PRIME at 10
★★★☆☆ Gleeful
Assembly @ Dance Base (Venue 22): Fri 1 Aug – Sun 3 Aug 2025
Review by Julia Amour
Prime – the over-60s performance company from Scotland’s national centre for dance – share their infectious glee at ten years of celebrating older bodies in PRIME at 10, a show of two halves at Dance Base until Sunday 3 August.
The opening piece is a revival of Carry on Dancing, first developed for the company in 2016 by choreographer Steinvör Palsson. Ten, the second piece, is a new commission choreographed by Robbie Synge which is, by bracing contrast, more like a happening
A moment from a performance of Carry On Dancing. Pic: Dance Base.
Carry on Dancing is a tribute to Palsson’s father, set to a soundtrack of his favourite Marlene Dietrich numbers. In a moving coup de theatre the piece is adapted to remember former company members Maureen Fraser, Pippa Hazelgrove and Jill Knox, who sadly have not lived to see Prime’s 10th anniversary.
The crackling recordings set an elegant, nostalgic tone for a performance that begins in Diva mode, emphasised by finely judged costume and lighting design by Jeannie Byrne with wardrobe assistance from Mr Pearl and Marilyn Shiells. The seven-strong cast enter like Greek goddesses, arms aloft in shimmering full-length columnar gowns and evening gloves. The lighting glows like a nightclub, sometimes silhouetting the cast for added dramatic effect.
Like Marlene herself, the dancers (Annie Young, Christine Thynne, Diane Mitchell, Judy Adams, Lin Grahame, Norma Turvill and Rosie Orr) look knowing and distant. They soon subvert these intimidating first impressions though, when each breaks the fourth wall to present some idiosyncratic choreography inspired by their own lives.
spine-tinglingly unique
Then, very touchingly, they perform and narrate the gestures that the former company members had created for the original version of the piece. This is a spine-tinglingly unique moment, as departed friends are memorialised through their embodied memories.
The dances that follow reflect all sorts of moods: by turns bittersweet, angry, weary, cheeky, or flirtatious. In one sequence there is exaggerated bum-slapping and boob-perking, exuberantly carried off, and again like Marlene herself the dancers’ appetites seem to be omnivorous.
The choreography has a clever emphasis on iconic arm gestures, which allow the dancers to be expressive whether they are able to move with ease or effort. It really lifts off when the whole cast is in movement either in distinct duets and trios, or synchronised sequences which recall Busby Berkeley chorus lines and even mid-century Hollywood musicals. With its classic glamour and dramatic performances, it is all tremendously engaging.
Ten, choreographed by Robbie Synge. Pic: Amy Sinead.
The second piece – Ten, a new commission choreographed by Robbie Synge – is by bracing contrast more like a happening, with the audience as witnesses to the company’s reflections on their first decade and what dance means to them. Synge’s interest in exploring compositional creativity and personal expression shines through.
The company (Annie Young, Diane Mitchell, Judy Adams, Norma Turvill, Rosie Orr, Marilyn Shiells, Eleanor Morrison, Karen Duignan, Kathy Jenkins, Mark Saunders, Moira Berry, Nancy Patterson, Paul Burrows, Sara Cameron McBean and Tom Daniels ) are introduced by voiceovers of cast members describing the area in which Dancebase sits, from ancient beginnings to recent events. While this is an original idea – like a Scottish version of Australia’s Welcome to Country ritual acknowledging the history of the land and its original occupants – it is somewhat disconnected from the rest of the piece.
The choreography plays wittily with bodies being organised by geometry and by numbers – both even and prime. Warm bright uplighting bathes the dancers’ faces, focusing in on their personal perceptions, and their plain T-shirts in a soft rainbow of colours are expressive of both group and individual identities. But the stripped-back staging demands a lot of a large cast with literally no props to help hold audience attention.
unselfconsciously confident
Fittingly for a Highland-based choreographer there is a ceilidh feel to one section, as cast members each take turns to express the importance of Prime to them while their colleagues sing the story of their movements. The dancers enter into this with glee, and there is beauty in their reflections about finding lightness, power, euphoria and room to play in this magical place. The audience can feel their relaxed pleasure in togetherness, and the liberation of older bodies being unselfconsciously confident, tender and vulnerable.
Dance Base should absolutely be doing this sort of meaningful work with Prime – in these contexts, the process is at least as important as the product. If the new piece feels more like a work in progress than a performance, then the audience still leaves feeling it is a privilege to celebrate with such delightful company.
Running time: One hour (no interval).
Assembly @ Dance Base (DB1), 14-16 Grassmarket, EH1 2JU. Venue 22
Fri 1 Aug – Sun 3 Aug 2025
Daily: 1.15pm.
Tickets and details: Book here on EdFringe.com.
Book here on EdFest.com.*
*affiliate link.
ENDS
