that few left through during the interval, when the dancers remained on stage, in case they missed something.
Despite distilling the original poem down to the four principle characters, Kay has managed to retain its atmosphere and impact. The friction is there for all to see as the dancers tumble and slide over each other. As Queenie, Kay is always at the centre of events, switching between the sassy, confident blonde broad and the lonely almost naïve girl with amazing ease. When she does need support it is not surprising that it comes in the form of the tall, debonair Mr Black, played with great charm by Morgan Cloud. Of course it leads to sex, but the encounter is brilliantly represented by exchanges of quite humorous repeated arm thrusts as the two stand two to two.
Kay is interested in cinema and there are numerous cinematic references. At times it seems as if some down at heel Hollywood B-movie has collided with a glamorous musical. As Queenie and Black get close and dance it is impossible not to think of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. If this is Queenie’s dream though, events soon bring her back to reality.
This is Kay’s first full-length work, but you would never have guessed it. It is not pretty, and reflecting the times it is a bit anarchic and rough round the edges. You never know what is coming next. But it is certainly full of energy and excellent dance-theatre. A Wild Party indeed.” Dance Europe, David Mead
“This razzle-dazzle show is carefully crafted to appear casual and ad libbed. But Kay’s own amazing choreography and dancing, coupled with the edgy live playing of the jazz trio, riskily captured those nights when the drink flows freely, love turns into rough sexand relationships grow dark. “ Jane Coyle, The Irish Times
“The Show is an absorbing mix of dance and theatre, as the cast retell March’s story, and in-between argue amongst themselves about their performances. Kay is outstanding as Queenie, using her formidable dancing and acting skills – and is strongly supported by the rest of the cast. As the night goes on, the dancing gets wilder, and the sex more savage. A swell party, indeed.” Grania McFadden, The Belfast Telegraph
“Entering the auditorium, the audience finds anarchy on stage, just warming up; a reddish glow of iniquity infuses the suitably gloomy greys and blacks of the subversive scene. Party hosts flit about creating chaos where they pretend to be making order. A tremendous entrance via the auditorium by vocally uninhibited Rosie Kay, shocks and enlivens the whole place as Rosie, the show’s director & choreographer, vitriolically explains and blames everyone for her ‘late arrival’. She then alluringly transforms into a louche and alarmingly sexy siren as the party really begins. “ Arthur Duncan, BBC
“Rosie Kay’s ‘The Wild Party’ is not all that it says on the tin. I went along, anticipating a show about a wild party – perhaps a raucous, danced update of the one once thrown by Mike Leigh for Abigail. Instead, I experienced a fascinating journey that succinctly merged several genres into one gigantic explosion of complex and well-crafted physical theatre. The fast and intricate choreography is a crucial supporting player to the text, brilliantly constructed around the foundation of rhyming meter in Joseph Mancure March’s eponymous jazz age poem; and all performed to a backdrop of original jazz music, played live on stage by Percy Purseglove, Doug Hough and Alcyona Mick.
The performers are on stage before the audience arrives (and the party continues throughout the interval); but the action really starts with the explosive arrival of Rosie Kay from behind the audience, making her way downstairs with expletives flying faster than Gordon Ramsay on a bad day. A little later, the narrative is interrupted as Kay takes a microphone to introduce each of her fellow performers – like rock musicians at a gig – which sets the scene for the ongoing blurring of roles. A work as potentially confusing as this requires a defining backbone of control and the imposing Kay delivers this in spades, with a strong, sexy and charismatic central performance that makes the show. She has two narrative-defining dance duets; a twisting, violent quarrel with her husband (Carter) and an erotic, sensitively simulated intercourse with her handsome party guest (Morgan Cloud) that leads to the final violent dénouement.”
ballet.co.uk, Graham Watt
“Crash landing right in the middle of an age obsession with chaos and scandal, soon to be dramatic legend Rosie Kay has hurled at us a play that cannot be silenced. A fantastically shambolic orgy of improvisation and outstanding theatrical composition, I can honestly say I didn’t blink once. Based on a poem of the same name by Joseph Mancure March, the original dialogue very much took a backseat to the mesmerizing movement of the actors. To the seductive rhythm of the onstage jazz band the performers entangled themselves in a frenzied mess of ground breaking choreography (devised by Kay) that epitomised sexual tension, jealousy and betrayal
Every step added to the audience’s apprehension of the climatic sex scene we all expected, but could never have predicted. This is the first play I have seen that has conquered the space between the audience and the stage so successfully. Like a continual reel of film, the performers only took off their hypothetical masks for the closing ovation, were we are forced to remember that we are simply spectators to this devised masterpiece. In effect, this play is so post-modern; it’s in a dramatic persuasion of its own. Tiffany Lee, Hack Writers
BBC Radio 4, Saturday Review 12/08/06
“I went to see the Rosie Kay Dance Company, its called The Wild Party, and you’ve got to go and see this piece, there are three live jazz musicians and four dancers, and what they are doing is they are reciting a poem about a wild party, its set in the jazz age, at the same time as all the jazz is played. They come in and out of character, the dancing is incredibly athletic and its very very funny… the audience are really engaged; an absolutely fabulous piece. She is a very young choreographer and I think she is going to be enormous.”
Sunday Herald, Rosie Kay Dance Company The Wild Party, 13/08/06 ***** Five Stars, Ellie Carr
“Over at Dancebase, the original oasis for Fringe dance, Rosie Kay is hosting a Wild Party that lives up to its name. Vaudeville gal Queenie (Kay) is at home. Silk undies are draped across the lampshade, empty champagne bottles decorate the floor and her pent-up beau (Vinicius Salles) sits around in his vest. As the live jazz trio plays and the liquor flows, things get heated; jealousy flares between the strung-out couple and their guests (Amy Mathieson and Geir Hytten)
Based on Joseph Moncure March’s jazz-age poem of the same name, this is wonderfully witty, sardonic dance-theatre and Kay’s most brilliant work to date. Breathy b0movie narration, sharp dialogue, tense physical theatre, Fred’n’Ginger style duets, ballsy humour and fantastic live jazz: this is one party you’ll want an invite to.”
The Guardian, 16/08/06, Rosie Kay dance Company the Wild Party, **** Four Stars, Lyndsey Winship
“Rosie Kay mixes dance, theatre, music and wit in a retelling of Joseph Moncure March’s 1928 poem The Wild Party, a tale of wayward behaviour, alcoholic excess, infidelity and late-night brawls.
It’s possibly not so different from the experience of some of the amateur thesps romping through this year’s Fringe, and the parallel isn’t lost on Kay. In this version, the performers slip in and out of character and Kay’s company end up unraveling as quickly as their alter egos.
Tow lovers trapped in a destructive relationship think they’ll solve their latest stalemate by throwing a party, but the revellery soon degenerates into a gin-soaked orgy where passions and jealousies flare.
Kay herself is the dynamic epicenter of the show as vaudeville dancer Queenie, who is sassy blonde bombshell one minute, wide-eyed naïf the next. She rockets across the dance floor, sweat and mascara running down her cheeks, and creates sparks with partner Vinicuis Salles.
You can feel the friction burns as the couple’s sparr, bodies thrusting, sliding, pouring over each other. OK, so it’s a bit rough around the edges, but the live jazz trio keep the atmosphere fizzing even when the party begins to wane. And just when you think the whole thing is begging for some sort of climax, boy do we get one. A wild party indeed.”
The Scotsman, Rosie Kay Dance Company The Wild Party, **** Four Stars, Kelly Apter
“Thank Heavens then for the Rosie Kay Dance Company. Kay has more spirit than a distillery and has staged a wonderfully chaotic adaptation of The Wild Party, by American poet Joseph Moncure March. Charging on stage like a bull, one hand clasping a bottle, the other her revealing dressing gown, she drops a series of expletives about being late.
From there, Kay and her three fellow dancers continue to switch between Moncure’s eccentric characters and artists trying to create a show. A trio of jazz musicians somehow manages to keep up with the frantic pace of the dancers, and 65 minutes later we’re all reeling from the blast of booze, sex and violence. It’s a little anarchic for those who like their dance pretty, but for everyone else, The Wild Party has a dangerous feeling that anything could happen.”
Scotland on Sunday, 12/08/06, Chitra Ramaswamy
“Rosie Kay’s The Wild Party is particularly good- a robust, darkly comic piece of physical theatre inspired by Joseph Moncure March’s classic jazz-age poem. Its all vaudeville glamour, tasseled chaise longues and smeared lipstick, as Kay- who choreographs, directs and performs in the lead role of Queenie- cavorts around on stage with three others, a big bold presence with superior comic timing.
As the work traverses the emotional and booze-stained debris of a swinger’s party, themes of self-destruction, violence and lust are probed through flashes of astonishingly frenetic, disheveled dance. At one point a sexual encounter is represented through a brilliant exchange of repeated arm thrusts and heads lurching back and forth. Combining a dramaturg, jazz composer, live band, text, performance and dance, this is cutting-edge stuff. The constant reminders that what we are watching is a construct- “Lets skip that and go straight to the wild party scene” Kay/Queenie orders the band- makes it all the more cleverly post-modern. Plus the problem of not being able to light a cigarette at a debauched house party is addressed with cheerful glee.”
THE STAGE, The Wild Party
“Rosie Kay’s The Wild Party embodies all that is great about the fringe. It is eclectic and creative, colourful and ambitious – the concept, choreography and live music evoking the true spirit of the festival.
The company is young, gorgeous and mischievous and in this racy tale of passion, deceit and despair, based on Joseph Moncure March’s poem of 1928, they excel.
Kay’s interpretation roars through the insistent rhythms of the poem combining spoken text and dance with manic energy.
Burrs, a Vaudeville clown and his unhappy lover Queenie throw an all night party. A booze fuelled night throbs with feverous lovemaking, lesbian romps, jealousy, revenge and ultimately murder.
In her version of the decadence and excess of the jazz age, Kay also taps into the deeper intention of the poem to lay bare the fractured framework and futility of the American dream set off by the greed and superficiality of the jazz era. The performers fall in and out of their roles with alarming alacrity.
It is chaotic and challenging, heightening the possibilities of contemporary dance theatre. Geir Hytten charms as the debonair love interest, while Kay gives a confrontational and risky performance. As both choreographer and performer, she makes a great host for a wild party.”
The Herald, Rosie Kay Dance Company, The Wild Party, **** Four Stars, Mary Brennan
“Kay and her team of three dancers and three musicians will no doubt relish the challenge of creating a headlong decent into decadence whatever the time of day. The starting point for their mad, bad, dangerous behaviour is the 1929 poem by Joseph Moncure March in which a good-time showgirl called Queenie preticipates a wild party where lust, jealousy and boozy shenanigans end in… well more than wine stains on the carpet, anyway. Now the spoken text isn’t always audible… Kay, as harassed director is determined to go full throttle and the va-va-voom of the slinking, the mooching, the Apache-dance brutality and the sexy inter-twinings where couples clinch and ignite, ensures the party is wild.”
THREEWEEKS, **** Four Stars, Rosie Kay Dance Company, The Wild Party
“This show slaps you on the behind when you come in, and again before you leave- well not literally, though there is the odd kiss. ‘The Wild Party’ is a cheeky dance performance that takes inspiration from a poem by Joseph Moncure March. It’s a turbulent and unpredictable affair, with a bit of partner swapping, plus the odd violent encounter and steamy get-together. The three live jazz musicians bring it to live and the continuous interaction between them and the dancers adds to the impulsive and explosive energy of the show. You get the impression anything co0uld happen, and that it changes every night depending on their mood. A gritty yet glamorous evening.”
Skinny Mag, Party Time, Rosie Kay’s The Wild Party, **** Four Stars, Jenny Peebles
“The Wild Party is more than Rosie Kay’s full-length choreographic debut; it is a remarkably intelligent and confident integration of different genres. Dance, Theatre and an onstage jazz trio are wrapped around a poem by Joseph Moncure March, its lines delivered by the four dancers, who play various charismatic roles.
Somewhat surprisingly, it really works. It even reveals Kay to be an impressive actress as well as an astute choreographer. The Wild Party shows the carnage of a knees-up gone too far, using the abandoned set-up of a party to lift the veil on emotional brittleness and sexual tension. It is relentlessly engaging, and there are some priceless comic moments from the band who play an important part in the atmosphere and ultimate success of the piece. As always, it’s the people who make the party-and what a party this is.”
Broadway Baby, ****, Life’s a party and you’re invited!
“Joseph Moncure March’s poem, The Wild Party, has been the inspiration for everything from films to plays. Rosie Kay Dance Company is now making it their own with a lively interpretation that could only be spun from the imagination of Rosie Kay herself.
With live musicians to accompany them, we watch and become involved as the decadent party thrown by the jealous and self-absorbed vaudevillian couple, Queenie and Burrs, gradually rages out of control. The lines are blurred between life and performance as these dynamic dancers (and talented actors I might add) occasionally call each other by their characters names and occasionally by their real names.
The choreography is nothing groundbreaking, but somehow it doesn’t seem to matter. The Rosie Kay Dance Company has created something new out of something old, and there is no doubt whatever it is, it’s exciting to be part of.” (FA)
THE LIST 17-24th August 2006, Rosie Kay Dance Company, And all that jazz ***
“You’d need a strong cast and some pretty neat choreography to re-work American poet, Joseph Moncure March’s The Wild Party. Published in 1928, the poem follows gin-swilling party girl and Vaudeville dancing protagonist Queenie. The rhyming meter unwrap the story of a jaded diva frustrated by love in gangster-land.
It’s an evening of sexual jealousy and violence between two couples, who dance to in inevitable messy and murderous end. Originally considered controversial due to its violent and sexual content, the poem still has resonance.
Award winning director, choreographer and ‘Queenie’ star, Rosie Kay has enough presence, talent and charisma to pull it all off, with the support of very fine performances from three fellow dancers and a collaboration with Ben Payne and jazz composer Hans Koller.
Energetic and astute, the 70-minute show depicts the attention-seeking diva and her nose-picking partner who can’t quite decide if their physical attraction outweighs their ‘bored to distraction’ daily grind. Working a story within a story of performers putting on a show, this is clever stuff.
Full of atmosphere, the show manages to pack in sex, jealousy, contempt, drunken sprawls, brawls and clinches, all set to live music performed by a jazz trio who form an integral part of the cast. If you like jazz, you’ll love this.”
(Claire Griffiths)
Edinburgh Guide, Dance Base presents Rosie Kay Dance Theatre ****
“Dance is an extraordinary versatile artform. At its simplest level, it can comprise a solo dancer on an empty stage. Large scale, you have an ensemble of dancers, stage set, sound effects, lighting and music. In this ambitious, multimedia performance by the Rosie Kay Dance Company there’s a live jazz trio as well as spoken text. The Wild Party is an American Jazz Age narrative poem by a former editor of the New Yorker, Joseph Moncure March. Due to its risqué content, this scandalous story of a vaudeville dancer who throws a booze-laced sex-orgy could not find a publisher until 1928. William Burroughs later commented, “It’s the book that made me want to be a writer”. The set encapsulates a stylish New York apartment of the period – chaise longue, dressing table, drinks trolley, bottles of gin and champagne. The languid strains of double bass, keyboard and drums sets the mood as the film noir story begins: “Queenie was a blonde and her age stood still, She danced twice a day in vaudeville.” Rosie Kay plays Queenie, decadent and seductive in tight fitting basque under flowing peach silk, whose mad, bad and dangerous lover, Burrs is portrayed with exotic sleaziness by South American dancer Vinicius Salles. Amongst their party guests is a vivacious blonde, swilling back the bubbly,(played by bright and effervescent Amy Mathieson) and the suave Mr Black in black tie, the cool and debonair, Geir Hytten. The guests mix and mingle, flaunt and flirt, as Queenie and Black glide gracefully, Ginger and Fred-style, around the room. The tempo rises with a trumpet blast, as a sequence of dance partnerships, (tightly choreographed by Rosie Kay,) beautifully complement and capture the ensuing drama of sexual intrigue and jealousy.
Seated around Queenie’s living room, the audience is very much present at the wild party as voyeurs and virtual guests. This is an hour of exhilarating, charismatic performances, raunchy jazz rhythms and syncopated rhymes, all-encompassing musical dance theatre, sparkling with wit, energy and glamour.”
©Vivien Devlin, 18 August 2006 – Published on EdinburghGuide.com
THE CLASS CLUB
DUCKIE, The Barbican, London, December 2006
Choreographed by Rosie Kay
Performer Middle Class
“One of the most brilliant, radical shows of the entire year’”
* * * * * Sunday Express
“An exuberant production…What a deliciously decadent night’s theatre it made… Amid all the performer-led carousing, there is, of course, the unsettling sensation that our own lives, preconceptions and modes of behaviour are the real stars of the evening, that we, as well as the actors, work daily from a script that we probably had no hand in writing. Quite the jolliest, most thought-provoking and, yes, classiest December outing.”
* * * * * -Fiona Mountford EVENING STANDARD
“Workers of the world unite – you have nothing to lose but your inhibitions”
Financial Times
“Duckie is one of British theatre’s greatest theatrical treasures’”
The Guardian
“Brilliant!’”
Saturday Review, Radio 4
“It’s like a duchess farting in public’”
The Observer
“As you might expect of an outfit that started in a Vauxhall pub and became a cult cabaret-cum-theatre company with the mad name of Duckie, this is not your usual Christmas fare”
* * * * Benedict Nightingale THE TIMES
“The Duckie Christmas Show has rapidly become one of the most anticipated dates of the season. There are, in fact, three events you may attend with each one being a traditional Christmas dinner party. The middle classes, perhaps the most difficult to define, are treated to lesbian friendly wine in tumblers and waiting staff who talk about Nietzsche and perform poetry. Once again, Duckie has outdone themselves by skilfully employing unconventional comic devices making the participant re-examine their perception, in this instance, of class. The three parties gradually open up into one major event and the performances of the staff never stop, whether waiting table or on the platform.”
The Class Club- THE STAGE
ASYLUM
“Issues of exile and belonging inform the piece, but the focus is on the sharp, expressive virtuosity of its two performers.”
- Judith Mackrell THE GUARDIAN
“…Rosie Kay’s ‘Asylum’, a never-to-be forgotten tour de force of physical extremes. With her male companion she sustained the fastest and furiousest “dance fight” imaginable, to mesmerising effect. Rosie Kay is an exceptional dancer, ably partnered by Andreas Decker.”
-Fern Bryant and Peter Grahame Woolf MUSICAL POINTERS on ASYLUM
“We all live in hope of spotting a promising young talent headed towards the big time… Yamada and Kay push themselves to the edge. It ends with a ferocious whirling waltz, an acrobatic adagio of pain, want and need.”
-Allen Robertson THE TIMES
MARS
“I thought her interpretation of the music was fabulous!”
-BALLET.CO.UK on MARS, Birmingham Royal Ballet
HONEY YOU’RE A PIG
“Rosie Kay whips 30 minutes of dance into soft, perky peaks. Kay is a delight, and her athletic choreography (with strong Merce Cunningham links) feels just right”
- Alice Bain THE GUARDIAN
“Rosie Kay brought a magnetic fluidity to her unpredictable jape about domestic discord Honey you’re a Pig”
- Donald Hutera THE TIMES
“This is powerful dance with an Almadovar-like sense of the absurd. And possibly the best Spanish-dance-solo-with-an-egg-in-the-mouth you’ll ever see.”
-Ellie Carr THE HERALD
“Kay and Yamada are beautiful movers, their long lean bodies a joy to watch, the choreography fluid and inspired”
-Kelly Apter THE SCOTSMAN
SAY IT QUIETLY
“Her (Rosie Kay’s) movement vocabulary makes astute, sometimes humorous use of classical gambits, spiked with inventive contemporary twists and the sheer dynamic of her own charisma as a performer. Stunning: clever and immensely watchable.”
-Mary Brennan, THE HERALD
