Who is dancing for? Looking at 81-year-old Christine Thynne, who debuts her first solo performance at the Fringe this year, it’s clear that age should never be a limiting factor; Christine did not take her first dance class until her late sixties.
The aptly titled Golden Class (Golden Girls, anyone?) at Dance Base – the Edinburgh-based national centre for dance – is where Christine met long-time collaborator Robbie Synge, who was teaching at the studio.
Since then, the duo have worked together on a variety of short films and even toured around Europe together, with a group piece called Ensemble. Christine’s solo project, These Mechanisms, is the latest in a series of collaborations.
Christine, were you always interested in dance?
Christine: Yes, as a little child going to a village hall and dancing. Then I trained as a physio and something that I developed within that was how to teach the general public movement using music. I had years when I didn’t do anything – it was only 13 years ago that I actually went into Dance Base and I realised then that I had this great love of moving.
What is it that you love about dancing, Christine?
Christine: I love moving my body and this feeling of joy that you get from within yourself when you can just let yourself go, whether there’s music there or not.
What can we expect to see in this performance?
Christine: Risk-taking, some excitement… some technical things happening and some dancing. Taking on a solo performance and doing sort of physical things at my age, I’ve had to learn some new skills. It’s live and it might work and it mightn’t work, and that will be the excitement and the risk that will be there.
Robbie: Because I don’t think Christine’s going to [do solos] loads of times, it seems quite important to get it right. So we’re drawing on Christine’s interests and our understanding of each other and the spirit of it, which is really adventurous and joyous.
Where does the name These Mechanisms come from ?
Robbie: It relates to the interest in the mechanics of life: attending to people, grandchildren, children. This is how I think dance works, by capturing something ambiguous and not so much about specifics of a story or a narrative. So it’s encapsulating a spirit and that joy, and that’s what we’ve tried to go with rather than going on an autobiography.
Would you say this performance is a culmination of the decade of you two working together?
Christine: It’s just the beginning. It’s another chapter!
Robbie: Maybe it’s the beginning of the end?
Christine: It might be the beginning of my end…
Robbie: It’s an evolution and it’s a culmination, for sure. And we’re learning all the time; we’re always learning.
What keeps on bringing you back together as collaborators?
Christine: Cause he’s the best! Robbie has this gentle way of being able to push my boundaries into something that I couldn’t possibly have thought about. Most importantly, I trust him; I trust Robbie with my old body, my aged body. It’s a collaboration – it’s not a case of Robbie saying to me, you know, ‘do this’, it’s ‘we’ll try this’ and then I maybe [have a] think. That’s how this friendship and working practice has developed.
Robbie: On the whole, it’s just a complete laugh. There’s a lot of laughter, and a lot of silliness, and a lot of excitement. And that’s just a beautiful combination. Also, by working together over a long period of time you can develop something deep: seeing the potential of somebody who’s really keen to push things and surprise people and to learn together.
Robbie, why is it important to see a greater variety of people on stage?
Robbie: I’m interested in real human bodies. All the collaborations I’ve done [have been] with kids or people with certain body images or abilities or disabilities. It’s like a passion about what that body can say, what that body’s context brings. It’s important that we don’t just keep seeing 20, 30, even 40-somethings on stage, because that does not reflect society and life. In some ways that can be quite distancing for the viewer, you know – I think we become closer and more empathetic when we see a more diverse kind of demographic on stage.
Christine, with this being your first solo debut, how do you feel about getting on stage by yourself?
Christine: Some days, I’m very, very positive and very, very excited. [At those times] I feel very capable and know that I will be able to pass this pleasure to other people… and then the next day I’m absolutely petrified, anxious, and nervous that I won’t be able to fulfil the expectations. That’s on a bad day. So you just have to wait for a balance and breathe.
Christine, what would you tell someone who’s scared to go out and try something new, like dancing?
Christine: All you need to be able to do is shuffle or push one foot forward, and then push the other foot forward, and then maybe lift an arm. And as soon as you do that and you alter, we would say, the quality of time, weight, space, and flow – then you’re dancing.
Anybody can do it, even if they say they can’t!
These Mechanisms is at Assembly@ Dance Base, Dance Base 3, Edinburgh, from 2–4 August.
Photo Credit: Amy Sinead Photography
