In its upcoming Moscow performance, Diversions, a small modern dance troupe from Cardiffe, Wales, intends to grapple with some big questions.
The eight-member group, which this week performed in Volgograd and Nizhny Novgorod, approaches its work with a two-fold mission - to create a repertoire of new, international choreography and to combine performance with community activity.
Intimacy and globalism are brought closely together as the small troupe takes on projects fromall over the world. The group, founded in 1983, entirely revamps its repertoire each year, and artistic directors Roy Campbell-Moore and Ann Sholem often look past their own borders in their search for inspiration.
Speaking at a news conference Wednesday, Campbell-Moore said that the group's international focus came about partly as a result of geographic reality. "Wales is a very, very small country. We don't have many choreographers in Wales," he said.
But while looking abroad for new material began as a necessity, it eventually became central to the group's mission. In recent years, Diversions has performed works of choreographers from the United States, Holland, Slovenia, Spain and Sweden.
Just as important as actual performance is the group's commitment to education and community work. On tour for over 20 weeks each year, Diversions matches each day of performance with a day spent in a school or community center. On Monday afternoon, Diversions will join Russian dancers to give a master class for Russian students of modern dance.
The group's wide-ranging scope can be clearly seen in its current repertoire. The program for the Russian tour includes two one-act ballets, the first of which, "Nowhere But Here," is set to Igor Stravinsky's "Symphony in Three Movements" and choreographed by the American artist Bill Jones. The second part of the program, titled "Metropolis," was inspired by the work of the anti-fascist painter Otto Dix. Choreographed by Campbell-Moore himself, the dancing is set to a compilation of jazz melodies.
Campbell-Moore said it is precisely the differences between these two pieces that best describe Diversions' work, which in the past has been praised for its intricacy and precision. While "Nowhere But Here" is "white and stark," "Metropolis" is "colorful" and "theatrical."
But, he says, these two sides are equally vital to the whole. "It's a balance; if you take one part away, the other part falls over."
Diversions performs Monday at 8 p.m. at the Satire Theater, 2 Triumfalnaya Ploshchad. Tel. 299-6305. Metro: Mayakovskaya.
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