Dancing Geek

I managed to double up the awesome this Friday by travelling to Lincoln to see both my Dad, and Retina’s latest piece, Antipode.  Having been lucky enough to work with Filip (company director) on a couple of different occasions in Derby it was great to see him in the Q&A afterwards as well – bonus!

The piece consists of four male dancers and a double bass player.  Whilst the guys are doing their thing on stage, the musician is playing, recording and mixing loops of his music, percussion and other clever tricks real time – an absolute treat for the audience (and probably the dancers too).

The dancing itself was mostly gorgeous to watch, and pretty full on for the whole hour.  Cue sweat patterns – all part of being a male dancer though, at least we don’t have to pretend that we don’t sweat.  There were the odd times when the unison wasn’t together, I caught a couple of moments where someone stopped to wait for the others to catch up and so on, but my Dad never saw any of that so maybe I’m being too picky.

The lifts were great fun, and even managed to perplex me as to how it was done on a couple – wonderful and frustrating at the same time.  The duets in general were excellent fun to watch and you could see the smiles on the dancers’ faces.  They even admitted afterwards that part of that was having to egg each other to keep going as energy levels started to flag.

Having 4 guys dance together was brilliant for me, as I got to see the differences between them and how, whilst I might not have the facility of one or the strength of another, they each had different limitations and natural abilities that made them unique and I’m no different.  I will admit to being horribly jealous at times, they’re all a few years younger than me, thus managing to make me feel old at 28, but mostly I was inspired and determined to find/create more opportunities to dance.

There’s only a couple of more dates down South to catch this, but it’s worth it – and if you don’t manage to see this one then check out Retina anyway.  They’ve been producing consistently great quality dance for a while now, and being based in the East Midlands it’s a real treat for us to have this based in our region, rather than down in London.

An entertaining piece that occasionally feels self-indulgent, Sense of Self was definitely worth going to see.

This piece was at times strikingly beautiful, the wonderful movement of the dancers playing only one part in this.  The imaginative use of light and dark, the luxurious animal skin rug, and the wonderfully complementary soundtrack, which never demanded your attention be drawn from the performers, but merged into a whole with the rest of the piece, all added their own layer of aesthetic enjoyment.

When the two performers danced together, you could see how well they knew and trusted each other, a complete union of movement that was delightful to watch.  The fluidity of their movement together was such that the two seemingly switched places without me noticing on a number of occasions- an interesting effect in the context of a piece discussing identity.

There were times however, during the non-contact duet, the latter section with the dress and when working with the balloons, when their previously excellent discernment in both content and duration no longer applied.

The non-contact duet looked like an exercise in changing levels, whilst the dancers grew intentionally and progressively more tired.  This length of this section felt excessive to address issues around wanting to be the same and yet different, or to highlight the amount of energy we put into maintaining such a state.  Not that these are not important areas to explore, but the more literal interpretation leaves less room for open-ended exploration and as such was not as rewarding to watch for such a length of time.

The latter section with the dress I found merely confusing.  Again, it felt like a more literal interpretation of sexuality and objectification, lacking the space to encourage thoughts to run it simply brought me back to this rather solid point, a cycle which quickly grew old.

I will openly acknowledge that the lack may lie with myself.  Such literal interpretations may expose only my own creative short-comings, however so much of the rest of the piece had obvious roots (clothing, evolution, social labelling, etc.) and yet still allowed a deeper, richer exploration of the subject for me whilst also remaining entertaining.  That so much of the piece achieved this so well makes these other areas seem unfinished, which is a shame, though I am pleased to note that it did not ruin the overall quality of the piece.

The third section I noted for criticism was the closing section.  The sense of climax and resolution was nicely achieved, in that it was very successful.  However the text again felt as though it was not yet ready, and the balloons seemed excessive and indulgent in a piece that had otherwise achieved so much with elegant minimalism.

As a spectacle, the text was enjoyable, in keeping with the rest of the piece, and had the potential to be very striking.  I think it could have been improved however by either reducing the amount of text and allowing more time for it to be digested or increasing the amount and leading the audience on a particular journey with it, the unfolding of a pathway through their ideas and exploration of identity.  As it was, I felt the volume was dictated by the book used, set at an arbitrary amount, and the choices made therefore equally arbitrary and unguided.  The sense of being guided through a journey of words had such potential here, I really liked the format they used, I just wish it had been more carefully crafted.

The balloons however I remain solidly against.  Other than adding an interesting framing and texture to the piece through their presence on stage throughout, they seem to me completely unnecessary.  The small gesture with the hat was enough to convey the issue of identity in celebration as a topic, and further exploration rather than self-indulgent whimsy would have been preferred.

My choice to pick apart what I see as the flaws of this piece should not indicate any displeasure but rather my enjoyment at working on the presentation of such ideas, whether they be my own or someone else’s work.  This was truly an enjoyable hour of performance that I would recommend to others.  Those moments that did shine were bright enough to more than accomodate a few darker spots.

Using a dyno-torch gave such an ethereal quality of lighting that I simply ceased to look for any interpretation and allowed my senses to be thrilled with the visual display being provided, a feast for the eyes and the soul.  The harsh contrast of flickering flourescent tubes that followed were an excellent way to support their exploration of identity through the lighting, as well as forcing a reaction from myself as a viewer.

The interconnectedness of their duets were so complex, and so smooth, as to elicit the bittersweet pang of jealousy and joy that I feel whenever seeing dance so skillfully executed as to leave me uncertain that I could ever match such grace.

The piece was skillfully crafted as a whole, the injection of humour or unison movement as a moment of respite and relief for the viewer were welcome.  Not too much or too little, it serves as an example of the fine choices made in assembling this performance.

(A performance by Melanie Demers and Laila Diallo – 5 November 2009, Deda, Derby.)