Dance piece expresses agony and ecstasy of motherhood

by David Whetstone, The Journal

DAVID WHETSTONE talks to Liv Lorent about her new dance work inspired by motherhood, which will premiere at Newcastle's Northern Stage on Friday.

HOWEVER hard you prepare for parenthood, it still comes as a shock.

There you are, barely able to care for yourself, or so you fondly imagine, and along comes the very essence of dependency and helplessness in miniature human form.

“It changes your life completely,” exclaims Liv Lorent, still wide-eyed with wonder and disbelief 18 months after the event.

Albie, a first child for Liv and her partner, comedy actor Ben Crompton, was born in 2008. “July 6,” says Liv. The best parents never forget the details.

To casual acquaintances, Liv has always appeared the embodiment of the free spirit, although it is just possible that the creator of free-flowing, beautiful dance has to be an iron-willed disciplinarian when interviewers are out of the way.

Originally from Belgium, Liv has been based in the North East since 1996. The company she formed in 1993, balletLORENT, is based at Dance City, in Newcastle (although she confides that it is fast growing out of the allotted space).

Liv’s company of talented individuals has danced her choreography into life in all sorts of unusual places – the north tower of the Tyne Bridge, comedy clubs across Britain and even outdoors in Trafalgar Square.

With collaborators Paul Shriek (costumes) and Malcolm Rippeth (lighting), Liv has given birth to some truly extraordinary spectacles, not least Designer Body which had dancers rotating on spinning platforms while divesting themselves of sumptuous, Shriek-designed garments.

But then Liv got pregnant and faced the inescapable prospect of giving birth herself.

That was the inspiration for her last dance work, MaEternal, which premiered at Northern Stage in May, 2008. Eleven expectant mothers joined the eight-strong balletLORENT company to explore the idea of impending parenthood.

As the balletLORENT website puts it: “The pregnant woman symbolises life at its most vulnerable, yet most potent.

“As her aspirations and fears
shift, she finds herself poised between the life lived and the life that will be.”

The woman sitting opposite me in a Newcastle cafe has now moved on. The “life that will be” has become the life being lived. So how is Liv finding motherhood?

“I can’t believe how much I love him,” she says through the broadest of smiles.

“I thought I knew everything about love. Everything! But this is a whole new utter devotion and unconditional love. I do understand now why people say it’s like falling in love again.

“And now, already, I have lost the little baby who wanted breast-feeding on demand for weeks and months.

“Now I have a toddler to look after and he’s changing shape all the time. And in a few years’ time he’ll go to school... it’s a miracle that all parents live with and go through but it’s still new to me.”

It has changed her attitude in so many ways, she says.

“Now I’ll help people going through doors with pushchairs because I know what it’s like. I think before, I was one of those people who probably just walked past.

“Mothers with pushchairs and toddlers can become invisible to a lot of people.”

All of this brings us to Blood, Sweat & Tears, the new work which balletLORENT will premiere at Northern Stage on Friday, with a repeat performance on Saturday.

While MaEternal was about pregnancy and impending motherhood, this is about motherhood and all it entails.

Inevitably, since the aptly-named balletLORENT is driven to a large degree by the feelings and interests of its founder, it was inspired by Liv’s experiences since Albie came into the world.

As for the title, Liv explains that she grew up with it ringing in her ears. Her father was fond of the phrase, even though both he and she knew it wasn’t quite Churchill, who actually referred to “blood, toil, tears and sweat” in the early years of the Second World War.

“The phrase for me sums up a great effort in the noblest cause.

“It struck me that having a baby, from the onset of labour, is nothing but blood, sweat and tears, quite literally. I wanted to put it into choreography, the sheer physical and emotional weight of it, and the fact that you would do anything and suffer anything for this new person in your life.”

Liv recalls those first few weeks of motherhood when the sudden loss of freedom “hits you like a cannonball” and you realise that everything has changed.

When she was beginning the process of developing a new piece of work, thereby satisfying the demands of the business plan, she asked herself: “How can I do a piece about anything else but this?

“I always make a piece about some element of truth that is from my present or from my memory and I’m actually shocked by all the emotions I’ve experienced in the 18 months since he was born.”

So this is it. Tickets for Blood, Sweat & Tears (Northern Stage, Friday and Saturday, 7.30pm) from the box office on 0191 230 5151.

At this moment Albie turns up with his grandma.

Chewing on a biscuit, he has the air of a chap who has the women in his life just where he wants them.