The Oxford Samuel Beckett Theatre Trust Award 2009
Levantes Dance Theatre won the 2009 OSBTT Award.
14-24 October 2009, The Pit, Barbican Arts Centre
Eleni Edipidi and Bethanie Harrison formed Levantes as key practitioners in 2005. The aim of the company is to engage audiences, fusing artistic disciplines to create vivid, inclusive experiences.
The style is peculiar and bold; colour, costume, facial hair, Maltesers, wigs and Guinness all play a part in humorous, dreamlike landscapes.
The familiar mechanics of routine and habit are woven into choreography to explore the relationship between the divine and mundane. Everyday behaviour is used to make the familiar a comfortable vehicle from which to explore the surreal. Task-based motion forms a framework with which to interpret and reflect on life's absurd elements.
Prescriptive performance is rejected; the work deliberately leaves space for the audience to draw their own conclusions and become author of their own experience. Fluidity is favoured over rigid narrative or choreography to keep both audience and performers engaged.
Room Temperature Romance is a charming story about the moments in life’s daily routine that mean nothing — and everything.
Combining the mundane with the absurd, audiences are taken on a trip down memory lane as the performers recount tales of youth, life and love.
Blending dance, video and movement with flamboyant costumes and evocative audio, Levantes’ charismatic and idiosyncratic style playfully explores the perverse aspects of the human psyche.
This fantasy voyage invites you to indulge in the delights of both ordinary and extraordinary behaviour, revealing their beauty and ultimately making you smile.
"One of the most innovative modern dance organisations in the country" - Manchester Metro
Three shortlisted candidates were awarded Research and Development grants: Levantes Dance Theatre for Room Temperature Romance, Precarious for Anomie and Lyndsey Turner for Objects for a Lonely Man.