The Red Bulletin December 2020 (UK)

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Stepping out: Velicu has seen interest from a whole new audience thanks to the ENB’s free online content
DistDancing “Dance needs to be more approachable. That’s what is great about DistDancing” Erik Woolhouse Head east along the towpath from Hoxton Docks and you’ll find yourself at Here East, a creative complex that backs onto the River Lee Navigation and was built for the 2012 Olympics. Here, a corner room has been turned into a makeshift dance studio for Company Wayne McGregor’s RESET 2020 programme, which began in August and offers a free 10-week programme of ballet, contemporary and fitness training to both the company’s own dancers and freelancers who have fallen through the cracks support-wise. The three-and-ahalf-hour daily programme is a far cry from Bassett-Graham’s pre-COVID routine of being on tour for the majority of the year or rehearsing in London from 10am to 6pm. But getting back into the studio with other dancers – even if it is socially distanced – is still very welcome. One of the freelancers to benefit from RESET 2020 is Jordan Bautista (who uses the pronouns they/them), a 25-year-old dancer originally from Gibraltar. After dancing with the Polish National Ballet in Warsaw, Bautista relocated to London, and it was while they were searching for work following surgery that the pandemic struck. Today, they’re confined to their own square opposite Bassett-Graham, which has been marked out on the floor with white tape so that they and the other dancers can train in a COVID-compliant way. Each square has its own barre, a plastic box for possessions, and a supply of disinfectant wipes. When the class is ready to start, the instructor reels off a list of positions so fast it sounds unintelligible to the untrained ear, like an alien language or the shipping forecast. But the masked inhabitants of all 18 white boxes move through their positions in perfect sync, throwing their bodies into the kicks, spins and curtsies of the physically demanding ballet routine. “I think one of the changes that will come out of this pandemic is that both dancers and audiences are going to be much more aware of how much it takes to come together and collaborate to create work,” Bautista says. “I hope people will become more appreciative and understand how much work goes into things, and how much dance contributes to our culture.” In mid-September, following intense negotiations with the council and police, and considerable support from the public, the landlord of Hoxton Docks allowed DistDancing to return. “We’re still very much on alert, and there’s the possibility of another shutdown,” says Katsura. “We had to change our format and drop the strict scheduling to prevent a crowd gathering or police intervention.” Now, in late September, it’s time for the final show of the relaunched DistDancing. It’s grey and overcast again, but because of the lack of notification there’s no crowd outside Hoxton Docks. The Royal Ballet’s Giacomo Rovero walks onto the pontoon stage and starts his routine. Passers-by hear the music, stop to look, and by the end of his threeminute solo there are 20-30 people watching in awe. These aren’t the legion of fans DistDancing amassed through social media, but rather new people stopped in their tracks by a chance encounter with dance – just as Katsura and Zucchetti had originally intended. “Things will never go back to ‘normal’ as we know it; they’ll only move forward,” Katsura says. “When the theatres shut, we worried we’d lose our connection with audiences. But at a DistDancing show you can tell people are still thirsty for live performance. The connection is maybe even stronger. I think lockdown has made people realise how much they need arts and culture in their lives.” Fittingly, Katsura is DistDancing’s fifth and final performer. Due to her recent recovery, she performs a modified version of the Emeralds solo from choreographer George Balanchine’s ballet Jewels. She avoids going en pointe, but sweeps her arms gracefully in a port de bras as her flowing skirt billows around her, and finishes kneeling with her arms crossed, facing the audience on the towpath across the canal. The crowd has now grown to around 50 spectators, who applaud wildly as Katsura takes a bow before being joined on stage by the other performers. “We’re so grateful to be able to bring joy to people again,” Katsura says, relieved at the hitch-free performance. “The support we’ve had during the shutdown has been incredible. To see everyone come together to keep the arts alive is so heartwarming. It’s the strength and hope we need during these dark times.” ballet.org.uk; roh.org.uk; waynemcgregor. com; Instagram: @_distdancing_ THE RED BULLETIN 55
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UK EDITION DECEMBER 2020, £3.50 BE
Page 3 and 4: Discover at Sensory Bass Headphones
Page 5 and 6: EDITION
Page 7: CONTENTS December 2020 8 Gallery: v
Page 11 and 12: RUSSELL ORD TEAHUPO’O, TAHITI, FR
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Page 15 and 16: Commemorating the very first aviato
Page 17 and 18: THE PIONEER SPIRIT LIVES ON. Why th
Page 19 and 20: JEFFREY HALLERAN LOU BOYD Inside Sa
Page 21: FORD RANGER RAPTOR LET NOTHING STAN
Page 24 and 25: Sophie Williams Starting the conver
Page 26 and 27: Fantastic Negrito Taking an outside
Page 28 and 29: Jenny Schauerte The road less trave
Page 30 and 31: Jenny Schauerte our faces to say
Page 32 and 33: In 2012, NIMS PURJA climbed a mount
Page 34 and 35: In 2017, the Gurkhas undertook an e
Page 36 and 37: Nims Purja Annapurna, April 2019 Mo
Page 39 and 40: Nims Purja “I wanted to show the
Page 41 and 42: Nims Purja “I CARRY MY FAMILY WIT
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Page 49 and 50: Crossing over: the English National
Page 51 and 52: The world’s a stage: Chisato Kats
Page 53: DistDancing “After more than a we
Page 57 and 58: Red alert: Stefflon Don never looks
Page 59 and 60: “Americans would say, ‘I love w
Page 61 and 62: Stefflon Don were lots of words I d
Page 63 and 64: Come together Seven countries, 15 r
Page 65 and 66: The Old World STRANDA, NORWAY Rider
Page 67 and 68: The Old World BMX street pro Bruno
Page 69 and 70: SCOTLAND, UK Rider: Chris Akrigg (G
Page 71 and 72: The Old World August 2019: Matthias
Page 73 and 74: Vink pulls off a ‘flaming’ manu
Page 75 and 76: VENTURE Enhance, equip, and experie
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Page 81 and 82: VENTURE Equipment SNOW Slope into v
Page 83 and 84: 10 ISSUES getredbulletin.com £20 B
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Page 87 and 88: RAZER TOM GUISE PLAY The game chang
Page 90 and 91: VENTURE Equipment BLAST Baby boomer
Page 92 and 93: VENTURE Calendar 10 November onward
Page 94 and 95: THE ALPS AT THEIR VERY BEST Majesti
Page 96: Imprint GLOBAL TEAM THE RED BULLETI
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