Candoco delivers a night of sweaty joy in their ode to raving while disabled
As one of very few integrated dance companies in Europe, Candoco, which is composed of disabled and non-disabled dancers, brings their new production to the sweaty warehouses and clubs of rave culture. Over and Over (and over again) is a collaboration between Candoco and Dan Daw Creative Projects, a disabled-led theatre company, with Daw directing alongside co-director Stef O’Driscoll. The show is not only a pulse-raising vision of a night out, but also a manifesto for bringing disabled bodies into spaces where they may otherwise be dismissed.
Maiya Leeke, who uses a wheelchair, is bluntly refused entry from the club — unfortunately it feels evident why. Rather than depart sorrowfully, she sweeps her arms around her and flicks her hair defiantly. A spotlight illuminates her sequined top turning her into a disco ball, with rays refracting far into the shadowy corners of the space.
Transcendent moments like these pop up during the oftentimes sweaty and high energy hour-long runtime of the piece. As the cast takes a break from the action, Annie Edwards rises from the exhausted slump of dancers, eyes closed, swaying to a meditative groove. James Olivo performs an especially moving solo as the lights come up to herald the end of the night, with movements undulating and flowing deep from within.
It’s through these transcendent moments that Daw and O’Driscoll really let that tender layer show, of the rave being a place of embodiment and ecstasy. It’s beautiful stuff, but the show is not all meditations. Dancer Anne Seymour is seemingly afraid of nothing as she whips around the stage with total abandon. Her whirlwind courtship with Temitope Ajose is especially magnetic. “Desire” we read projected onto the vinyl partitions, “I want to be thrown around and held”. The palpable sense of desire reverberates throughout the bassy world of Over and Over (and over again). The revolutionary desire to shake up the system comes from a deeply personal desire to share the space with those we love on the dance floor.
Choreographically the work is loose, with dancers seemingly responding to rhythmic vibrations and the body’s response. This can tend to lead to material that feels repetitive and unvaried. But as the pulsing bass gets faster and faster, it’s hard not to get sucked into the action. By the end we feel as if we have been clambering through the highs and lows of a hard night’s clubbing with the cast, grinning as they gather their things and head out into the morning light, thinking about doing it all over and over again.