Arts:Blog

Festival Review: Dance Base 2016

Ashling Findlay-Carroll reviews THE END, May-We-Go Round and Your Majesties.

THE END- Jack Webb ***

There is no doubt that the 3-strong company are excellent dancers with masterful control over their bodies. The extraordinary isolations they perform throughout the piece are so articulate that at times they appear inhuman; they look disconnected to their limbs whilst simultaneously being completely connected. The effect is fascinating to watch.

However, it was the sections when the company moved in unison that I found most satisfying: the sense of a mass of bodies moving, reacting and feeling as one was compelling to watch and created the sense of a club in mid-flow, clearly drawing upon Webb's theme of excess. This reoccurred in some interesting counterbalance work, featuring motifs of falling & catching, as the dancers pushed each other and themselves to more extreme physicality, which proved a nice contrast to the earlier display of control.

At times, however, I wanted the performance to be shared more with us. The performers were clearly invested in the movement but this sometimes seemed more like a private moment and left me feeling like a voyeur rather than a participant in a shared experience.

The End feels like a complex and highly competent movement study but doesn't always include the audience in this investigation, and as a result I found it difficult to connect with the piece beyond admiration for the technical virtuosity of the performers.

May-We-Go-Round? ****

The huge energy that the piece begins with is sustained throughout, and you are swept along in hurricane 'Hiccup project', as these two flirt their way through episodes of their shared history, incorporating several on-stage costume changes, lip syncing and a soundtrack packed with 90's pop classics.

With movement vocabulary drawn from ballet, contemporary, commercial and the night club dance floor, the two dancers aren't afraid to look ridiculous, and the sense of humour they treat their subject matter, each other and themselves with, is endearing. We happily join them on their earth-go-round of relationship successes and disasters and we see ourselves in them as we go.

The real star of the piece though is the friendship the two performers share. Their journey together isn't complete fiction, their concern and laughter is real and this honesty is heart warming to witness. What's more, these two are clearly having the time of their lives together and as a result, so do we.

Your Majesties ***

Your Majesties begins with a charismatic public speaker. The words are not his own but the delivery captures us, which is fundamental for this piece. Very quickly we realise that he is being controlled by a puppeteer. Initially it is subtle but progresses to become increasingly more ridiculous and wonderfully grotesque.

The relationship between the two performers is left ambiguous; one is always in control of the other from the audience. However, the movement sometimes lacks spontaneity and feels a little too well-rehearsed, meaning that on occasion it is not clear who is leading: puppeteer or puppet. This could be an interesting twist but it didn't strike me as such, and I would have liked to see more of this "game" of control and the attempts to follow with precision.

The point of the piece is made quite early on, and whilst they do continue to push it to greater extremes, there's room for more development. Having said that, the piece does lure you in with its playfulness provoking thought and causing question, and as a result its message does hit home.

All three are part of Dance Base’s festival programme. For more details, go to their website.