About
Test Run was created for Dance Umbrella 2006 as a powerhouse solo performance by Janusz Orlik with rich, multi-layered music played live and fed through loop stations by violinists Patrycja Kujawska and Matt Howden.
A gentle, intimate solo gave way to an unexpected, aggressive and intricate trio, shaped by the physical and musical interventions of the two musicians who share the space.
Test Run became a complex, highly structured trio – a game of perseverance and persistence, exposing the huge personal demands placed on one dancer to avoid public meltdown and to keep control of the stage.
Test Run investigated how live music can be integrated with movement and, pushing dancer Janusz Orlik to his physical limits, and asks the question ‘does the dance lead the music or the music lead the dance?’
Test Run formed half of Act One, a double bill of VDT’s work partnered with Look At Me Now, Mummy touring nationally and internationally. Funded by Arts Council England.
Director’s Notes
An empty stage.
No set.
No costumes.
Janusz ‘dancing on his own for once, without the usual things getting in the way… other dancers for example.’
A simple graph drawn on the floor to contain the dance.
Musicians conjure a dance from Janusz
Construction and deconstruction
Seeing it evolve before your very eyes
Seeing the real people behind the dance
Sitting / standing/ sitting
Eyes closed / eyes open / eyes closed
Voice / violin / voice
Instruction / interaction / instruction
Sleep / wake / sleep
The awake state is the apex of the dance.
Push the violin with memories of what is in your fingers.
Push the looped sound as far as it will go.
Push the body. Push the technical capability. Push the duration.
Rules are simple.
Three sections.
They come on.
They make stuff happen.
They go off.
Credits
Directed and Designed by
Charlotte Vincent
Artistic Director & Chief Executive (She/Her)
Charlotte formed Vincent Dance Theatre (VDT) in 1994 and has directed all the company’s collaborative work to date, on stage and on film. Vincent has also designed the work since 2005 and performed with the company until 2002. Vincent’s distinctive, contemporary choreography ‘stages ideas’ and embeds her own and her collaborators’ lived experience within the work, raising awareness of personal and political issues, breaking down the barriers between professional and non-professional performers and in VDT’s film installation and engagement spaces, between audience and participant.
Vincent is recognised as a sector leader in movement based socially engaged creative practice and creative health, particularly around her work with care-experienced young people and women at risk, championing gender equality and advocating for best practice to support parents and carers working in the performing arts. Her pioneering work on film ensired VDT were ‘covid ready and able to work through Covid and consequently allows Vincent’s work to be purposefully ‘applied’ in non-arts settings as well within conventional arts venues and settings.
Charlotte is an experienced speaker, lecturer and Mentor, working with early and mid-career artists to develop their creative practice and production work. Vincent has also worked as a director, dramaturg, and facilitator for other artists and companies, most notably Two Destination Language (Near Gone, winner Total Theatre Awards for Innovation and Experimentation 2014), Keira Martin (Here Comes Trouble Sadlers Wells Wild Card and Good Blood) and facilitating early R&D for Sue MacLaine’s Can I Start Again Please (2013).
In the past, Vincent has performed and collaborated with Professor Liz Aggiss as V&A Artefacts, curated an inaugural 4-week festival of experimental performance practice, Juncture at Yorkshire Dance in Leeds and co-hosted The Table, a forum to nurture dialogue across disciplines between established female artists with Dr Claire Macdonald. Charlotte sat on the Artists Advisory Group at Yorkshire Dance for several years and Steering Group for Dance UK’s National Choreographic Conference in 2013. Most recently she has been a driving force behind the development of the London Road Network in Brighton, a collaborative group of organisations and individuals working towards deeper interaction between arts orgs and grassroots organisations in one of Brighton’s more deprived areas.
Vincent is Safeguarding Lead for VDT, trained in Trauma Informed Practice, Mental Health First Aid, therapeutic parenting, and First Aid. She completed a Clore Leadership Short Course (2010), the Clore Programme for CEO/Artistic Directors (2011) and Clore Brave Conversations Programme (2013). Vincent is also trained in FA Football Coaching.
Vincent has written chapters and been written about in several Routledge Publications (resources) and PhD’s, and her work Art of Attachment lies at the heart of Dr Cath Lambert‘s imminent publication Troubling Adoption.
In 2023, Dr Vincent gained a PhD in Performing Arts from Canterbury Christ Church University, reflecting on VDT’s socially engaged practice, supervised by Professor Angela Pickard, Director of the Sidney de Haan Centre for Arts and Health.
Dr Charlotte Vincent lives in Brighton with her son, who loves mountain biking, fishing and gaming.
Devised and Performed by
Janusz Orlik
Artistic Associate
Janusz Orlik is a performer, choreographer and dance practitioner.
After graduating from ballet school in Warsaw, Janusz became a student of Brucknerkonservatorium Linz in Austria. During his studies he became a founding member of x.IDA Dance Co. and performed in productions created by Olga Cobos, Peter Mika, Catherine Guérin, Rebekka Murgi, Nicole Caccivio and Charlotte Vincent. Since 2002, Janusz has been a regular member of Vincent Dance Theatre. Simultaneously, Janusz creates his own choreographic works, including “Exérèse monobloc” (2004), “and thy neighbour as thyself” (2006), “Live on stage” (2008), “The Rite of Spring” (2011), “Insight” (2013) awarded by The Minister of Culture and National Heritage of the Republic of Poland for Janusz Orlik and Joanna Leśnierowska for the best choreography granted as part of Polish Dance Platform 2014, “Mute” (2018) and “Koda (a tribute)” (2019). In 2007 he performed in “nothing” by towarzystwo gimnastyczne and in 2009 in “Happy” by Nigel Charnock, in which he was also involved as choreographer’s assistant.
In 2010 Janusz joined Kwaad Bloed Company performing in “Forces”. In 2011 he joined Nigel Charnock + Company to create new work “Ten Men”. In the same year, he collaborated and performed in “Reconstruction” by Joanna Leśnierowska and in 2012 with Gary Clarke performing in “Horsemeat”. In 2013 he began a collaboration with Daniel Landau. In 2014 he performed in “… (Rooms by the sea) from the series Exercises in Looking” by Joanna Leśnierowska, in “Unintended Consequences” by Sjoerd Vreugdenhil, “Back to bone” by Rosalind Crisp and “Collective Jumps” by Isabelle Schad. In 2015 he performed in an excerpt of “Shirtology” by Jérôme Bel. In 2016 he worked as a movement director in “Ojczyzna” (Polish Theatre in Poznań), collaborated and performed in Polish-Brazilian production “Yanka Rudzka Project: Leavining”. In 2018 he collaborated and performed in Polish-Brazilian-Georgian-Armenian production “Yanka Rudzka Project: Polyphonies”.
Janusz is an author of a series of dance and movement workshops “Moved” which in a cyclical form took place throughout 2018 in cooperation with various institutions in Poland. Other works include “High heels” for the ballet ensemble of The Opera House in Kraków, “Alpha” for The Contemporary Dance Scene in Poznań, “Adagio” for the Musical Theatre in Poznań. As well as performing Janusz delivers movement and choreographic workshops in various venues, dance schools and community centres in Poland and abroad. Scholar of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage of the Republic of Poland in 2011 and 2018.
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Press
“Test Run sees Orlik dryly explaining the absence of the rest of the Vincent Dance Theatre ensemble - 'Two with broken legs ... one in rehab' - and rejoicing in the chance to dance 'without the usual things getting in the way. Other dancers, for example'.”Luke Jennings, The Observer, 9 March 2008
“Test Run is a tremendous fusion of virtuoso musicianship and mesmerising dance.”Shona Craven, The Herald, 1 February 2008
“The distinction between contemporary dance and multi-performance and physical theatre is becoming increasingly arbitrary and Sheffield's Vincent Dance Theatre continue to push the boundaries.”Ian Soutar, Sheffield Telegraph, 5 October 2007
“Here’s a surprise, a piece of contemporary dance that is both short and to the point and, even more strikingly, extremely funny.”John Highfield, Sheffield Star, 2 October 2007
“They exit with barely a backward glance at the awe-struck audience”
The Glasgow Herald
