When asked about the production title Jennifer Barry laughs. “In '64-'65 I was at a party, and I was very young, 16 or so, and I found myself meeting a very important person. And I became very nervous, thinking oh my God, what am I going to say to this person. And while I was thinking about what to say to him, he had no problems in telling me: 'Oh, modern dancers, they’re fat, can’t dance classical ballet and they have dirty feet'. That person was Sir Robert Helpmann.”
‘Dancers With Dirty Feet’ consists of four live performances: ‘Three Faces Of Noon’, ‘Passage’, ‘Serendipity’ and ‘The Queens Chamber’, plus as Eleo Pomare's film, ‘Blues For The Jungle’. Now, 'jungle' is a black American slang word for 'Harlem'. And the film, at the time, was very controversial. “I don’t think he just wanted to be known as the ‘angry black artist’, but he was. And I think it was because of his revolutionary and various works, which were political. He was telling at the time, with dance, what was happening in the world, especially with the civil rights movement, 'cause he was a black American choreographer,” says Jennifer.
“In the early days – and I hope to demonstrate this during the performance, because we had overseas contacts – I feel that ADT was keeping up with the world's progress in modern dance. Because it was a new art form and the founders of ADT were very young, we just embraced this new art form while putting up with unstructured hours, lack of wages, and sometimes appalling conditions. But we were there because we just wanted to dance, and we wanted to spend every waking moment there. This is what I hope to say during ‘Dancers With Dirty Feet’.
“Eleo was a person that could create lots of sheer beauty, as well as revolutionary and rebellious works of art. That’s what I’m trying to show to the audience,” says Jennifer. “The first dance Eleo choreographed for me was ‘Passage’, which will be seen live during ‘Dancers With Dirty Feet’, and it will be danced by my daughter, Alexandra Knox,” says Jennifer.
The production will also tell stories from Jennifer’s days as a dancer in New York. “I lived in New York from 1971 to 1977, and the first five years I lived opposite the Hells Angels, so that was quite an experience. There were lots of interesting stories with police raids and having a rocket on July 4 come through my window,” laughs Jennifer.
‘Dancers With Dirty Feet’ shows at The Odeon Theatre Norwood 8-10 October.
