Its Divine meets Hedwig, its glittery maw scratches as it gulps and glints on the decent into bacchanalian chaos. It jerks & gasps against this glazed over fourth walls, in this hothouse there are no stones to throw, just shade, looks and cool moves.
New Ways of LivingGary Clarke Dance Company
For two weeks this super surreal performance dance thingy which feels like John Walters has had a fourgey with Kiss the Rock band and sprinkled everything with glitter and then slipped it down a K hole is out in the feral reaches of a random location in Brighton. The Gary Clarke Dance Company are occupying an empty shop in Brighton for this Pink Fringe happening inspired by alternative living experiments of the 1970s, commune dwelling drag troupes such as Bloolips and the Cockettes, and the occupy movement. Watch the trailer here:
It’s a vivid night, hallucinogenic and claustrophobic, as vacuous and meaningless as it is intimate and provocative, it’s a night of contradictions and all very very close. It’s the Beauty and the Beast, Edith Massey meets Edith Piaf, Sequin meets Scar. No chairs in this secret venue (the choice and location of which will delight anyone with a feel for Brighton’s night time characters and history) just move around, sit close and shimmy with the dancers. Gary Clarke is currently regarded as one of the UK’s leading contemporary dance artists but due to the secret element part of the show I’m not going to give any of the performance away, which makes the review difficult to bulk out with any fact and saves me having to look like a pretentious twat by analysing and contextualising the movements and referential dance, phew!But I can say I enjoyed it, it was fun and just the right side of creepy odd, full of glamour and the random joy of spontaneous creation. It’s manufactured nostalgia with an raised knowing eyebrow. I liked the references to the Cockettes and the opening reminded me of some parties I went to in Berlin as part of the Tunten-culture in the early 90’s. Its Divine meets Hedwig (the Angry Inch not the owl….), its glittery maw scratches as it glints and the decent into bacchanalian chaos is referenced well. It jerks into spasmodic motion and the performers gasp against their glazed over fourth walls, in this hothouse there are no stones to throw, just shade, looks and cool moves. The place is full of transformed found objects and built by designer/maker Ryan Dawson-Laight it’s an honest and interesting representation of queer communal living. 
A great start to the Pink Fringe, provocative and strangely comforting too, with a hard edge to knock your shins against. There are no observers in this New Way of Living and Clarke & his troupe drag us into the crepuscular world of creative decay and writhing over our expectations reminds us that at heart even the most avant–gardelifestyle needs to have a cuddleSee the rest of the Pink Fringe line up here: Thursday 27th February 7.30pm/9pm
