5 SOLDIERS the film 2011
5 SOLDIERS- the Body Is The Frontline is a short film that takes you inside the physicality of 5 soldier/dancers. Based on extensive research with the British Military, with choreographer Rosie Kay working with the 4th Battalion the Rifles over a year, 5 SOLDIERS has a strong sense of narrative as the soldiers go through the rigours of drill, release, sexual tension with the lone female soldier, before entering into the realm of battle and ultimately ending on the randomness of injury. The work exposes the frailty of the human condition in war- disorientating and highly embodied when watching from the dancers own head cameras, as the environment moves around and fellow soldiers smile, joke and attack you, or as you step further away, the dancers become like ants in a huge desolate landscape. This multiplicity links the parallels to us all and the soldiers experience- how intensely everything is felt close up, but ultimately how small you in the big picture of war.
“One of the most engaging elements in the show is 5 Soldiers, a video installation by Rosie Kay Dance Company. It is a powerful piece of art that conveys a real sense of how suppressed violence can rise quickly to the surface”
Museums Journal Sharon Heal
“Among the single works, most blindsiding is the multi screen footage of Rosie Kay Dance Company’s 5 Soldiers… death scenes are nothing new in dance, this though, makes you forget categories”
Art Monthly Curt Riegelnegg
