David Bellan finds out about a new dance group exploring masculinity

Beauty of the Beast is all about manhood, peer pressure and growing up. But instead of translating their experiences on stage through theatre, Company Chameleon’s six male performers demonstrate it through dance, complete with hoodies and trainers, to help get the message across about what it’s like to grow up in Britain today.

The equally funny and frightening study in male group psychology has already received rave reviews around the country and is coming to Pegasus on Wednesday.

It depicts a male group of friends forced to question their identity and behaviour when they find themselves in a range of different situations and scenarios, all based on real-life scenarios.

So how did it come about?

“It’s my general social observations about how I grew up, and things I had to do in order to be accepted within a group of people,” choreographer Anthony Missen tells me.

“Everyone needs someone to identify with, and there were some challenges that came along with that. There were initiations and behaviour to mimic, plus my observations of the male figures in my life, and my aim was to bring some of those private things to the surface.”

So what’s the significance of the title?

“That there’s a beauty and a beast in all men. There are lots of different faces of manhood and masculinity, so it’s to show that we’re not one-dimensional beings and there’s a whole lot that goes on behind the scenes. Some of that will explode in this performance.”

The six dancers from Company Chameleon display a mix of cameraderie and threat through competition over who wears what clothes, bonding together in rowdy, testosterone-leaking routines – street dance, football chants and military drill.

But as the work progresses, cracks in the group begin to appear, and the power and vulnerability of the six individuals emerges in a series of dramatic episodes, forcing them to consider how far they will go in order to fit in and belong.

“There are situations where somebody wants to be part of the group, and they are put through ridiculous initiations and asked to do things that are not nice, but have to follow, because everyone else is breathing down their necks,” Anthony explains.

But if Beauty and The Beast is a dance work, which showcases the company’s unique style, it’s also a piece of theatre.

“There’s dialogue which helps to frame the action. We work in all sorts of styles of movement, and with whatever best represents an idea. So for particular parts of the piece the best way to communicate is through speech or songs.”

Unsurprisingly, all six dancers worked on the development of the piece: “What interests me is what that draws out from the individuals I’m working with,” Anthony explains. “They’re all completely different people of all ages, with their own personal history, and in making this piece, we used experiences that could be incorporated in the work.”

So when we watch this piece, are we seeing the performers dancing out episodes from their real lives? “In a way yes, although it’s not necessarily the person who puts something forward that ends up doing it.

“But that’s where the honesty comes from, because we draw on personal stories, as well as looking at more universal themes.”

SEE IT
Beauty Of The Beast
Pegasus Theatre, Magdalen Road, Oxford.
Wednesday, November 18. Tickets £6-£13.
01865 812150 or www.pegasustheatre.org.uk