Theatre
Review
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George
Piper Dances The house lights are up and the safety curtain rises to reveal an athletic male dancer in tight black leggings stretching and twisting. Has the audience walked in on a dance class? Strains of Bach come and go as two men, also in black and a woman (Oxana Panchenko) in a red swimsuit-style leotard join the dancer on stage to complete one of the most physically challenging dances known to man; William Forsythe's "Steptext". Time Out awarded Panchenko "Outstanding Performance in Steptext". She has joints made of blu-tac and her legs know no limits. Charles Linehan's "Truly Great Thing" confuses me. One female dancer (Lucy Dodd) in an A line skirt and T-shirt and three men in workaday jeans and rolled up shirts interact in a downbeat way with a sprinkling of mechanical movements. Convinced this is some Eastern bloc "Arbeit macht frei" reference, I share the idea with a friend but she doesn't see that at all. It's a truly great thing we can all agree to disagree as this is one of those pieces that takes on the meaning you give it. Julian Swales' score has a 3am chill out quality to it, in the vein of a "Moby" b side. "Sigue" is choreographed by husband and wife, Paul Lightfoot & Sol Leon, which is reassuring as it explains the joy of sex better than any book. The woman wears a red dress and moves sensually around the strong frame of the man who simulates nudity. The man expresses physical strength by suspending the female body in the air horizontally above him, then lowers her gently on top. A symbolic stream of white powder showers on to the prostrate couple. The pas de deux demonstrates how we would all like sex to be, at least once. The female (Panchenko) instructs the audience to "sssshhh!" as she clings to her man (William Trevitt) who has enough muscle to shift Arizona. The piece is hotter than a Haagen Dazs commercial. The longest piece is Russell Maliphant's "Critical Mass", which uses movement similar to Brazilian Capoeira, Argentinian Tango and slow motion stage fighting. The piece is a duet for male dancers, particularly well done by Trevitt & Nunn because of their strong professional relationship. They comfortably take risks with each other's body, suspending each other in mid air. I stopped breathing several times during this piece, as it absorbed my concentration totally. The company founders (William Trevitt & Michael Nunn) co-filmed and co-directed two Channel 4 TV series called Ballet Boyz (a third is in the pipeline). The dance show pays homage by projecting a filmed diary showing the pair holding school workshops and getting lost in Manhattan. Start spreading the word, George Piper not only dances, he raises the roof. Lita Doolan
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