I respect Luke Jennings very much but his assertion in the Observer today that “In Your Rooms” is “probably the most important new dance work to be created since the millennium” troubles me. His review lacks any negative comment at all and I just can’t agree that there’s no room for improvement in this piece. He has found a depth and sophistication in the work that I have yet to register.
Here’s what actually happened. I went to the Shechter show at the QEH and loved it but decided to leave it a couple of days before writing about it. The days passed and my impressions of the show remained vivid, and I wrote it all up, including a paragraph in which I said that a sequence where a guy holds up a placard was jarring and did not fit, and that I thought HS should have the confidence to ditch the words altogether (inc in the spoken text) and let the dance do the talking.
Then I went to the NDT2 show. Great dancers, but for the most part shallow and pretentious choreography. The interesting thing, though, was Shechter’s obvious debt to Ohad Naharin. There’s a whole fist-shaking thing that HS literally cuts and pastes into In Your Rooms. So I wrote about this but then was given a word-count that demanded cuts. So after some thought, out went the par about the placard sequence. The review then gets cut again at the newspaper because of space constraints, and most of the Shechter-Naharin influence copy goes, and almost all the other NDT copy too. So what’s left is all positive Shechter. That’s how journalism goes sometimes.
If I had had two thousand words there would have been more of a weighing up, and less of a song of praise, sure, but frankly I can live with the result. IYR is an outstanding show, and I can’t remember being as moved by a piece of new dance for years. The only contenders since 2000 would be C de la B’s Rien de Rien and the Khan/Cherkaoui Zero Degrees.
So there you go! Best wishes, Luke Jennings
Thank you so much for taking time to comment! That’s really interesting and I hadn’t thought about how little control you have over what actually gets printed in the paper.
When I wrote that your review troubled me, it was more because IYR doesn’t move me. It doesn’t stimulate or engage me particularly, emotionally or intellectually at this stage. I do think it looks great at times and I like some of the motifs and I get the whole communication/alienation thing but I find it disappointing. Both times I’ve seen it I have taken a non-dance person with me (a different friend on each occasion) and they haven’t liked or appreciated it either, so I’ve had the courage to be critical in my reviews. I felt troubled because I like your writing and trust your judgement so this has made me doubt myself!
I’ll look forward to seeing the piece again at Sadlers and go with an open mind. It’s intriguing following a piece around and seeing it evolve although I fear it also makes me overly harsh on it and I missed the thrill of a first time viewing at QEH.
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