Supper Club has swiftly become a must-see for performance enthusiasts. Over the past few months, the curators – drawn from The Basement’s team of supported artists – have provided a series of truly varied and enjoyable nights of Live Art.
The June event, compered by the delightfully rude The Two Wrongies, began with Stick Piece by Sara Popowa, described as a ‘kind of reversed interpretation of Yoko Ono’s Cut Piece’. In silence and with composure, Sara spread paper swatches into a perfect circle on the floor. She then took her clothes off, stepped into the circle and sat down. Our turn. Soon she was being enthusiastically decorated with strips of brightly coloured sticky paper and became a splendid sculptural form. Sara gently folded forward, eased herself upright and exited. A perfect mix of good idea, elegant execution, and creative audience involvement.
Titles cannot be trusted. Liz Aggiss’s piece for mapdance Don’t Put Your Daughter On The Stage, should have every teenage girl with a bit of nous rushing to join a dance company. It delivers the combined joys of distinctive movement with humour, eclectic music and fine performance. Whilst paying homage to early twentieth-century dance in its styling and aesthetic it is totally modern, allowing the eleven dancers to work to their own strengths whilst maintaining the syncopation of a classic showgirl line-up. Inches from its audience, the troupe radiated energy. A sharp and pithy showcase for women dancers; rare to find and thrilling to watch.
Valediction by Florence Peake provided a quiet and fragile counterpoint. A moth dies; hands flutter and crash, chalk is drawn and blown across a board, a mirror flickers around the room, settling on an eye. Pared down, economically told, a thoughtful and well-made piece.