Q&A with Dan Daw and Stef O'Driscoll about dance show Over and Over (and over again)

Presented by Candoco Dance Company and Dan Daw Creative Projects, Over and Over (and over again) is a beat-driven joyful dance show attempting to create the perfect rave. Taking inspiration from rave culture and the lived experience of disabled dancers, it’s a search for utopia scored by a DJ set-like soundtrack of acid, house, techno, grime and everything in between. Using storytelling and rave culture it creates a joyous, unapologetic act of resistance and liberation.

We spoke to co-directors Dan Daw and Stef O’Driscoll about the production

What is Over and Over (and over again) about, and what will it be like for the audience?

SO: This piece is about raving and how we use raving as a way to let go and free ourselves of the struggles and burdens life presents us and how we can find even just a second of utopia in our life. It is about what raving could be. What fleeting moments of utopia could feel like. It’s about what people need to let go, to soften, to take their edges off, what happens if a space holds them to express themselves as they want, not how society wants them too, allowing them to connect and soften in a hard world. We hope the audience will want to join them. 

The show uses dance as an act of resistance and liberation. Can you tell us a bit more about how it does that?

DD: Dance has been used as an act of resistance throughout history. Whether we choose to acknowledge it or not, dancing is political, especially when it's looked at through d/Deaf and Crip lenses. In the rehearsal room, we were especially interested in interrogating how the dancers might move their bodies from a place of pleasure and desire, rather than from a place of dancing to remember. How do we move when we don't need to remember the steps? This work offers an aesthetic borne out of pleasure, freedom and joy and this in itself feels like a powerful act of resistance and reclamation of self within the terrifying socio-political landscape we’re all at the mercy of.   

How does the music shape the journey of the dancers and the emotions of the piece?

SO: The music is of the world of rave culture. But rave culture consists of so many different genres from acid house, house, dubstep, grime, drum and bass and jungle. Each track has been curated by the company or composed by Guy Connelly to evoke feelings and states of being, whether that be love, struggle, play, euphoric, abandon, desire and release. The music also tells a story. 

Candoco has a long history of challenging perceptions of dance and disability, and DDCP’s mission is to provoke change and reclaim space. How do you see this piece contributing to that ongoing conversation?

DD: This show is very much built from the lived experience of people in the room. Raving is very hard for D/deaf and Disabled/Crip people, the equity that we deserve in attending live events just isn’t there yet. Over and Over (and over again) isn’t heavy handed in the way it deals with this, but it does explore the limitations that we have put upon us by external factors that mean we don’t get the level of experience others do. The show explores what if we COULD reclaim that space? Would it bring the utopian feeling that a lot of other people get to experience at raves, to d/Deaf and disabled people? 

If someone has never been to a dance or theatre performance before, what would you say to encourage them to come and experience Over and Over (and over again)? 

SO: It’s a vibe! 

Over and Over (and over again) is at Attenborough Centre for the Creative Arts (20 May), Dance East (4 April) and Sadler’s Wells East (2 – 4 July). Tickets at https://candoco.co.uk/events/over-and-over-and-over-again-touring/