BEAUTiFUL, a new dance-theatre piece by Sweetshop Revolution

"I’d asked ten women who were there to each come up with a quick solo about someone they loved." British choreographer and performer Sally Marie was conducting an audition to recruit new talent for her dance company Sweetshop Revolution when she asked the candidates to improvise a short piece on the theme of love drawing from personal experiences and feelings. This little experiment lead unexpectedly to the realisation of a full length piece that is "BEAUTiFUL".

Photo: Dominic Farlam

"As they were dancing I begin to imagine a big wall of porn behind them – the endless, plastic depictions of women and the inherent lack of truth in all of that," Marie said, "It got me thinking, too, about how women in dance are portrayed, or portray themselves. And this, in turn, led me to think about how women inhabit their sexualities, not just on a stage but in life – from one generation to another, and one culture to another." In BEAUTiFUL, private worlds slice through elusive truths and false assumptions we still live in and perform daily. "Together we’ll be looking seriously and humorously – but always closely – at how women are objectified on stage and in the wider world."

The piece is the fourth full-length show that Marie created for Sweetshop Revolution with the help of five female dancers and is about to embarked on an eleven-venue UK tour commencing at Lincoln's Performing Arts Centre on Feb 16, and continuing until March 24. Patate Bollenti will have the pleasure to see the show at Hackney Showroom, East London's newest cultural centre. Dance and theatre lovers will be able to see BEAUTiFUL here on 22 and 23 February.

In the critical cultural and political moment we live in, it is particularly relevant to make and see works like BEAUTiFUL casting a spotlight on sex, love and desire. In particular, Marie was concerned in developing these themes and states of being from the view of women. So she started speaking to women of different backgrounds and ages. "I heard extraordinary and yet perhaps unsurprising stories," she says.

"One was about somebody’s grandmother, born in 1888, who when pregnant didn’t know just where the baby was going to come out. Or, more recently, there was an older woman who joined us in the studio for a day who said she remembers meeting women who’d been incarcerated all their lives due to becoming pregnant. I suppose, really, it was this kind of control that society can exert over women that I wanted to challenge through my art."

The piece alternates group and solo performances through which the individual characters of the five dancers develop, each one telling their story. Beauty and sexuality play centre stage: moving from an energetic beginning into a darker space, the dancers used tender and raunchy movements, as well as words, to express the double-faced experience of female beauty and sexuality and the grey area in-between still to be explored by dance.

Paulette Ranieri was exceptional in the portrayal of lesbian sexuality and love at first moving tenderly and sensually with Sandra Klimek and later in a more complex duette with Tania Dimbelolo. Due to its boldness, "some people didn’t want me to make this show", Marie explains, "but my determination won through. To me it seems so right that BEAUTiFUL exists, especially now when there’s a growing interest in what the piece has to say."

Photo: Dominic Farlam

We cannot wait to see what Marie has in store for us with this piece. But her dancers gave us a hint of what their aim will be: "To generate outrageous pleasure, inspire insight and provoke debate"

Thanks to Adam TownDrow, Donald Hutera and Sweetshop Revolution.

All photos by Dominic Farlam.

Sweetshop Revolution was nominated as Best Independent Company at The National Dance Awards 2016.

Sweetshop Revolution UK Tour Feb 16-March 24

Choreographer and Director: Sally Marie

Dancers: Tania Dimbelolo, Flora Grant, Natacha Kierbel, Sandra Klimek and Pauline Raineri

Costumes: Cristiano Casimiro and Minnie Sandbach

Lighting: Andy Hamer

Sound and Music: Andy Pink

Producer: Adam Towndrow

Follow Sweetshop Revolution and their UK Tour

Facebook: @SweetshopRevolution