Gandini

As with many of Gandini Juggling’s works that can be termed ‘spectacles’, Night Clubs (2009) gave the company the opportunity to both revisit existing material and, also, begin sketching out new ways of rethinking the relationships between juggling and other art forms. Night Clubs was an opportunity for the company to revisit the application of dance principles to ‘pure’ juggling, focusing on the choreography of patterns and space, rather than working to stage virtuosic performances of patterns. This, in some ways, made it a counterpoint to the company’s ‘spectacular’ shows, such as 10,000 (2003), which was a ‘durational’ performance that repeated big tricks in multiple ‘facings’, and Big (2000), which was predominantly a vehicle for ‘maximal’ juggling.

There were similarities between these three works though, such as the way in which all three were inspired by Merce Cunningham’s approach to staging Events (performances in non-theatre spaces that drew on, and refigured, existing material). It is also possible to trace the influence of Gill Clarke’s work on Night Clubs, especially in the ways in which the company sought to deconstruct the juggling patterns to find choreographed physical movement and the ways in which they positioned the jugglers in the space.

In the context of the latter interest, Night Clubs echoed some of the devices from 10,000 (2004), particularly in the placing of the audience on all four sides of the stage, with the jugglers performing, in turn, the same sequences to the different facings. This was followed by small groups of jugglers (in twos, threes, and fours) performing the same sequence in parallel and in canon – a choreographic choice that continued even when the performers were facing in the same direction. Other choreographic choices saw one central group of jugglers throwing a fairly complex pattern, whilst two other groups, one on each side, threw a simple vari- ation of the central pattern. The effect of these compositional choices was to not focus attention on the skills of the jugglers but, rather, to focus it on the beauty of objects moving in space, in a co-ordinated way.

(orginal text from Juggling Trajectories, Gandini Juggling 1991 – 2015 by Thomas J M Wilson - link to shop)


THE TEAM

Director: Sean Gandini
Music by: Various
Performers: Catalina del Castillo, Iñaki Fernández Sastre, Sean Gandini, Sylvain Garnavault, Kim Huynh, Denis Paumier, Owen Reynolds, Arron Sparks, Bichu Tesfamariam, Kati Ylä-Hokkala