Up and coming: Janis Claxton

Published Date: 11 October 2008 After a month in the zoo, Janis Claxton Dance are back with a theatrical triple bill. By KELLY APTER IT'S NOT UNUSUAL FOR A CHOREographer to create work behind closed doors, but Janis Claxton has gone one step further and barricaded her company in. When I arrive at their rehearsal space in Edinburgh's New Town, the door is wedged shut with a thick p lank of wood. Having foolishly left home without my battering ram, I use the modern-day equivalent – a mobile phone – and one of Claxton's dancers soon appears at the door, smiling. It turns out that temperature, rather than temperament, has caused the lock-in. St Stephen's Church may be beautiful, atmospheric and capacious, but as far as dancers' muscles are concerned, the drafts of cold air are deadly. Nothing a few layers of warm clothing and... [read full story]