October 25, 2007
Stripped down to bare essentials as the title of the work suggests, this is 5 duets 2 solos and 10 instruments played live on stage, performed by four contemporary dancers of Walker Dance Park Music. In each of the 7 pieces a different colour costume is worn to represent a chakra energy, so whilst each dance stems from a separate idea and rhythm there is a unifying theme to the programme. It is fascinating to watch the bold confidence of a new British dance company emerge and energising to watch them generate their own take on what contemporary dance is. Retained are the modern dance benchmarks of women lifting men in equal partnership, Jack Galloway’s costume designs are unisex in the use of shorts and fitted vests and the punishing yet rewarding instigation of bare feet is standard. Boundaries are pushed in the endeavour to increase power, strength and athleticism particularly in the opening dance, to build resonance into each move rather than freeze the body further into a static posture that is perceived as graceful. Innovative to WDPM is the placement of the 3 musicians in close proximity to the dancers placing sound and movement on an equal footing. Ben Park’s harmonious compositions shy within a hair’s breadth of being a hummable melody hence do not dominate the audience’s attention. A variety of beats sound on saxophone, bassoon, marimba, piano and congas respond in tone to the dancers’ mood. The orange-costumed second duet representing the sacral chakra shows repetitions of rapid and slow steps indicating how we connect to each other but also with ourselves.
A hallmark of this company is single concepts well worked and presented, each piece remaining true throughout to the idea it originated from. Whilst Fin Walker is the undoubted creative brain behind the instinctive choreography, the degree of free flow the dancers exhibit moving through the steps indicate an element of improvised collaboration. This makes the show all the stronger as the company as a whole performs with a convincing certainty. This pays off particularly well in the two solos that describe the emotional heart and throat chakras where a pensive connection to the dimensions and weight of limbs is explored. The Autumn tour of ‘5 2 10’ features the dancers, Catherine Bennett, Jason Keenan-Smith, Hian Ruth Voon and Joel Corpuz, who take turns in sweeping the crispy fallen leaves from the stage in between dances. Later the carefully cleared leaves are chaotically flung over head, the flames lit earlier either side of John Napier’s set design still burning bright, as the show approaches a final white-costumed duet. One of the strongest narrative features of the show is the impressive variety of lifts and these allow the company to cover a lot of ground in just 65 minutes. The meditative slow curling lifts used in this last duet give me a feeling of warm womb-like security, a lush ending and a great way to go and face the sharp late Autumn night air. However reading the programme I’m not sure that’s the exact response the final duet intended, it is the crown chakra namely our connection to a higher power that the last dance represents. But beneath this I read a company quote, ‘We love it when our work draws responses’. That’s the catch-all beauty of this abstract art form and it reminds me why I love dance so much.
A hallmark of this company is single concepts well worked and presented, each piece remaining true throughout to the idea it originated from. Whilst Fin Walker is the undoubted creative brain behind the instinctive choreography, the degree of free flow the dancers exhibit moving through the steps indicate an element of improvised collaboration. This makes the show all the stronger as the company as a whole performs with a convincing certainty. This pays off particularly well in the two solos that describe the emotional heart and throat chakras where a pensive connection to the dimensions and weight of limbs is explored. The Autumn tour of ‘5 2 10’ features the dancers, Catherine Bennett, Jason Keenan-Smith, Hian Ruth Voon and Joel Corpuz, who take turns in sweeping the crispy fallen leaves from the stage in between dances. Later the carefully cleared leaves are chaotically flung over head, the flames lit earlier either side of John Napier’s set design still burning bright, as the show approaches a final white-costumed duet. One of the strongest narrative features of the show is the impressive variety of lifts and these allow the company to cover a lot of ground in just 65 minutes. The meditative slow curling lifts used in this last duet give me a feeling of warm womb-like security, a lush ending and a great way to go and face the sharp late Autumn night air. However reading the programme I’m not sure that’s the exact response the final duet intended, it is the crown chakra namely our connection to a higher power that the last dance represents. But beneath this I read a company quote, ‘We love it when our work draws responses’. That’s the catch-all beauty of this abstract art form and it reminds me why I love dance so much.