Does every dance platform have a dog? Our previous edition of On Record finished with a story about a dog who had become integral to the experience of the platform – and lo and behold, at Baltic Dance Platform another dog became an unobtrusive yet benevolent presence: a black labrador called Morocco, beloved long-time companion to Latvian dance artist Sabine Neilande.
Morocco was just a puppy when she first accompanied Sabine to the dance academy. “She came to ballet, to contemporary, even the theory classes,” says Sabine. “She’s also participated in I think four performances now.”
But the story that everyone remembers came from an improv exam. The students signalled the start and end of their improv by switching a lamp on and off. Morocco, seated to the side, puked up near the start of the exam.
Gross!
Near the end, she licked it up again.
Ultra gross!!
And yet, think about it. It was almost as if Morocco had been following the framework of the exam, with the puke as her improvised lamp, first on, then off.
Still gross!!
Yes, but very memorable. In fact, I wondered whether some of the Estonian artists (they have something of a reputation for provocative performance art) might be a little envious of Morocco’s corporeal-conceptual audacity.
