T amsin Fitzgerald and her 2Faced Dance Company are practising for their show at Guru Nanak Bhavan. Tamsin and her team were in the city last week for their show, as a part of UK-India Year of Culture 2017. The team was in India under the Outlands umbrella, presented their work Run in Bengaluru and also to start their Bench India Project, which offers women choreographers a chance to present their works in the UK.
Tamsin gives a few last minute instructions to the male dancers before she makes time to talk to MetroPlus about her passion — Dance.
Tell us about the name of your dance company, 2Faced Dance Company — sounds unusual.
It is called so as the dance company has two sides to it — education and performance. It came out of an education project and then grew to be a full-time dance company. Initially, I worked with boys, teaching them and then developed the company into a full time company. Art can have a huge impact on a dancer and society and people. That’s why the name 2Faced Dance Company.
Tell us about your dance background...
I started with ballet and left the classical world for contemporary dance. Soon I set up 2Faced Dance Company. With time we were catapulted from being a small company to a well-know dance group. We are now a funded organisation. Our work has also grown immensely in the past few years.
Why do ballet dancers give it up and take to contemporary dance? Especially when they have put in hours and years of practise?
Ballet is based on the aesthetics of what you look like. And, as a woman when you are 30 you no longer feel youthful. Your body starts to wear and tear. Ballet offers you a very intense but short career. That is the age when most women take a break, get married and have children. Then those who still want to continue in the art field, take to contemporary dance where the body form or shape is less important and is more about how you move than what you look like.
Is your contemporary move based on ballet? And why is your work termed as “adventurous’?
Yes it is. We also use many other dance techniques and a bit of acrobatics too. That is why my works are called adventurous. Contemporary dance in the UK has almost gone very pedestrian – like in the 50 and 60s, where anyone could do it. Physically too it is challenging. You will see a lot of lifting and chucking of dancers across the stage. We have borrowed a bit from the circus.
Tell us about the Bench project.
In 2015, after getting many boys into the field of dance, I decided to tackle gender inequality in the dance field in the UK, which is massive in the UK art sector. Eighty per cent of the work created there is directed, produced or choreographed by men.
They get commissioned with most of the major dance projects. Even in ballet, it is the same. Women work on small-scale projects. So I set up a programme called The Bench. The idea being that we are always made to sit on the side on a bench. It also means that we want to get off the bench.
We have had many women now on the programme and now have launched it in India too. Called The Bench India, we have chosen women choreographers from India, who will bring their work to the UK in autumn the coming year.
Which is easier — being a dancer or a choreographer?
I find being a dancer more easy. As you are a body of some one else’s idea. As a choreographer, I do encourage my dancers to think and explore, but again it is based on my theme.
I love being a choreographer and explore ideas, but then you are exposing your talents to the audience. Or you are telling them ‘look this is my work so at least try being challenged by it’. Even the work that was staged here was presented by only men, but was directed and choreographed by women.
