move: the company

Recent Reviews of Josh Beamish's Works

November 17, 2010

Josh Beamish is turning heads across the continent and emerging as one of Canada's most promising choreographers - Paula Citron, The Globe and Mail

Weekend Hot Pick for Dance - The New York Post, Dec 19th-21st, 2008

"Memento" … establishes the most distinctive feature of Beamish's vocabulary: a modern-dance version of popping, quick, staccato, and highly articulated." - Brian Seibert, The New Yorker

"Beamish, the choreographer, is an amazing dancer. It is hard to avert your eyes from him when he is on the floor ... repetitious vocabulary offers a calming, visceral experience for the viewer … Hardcore might best describe the speedy, aggressive, no-nonsense dance style. Even when two males or two females simply walk the perimeter of a large, lighted square on the floor, their movement is incremental, jolting, and inward twisting .... Beamish's round of multiple pirouettes are just as idiosyncratic— the active leg is bent in a perfect isosceles angle and he spins like a top at incredible RPM … Throughout, dancers take momentary, gorgeous Apollonian poses, especially Beamish and the men. They take you by surprise and you miss them if you blink … The movement quality, the articulation of their isolated hands, feet, shoulders, is almost always a declaration. This clarity is welcome. Also interesting is the group work's pronounced rhythm that is almost militaristic … The whole is tied together with Beamish costume and lighting tricks that equal the movement in oddity, playfulness, and effect. Beamish finds an interesting intersection - camp and serious." - Lori Ortiz, Explore Dance New York

"Festival directors understand the importance of starting with a bang, and that's what Donna Spencer achieved when she asked MOVE to open this year's Dancing on the Edge…. MOVE's raunchy ending was stirring, and Beamish's personal repertoire of controlled spasms and electrical quivering amazed." - Alexander Varty, The Georgia Straight

"From the outset, the three key works on this stunning Dances for a Small Stage program were as different as La La La Human Steps and the National Ballet… Still, it was Memento, by Move: The Company's emerging star Josh Beamish, that most blew everyone away.… it found him and powerhouse talent Alison Denham taking turns moving. Each appeared to be at the mercy of some invisible remote control. Denham's was clearly set on fast-forward: her arms chopped at the air at hyper speed, sometimes straightening into pendulums gone wild, and then, in a flash, she'd freeze. Then Beamish would start up: it was if a current was travelling through his upper limbs, surging out into his gesticulating fingers. Beamish has broken down movements into tiny milliseconds and resampled them into a blur of surreal gestures." - Janet Smith, The Georgia Straight

"Beamish's choreography is absolutely singular. His movement is short, jerky, staccato, and rapid with a total use of body and limbs that are always in motion executing jumps, turns and spins. Its most distinguishing feature is the fluidity he manages to give to the whole cloth." - Paula Citron