Dollie Henry
(choreographer) Paul Jenkins (musical director/flugel) Jason Yarde (alto)
Julian Seigel (tenor) Jay Phelphs (trumpet) Jo Caleb (guitar) Graham Harvey
(piano) Neil Charles (bass) Shane Forbes (drums)
(Review by
Dave Parker)
This was an unusual evening’s
entertainment put on by an innovative company with a total commitment to jazz.
Sadly there was only a small audience to enjoy it.
Body of People (aka BOP) is a
contemporary jazz dance and music theatre company set up in 1999 by
choreographer Dollie Henry and jazz trumpeter Paul Jenkins. BOP aims to promote
and develop jazz music and dance through performance and education.
The first half of the show was
called Footprints in Jazz and it told
the story of jazz from African roots to West Side Story. It was 40 minutes of
creative dance sequences involving different combinations of the nine dancers.
The music featured Paul Jenkins’ clever arrangements of Footprints, Blues in the Night, Caravan and other standards but it
was all recorded. I was beginning to think I had been misled about the live
music.
I was relieved when the second
half started and there, on stage, were eight of the UK
This was exciting music,
expressive dance and excellent entertainment. So why did so few people come to
see it? Perhaps it is the problem of being a cross-over concept – jazz
enthusiasts may not want dance to ‘spoil their music’ while ‘jazz’ sounds old
fashioned to many contemporary dance lovers. A show like this needs a lot of
promotion – which it didn’t get.
But there’s hope for the future.
The majority of the small audience was teenage girls, probably aspiring dancers
and they will have learned something about jazz in general and Miles Davis in
particular. Also they will have heard for themselves how exciting live
improvised music can be.
Dave Parker.
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