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Dancing off to war
War becomes personal when it is kill or be killed. Picture: Tim Cross 5 Soldiers – The Body is the frontline
Birmingham Rep
**** 5 SOLDIERS is as much a project as a
dance piece from the Birmingham based Rosie Kay Dance Company. It stems from an idea Rosie Kay had of expressing
soldiering, and to some extent her anger about the way soldiers were
sent into battle by politicians and they way they were treated – injury
rates were hidden and the MOD did not make amputation statistics
available until 2010 for example. Rosie Kay spent time with The 4th
Battalion The Rifles in 2008 and from that first hand experience evolved
the full length dance theatre work, the first platoon, so to speak, of 5
Soldiers which opened and toured in 2010. Just as war and the role of the military has
evolved so has the piece with the next wave of recruits in this latest
incarnation in its premiere at Birmingham REP. The performance, incidentally, was on the main
stage, turned into a studio format for the occasion, and what an
impressive size the Rep stage area really is. Into that space we find five squaddies, four men
and a girl, Duncan Anderson, Sean Marcs, Oliver Russell, Chester Hayes
and Shelley Eva Haden. We go through training, marching drills and the
endless boredom of waiting around for deployment, transfers, orders . .
. There is tension, fit young men, and women,
trained to kill . . . or be killed, crowded together with little to
occupy them. Camaraderie and conflict can be close companions. There is
also the distraction of women in front line units. No matter how
professional, how well trained or well disciplined a soldier, baser
instincts and carnal desires are a powerful force to be reckoned with. Then there is war, the operations and battles,
with soldiers working as one under fire and under threat and, all too
often, taking casualties and finally the aftermath of war, a double
amputee, struggling to come to terms with his new situation as a
soldier.
The message is simple. No matter how
sophisticated or advanced the weaponry, the nitty gritty of war comes
down to boots on the ground, making the body, the soldier, the real
frontline, and where that body fights is all at the whim, will, policy
or political expediency of Governments and politicians. Soldiers don’t
pick wars, politicians do. The piece is thought provoking, at times moving
and has the air of authenticity that comes from all five dancers having
spent time with army units. 5 Soldiers will be touring until mid June
with visits to barracks and army camps mixed among the theatres. After
all it is telling a soldiers’ story so who better to see and hear it. To
25-04-15 Roger Clarke
23-04-15
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