I was watching dance that reacted to a mash up of music. Snippets of Tchaikovsky, bits of Manson, the full Spiderbait’s `Calypso` track and what sounded like the voice-clip to the latest YouTube trend. Take a look at Einstuerzende Neubauten’s `The Garden` if you want a sample of weird. It was strange music that offended your ears at times, (especially after long periods of silence and through the crackling Gulbenkian system), but I was pleased to be offended.
Reacting to huge doses of emotion and portraying all things strange through the medium of dance, weird is what made this dance troupe great. At times the choreography was indexical of a reaction to drugs but it was just these eerie moves that intoxicated me with the allure of dance.
Ten international dance stars of around the age of 20 were specially selected by JV2 to `develop encourage and cultivate young talent and young audiences`. Collaborating dance with art created something entirely experimental, new and otherworldly. Each section of the show was produced by different choreographers and used different moods to demonstrate the elasticity of the dancer’s abilities. `Silence` the first of the three parts demonstrated loss of love.
Despite what you might be thinking none of the stereotypical clichéd moves were used. The show was more like a play. It moved drastically from a take-the-mick ballroom scene to a screaming shouting rock scene. There was even the use of speech, creating comic moments and a deeper understanding of what was being portrayed. My favourite part came in the first scene; dancers encircled one girl as she desperately emitted; `I need a hug`. She ran to random members of the group to jump upon them and then splay herself out backwards, sliding back to her feet as their grasp wasn’t quite tight enough to hold her. Somehow these simple movements communicated the feeling of so much raw desperation.
Section two took a different direction as props were used to demonstrate the stories of each dancer; the music played also gave clues as to how to interpret each tale. It was so easy to understand these characters in so short a space of time, and that is why this piece was so clever. Part three was the best of all, but to give it any justice is to surround it with the mystery of silence, just find out for yourself.
There is no other show that has demonstrated the strength of dancers and the positive productivity of choreography for our generation. If you can catch this show in London, Cardiff, Exeter or Kendall do. It will make you look at dance in a whole new light and let you know everyone likes some form of dance.
