Dingwall dancer returns to Highlands on a mission with IMAGO premiere
A DANCER from Dingwall who has blazed a trail across the world with an exciting, head-turning production is taking steps to raise the profile of the Highland venue that changed his life.
James Pett is bringing the Scottish premiere of IMAGO to Eden Court along with co-director Travis Clausen-Knight during a residency that will also offer opportunities to aspiring dancers.
After completing Higher Dance at the venue during his final years of study at Dingwall Academy, he now dreams of establishing a regular base at the venue and making contemporary dance accessible to and exciting for everyone.
IMAGO is a duet which exposes the intricate and often hidden dysfunctions in relationships and has struck a chord around the world.
Asked what the audience can expect of the August 10 performance - which will be preceded by a week of workshops for aspiring local dancers - James said: “We’re really excited to be here. People can expect a dynamic, thrilling emotional performance and a high level contemporary dance.”
Speaking during rehearsals at Eden Court, he said: “I’m from Dingwall. I was born and grew up in the Highlands so I’ve been fortunate to experience the culture and the community here. This work that we’re going to be presenting is very special to us.
“We’re very lucky that it has toured the whole world from Asia to America to Europe so we’ve had experience of this work in many different cultures.
“I feel that in the UK there’s a little bit of a wall that I want to try and break which is making contemporary dance accessible to anybody and making it exciting and thrilling so you can connect to it just as much as going to musical theatre.
“This is the wall that I am really passionate to break here in my home town.”
Travis believes contemporary dance comes with a stigma but insists: “You don’t have to think hard about it, there’s no intelligence needed, you don’t have to be a super genius - you can just enjoy it as movement. Contemporary dance is something that should just be enjoyed.”
Looking ahead to working on a piece that will be performed as a curtain-raiser for their own performance, James said: “We are here for three weeks and as part of our performances we like to give back to the community and in a way bring people together.
“We are hosting a very special workshop series here which starts on Sunday, August 4. It will be a series of workshops with young, aspiring dancers and we are not only going to teach them and share our experiences of dance technique and challenge them, we are also going to choreograph a piece with the dancers from scratch and they will be part of the curtain raiser performance in our show.”
He agrees that could provide the spark or a start for someone else.
He said: “I was 16 when I first started here and I did some really interesting workshops at the time and that actually really led me to where I am now, so you never know.
“Eden Court is where I did my Higher Dance practice…and that really was the key for me to open the door and realise I don’t need to become an architect or a doctor or go to university and have an academic year. It made it possible.”
Stepping out of the comfort zone has brought opportunities, he said: “A lot of my career has been through luck and just putting myself in a space in an audition or being seen and then suddenly you never know where it can lead you.
“So I would encourage dancers around the area not to be closed in their schools but to come and try guest workshops. Come to Eden Court because you never know what’s around the corner.”
That life-changing experience with the venue as a teenager could provide a lasting legacy. James said: “With this pilot with us being here as a company in residence, I really want to show Eden Court as well that we can bring people back, that we can have a new wave of energy of people coming into this space and in the long run it would be absolutely fantastic to be hosted here.”
The dynamic duo have their sights set on creating a legacy, as Travis says “a constant remnant in the memory that changes the mindset”.
Equally they want to make dance “genreless” and allow people to make a connection between their own movement and what they see on the stage.
Travis said: “People don’t realise that they do that every day. When you walk from your bedroom, when you leave your house, you are fundamentally creating dance, you are creating moments of language and it’s all inside the body and the body is that tool of expression and experience and when you see a dancer in real it becomes so apparent that their body is just a tool of expression and it’s really, really powerful.”
