Category contemporary

REVIEW: California Connections: Three Pioneering Women

Photo by Jimmy Parratt

Reading Time: 2 minutesCalifornia Connections: Three Pioneering Women is a celebration of some of the finest choreographic minds in modern history. Performed by the Yorke Dance Project, the works of Kenneth MacMillan, Martha Graham, and Bella Lewitzky featured alongside the world premiere of Yolande Yorke-Edgell’s A Point of Balance. Brought to life by the dancers of the Yorke Dance Project, with special guests Michael Barnes & Eileih Muir, California Connections is Modern dance at its finest. 

REVIEW: Assembly Hall

Reading Time: 2 minutesCrystal Pite endeavours to ponder upon this query together with her dancing ensemble Kidd Pivot, coming back to UK with her latest Assembly Hall, a story she co-creates with Kidd Pivot's resident playwright Jonathon Young. It elaborates a group of medieval re-enactors who come for their annual meeting in their local community hall, a set ingeniously designed by Jay Gower Taylor, where a shabby basketball racket stands high and lonely, a nostalgic reminder of the old days when people spend plenty of time in communal spaces and being with others. The group faces a pivotal decision: to dissolve or not, decided by their vote.  As the narrative unfolds, the awakening of a knight from the past blurs the lines between the real and the medieval re-enactment, rolling the story into turmoil, chaos, and the knight's eventual demise — foreshadowed in the beginning. 

REVIEW: Sao Paulo Dance Company

Photo by Iari Davies

Reading Time: < 1 minuteComing from Brazil, Sao Paulo Dance Company presents their premiere UK and Ireland tour. Separated into three different parts, Anthem, Gnawa and Agora, all with latin influence and the technical foundations of classical ballet, the performance is an explosive and dynamic dance experience that is definitely worth the watch.

REVIEW: INK

Photo by Julian Mommert

Reading Time: 2 minutesThis was my main question throughout this piece. Papaioannou (an erstwhile painter before his illustrious career as a director, choreographer and performer) creates beautiful images, awesome tableaus onstage before allowing them to crumble, or in this case melt away. The stage is set under a fair few inches of water which keeps coming for most of the show. Papaioannou, as the Dressed Man is sat contemplatively, spinning a bowl of water, allowing it to spill out again. Eventually Šuka Horn crawls on as the Nude Man and disrupts this peaceful, soggy solitude. What follows borders on erotic, tender, loving and eventually violent, traumatic and sad. Outstanding sound design from David Blouin and intelligent and effective lighting from Lucien Laborderie and Stephanos Droussiotis illuminate the performance which verges on the edge of contemporary dance without ever plunging deeper into it.