Dance Review – NQR

I have recently been to see a dance production called NQR. The production company behind the performance is called the Scottish dance theatre. The choreographers of this piece were Marc Brew and Caroline Bowditch. The performance took place at the Webster’s Theatre in Arbroath.

Before the show I was expecting to see lots of dancing, and maybe some questions at the end. I didn’t ever expect to see people in wheelchairs dancing or a bit of acting! I also didn’t expect a lot of talking in between the dancing, where a lady spoke. I found that very boring.

I thought that the NQR (Not Quite Right) dance told a story about being disabled, having your life told to you by everyone and not being able to do what everyone else can do. I think it’s about finding yourself and discovering that you can do lots of things if you put your mind to it. Also I think it’s about standing out, maybe not being the same as everyone else but being OK with that, even if you’re different in a way that you’re not disabled. I think NQR is called Not Quite Right as the two choreographers (who are also in the dance) are in wheelchairs and can’t walk.

The dancers used lots of different moves in different parts of the dances. In the first dance, Dog, they used lots of energetic, jerky moves, and it looked a bit like an African dance, because of the music. In NQR they used a mixture of moves. They were joined together, they used soft and flowing moves, then jumpy and lively moves, and also strange and puzzling moves. The dancers were joined together sometimes and had to dance like that. Sometimes you could detect emotions, like when they were ‘discovering’ something, but most of the time I didn’t understand it or it didn’t look right, or even like dancing at all, but I suppose it had to be that way, since it was supposed to be different and things missing. My favourite part of the dance was when we could see silhouettes in the boxes on stage. That bit was very artistic.

The costumes varied a bit. In Dog, the dancers all wore grey clothes. In the life and times of Girl A (which was really acting instead of dancing, where the dancers improvised,) they all wore everyday clothes as they were supposed to be in a busy airport. In NQR, the costumes were a little strange. To start off with they were all wearing underwear-type clothes, and then later on were wearing things like trousers without a top (boys) or a suit with no trousers (boys.) I can’t remember exactly what the girls wore. I thought those last costumes were very strange. I think the costumes were important because it reflected the type of dance, and the emotions of the dancers.

The stage was set up with a few boxes. The boxes were only used in the NQR dance. They started off all in a heap in the corner of the stage, with the dancers surrounding them. After that they were moved around. Some were laid on their sides by the dancers, and others standing upright. At one part of the dance the dancers got in the boxes, with them moving and we could see the silhouettes of their feet. Caroline, (who was in the dance,) came out of one. There was a wheelchair in one, and we could see the wheel. The dancers also danced on them, stood on them, and danced around them.

The lighting was very good. There was just normal lighting in Dog, but it was a little dimmed. In NQR, the lighting varied a lot. It started off dark, with a bit of bluish light, then throughout the dance got lighter, but also went darker again. About halfway through the dance there was coloured lighting, using colours like pink and yellow. I think it went well with the dancing. The music went well with the Dog dance, and it sounded jumpy and African-like. In NQR the music made me feel a bit strange. It sounded a bit cold.

I enjoyed the visit because it was interesting to see different types of dancing that I’ve never seen before, and it was a new experience. I have learned lots of new words in English to do with dancing and learned that there are lots of other types of dancing that I didn’t know about. I also learned that being disabled doesn’t stop you dancing and even if you are in a wheelchair you can still dance.