Lloyd Newson was born in Australia and has worked with the DV8 dance company since 1996. His radical and innovative ideas are often hard hitting and really do mean something in the emotion it evokes in the audience. Straddling dance, text, theatre and film, Newson work’s refuses to be defined. He is interested in conceiving original work rather than performing existing plays or reinterpreting classical ballets.
Enter Achilles:
What a relief it is to be shown a piece of dance where the audience doesn't spend the first ten minutes thinking: 'what the hell is going on?' Instead, DV8's 'Enter Achilles' is drawn from everyday life with instantly recognizable references. Now cut to a 'marmalade' of eight 'straight' men, confined within the four walls of a typical pub; pint in hand, football on screen, the jingle of a fruit machine underneath a cacophony of karaoke and screeching wolf whistles to the blondes outside. Choreographer Lloyd Newson creates an extremely clear interpretation of the typical British 'norms' and its stereotypical views towards the male sex, male behaviour and above all, male relationships. He asks you to consider: 'why is it acceptable for men to do footwork around a football but not to do footwork in dance?
