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# REVIEW: Sketch Dance Company To Have And To Hold
- URL: https://www.scenemag.co.uk/review-sketch-dance-company-to-have-and-to-hold/
- Published: 2020-10-18T09:30:10.000Z
- Updated: 2020-10-17T22:27:20.000Z
- Description: Brian Butler is fascinated by a Brighton Fringe site-specific dance piece
- Author: Brian Butler
- Tags: Arts, Dance, News, Out & About, Reviews, Theatre

[![](https://www.scenemag.co.uk/content/images/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/screenshot-2600400.jpg)](https://www.scenemag.co.uk/home/)

****Jasmine Andrews has created a fascinating and densely packed dance piece for 3 female performers that is often disconcerting.**

Set largely in a very ordinary-looking suburban house, with forays to the garden, a park and even a London bus shelter, it is billed as a dance film about nurturing, about growing up and making choices.

There is no storyline as such but occasionally a voice-over says things like: ‘ I am who I am; and I will not be changed.” It asks us as viewers to ponder who we are, where and why we do the things we do as we grow up.

The three principals- **Claire Hackston, Francesca Lista** and **Ema Thomas** have at times balletic and at other times robotic movements, often tangling their legs and arms with one another. It’s a very stripped-back interpretation in kitchen, living room and bedroom all largely decorated and furnished in white.

Filmed and edited by **Adam Biko** for the Sketch Dance Company, the work in its original format was performed live at London’s The Place earlier this year. This filmed version was made for Brighton Fringe.

[![](https://www.scenemag.co.uk/content/images/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/119423397_348997852600.png)](https://www.scenemag.co.uk/home/)

The most disconcerting element of this beautifully filmed piece is the background and surroundings which couldn’t be more ordinary and yet which seem to give a neutrality to the flowing movements of each performer. Separately they are mesmerising to watch and when dancing in unison, they fill the screen with their never-ending movement, mirrored by music which is often on a very short repeating loop.

Though I guess it’s useful to have been told what the theme of the piece is, its interest for me was in the grace and deep feelings the dancers portray – even when moving on grass or on and off a sofa.

It’s intriguing and enigmatic and you can catch it throughout October for a small charge-[ go to brightonfringe.org](https://www.brightonfringe.org/whats-on/to-have-and-to-hold-146946/?ref=scenemag.co.uk)

[![](https://www.scenemag.co.uk/content/images/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/fringe600.jpg)](https://www.gscene.com/arts/music/brighton-fringe-postponed-and-brighton-festival-cancelled-due-to-coronavirus/attachment/fringe600/?ref=scenemag.co.uk)