Review on Londonist.
Great press drinks in a 5th floor room looking out to the Eye, Big Ben and the river. Lots of wine too – thanks!
Archives for category: South Bank Centre
Dance Umbrella; Ben Wright. Thought latching to thought and pulling.
Jenny Gilbert in the Independent yesterday:
“For male-bonding rituals with insights, and minus the skirts, check out another Israeli choreographer, Hofesh Schechter. Hardly anyone knew his name until the managements of the Place, the South Bank and Sadler’s Wells decided to remedy things. Between them, they have come up with a plan they call an Escalator, a fast-track schedule of performances of the same double bill, starting with a small venue (the Place), moving up to medium scale (the QEH), and ending, triumphantly they hope, at Sadler’s Wells in September.
The major flaw in this idea is that, faced with the question “Would you like to see a work in progress?”, most of us would answer “No thanks, I’d rather see something finished and fabulous”. That said, last week’s mid-point showing was highly enjoyable, not least for its gut-thumping live account of the music (some of it written and performed by Schechter), emanating from a high platform cut into the set.
Uprising is a piece for seven feral-looking males, who storm about in packs as if bent on bagging an Asbo, twitch and jerk in ways that suggest factory labour, and scamper on their knuckles like menacing chimps. Schechter cleverly knits these motifs into a densely textured fabric, creating pattern and rhythm on both a micro and a macro scale.
The newer In Your Rooms, which comes with an even more terrific score by the fiddler Nell Catchpole, takes as its theme the difficulty of making true personal connections in a busy-busy world. It shares the thrilling troglodyte thump of the earlier piece, but needs a narrower focus if it’s to say anything.”
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.
Read my review of the second airing for the “Uprising/In Your Rooms” double bill on londondance.com.
Shobana Jeyasingh Dance Company
Queen Elizabeth Hall, 6 March 2007
Faultline / Exit No Exit
It’s enormously frustrating when a professional company with a good reputation and excellent collaborators of all kinds dishes up a disappointing double bill for the second time in a row. Accompanied by a total non-dance type I was hoping for an artistic and cultural mashup that would be relevant, engaging, gritty and surprising – something to draw the other person in. Having seen “Flicker” performed alongside “Exit No Exit” before, I was hoping that “Faultline” would appeal to me more than “Flicker” had, and that the double header would at least be evenly balanced in quality.
“Faultline” started off really promisingly with some excellent film from the streets of somewhere that may well have been Hounslow featuring Asian ‘yoots’ hanging out, looking shifty, feeling edgy. There was definitely tension and this was perpetuated through the piece by the score which was cut through with an amazing live soprano voice from Patricia Rozario. Where I didn’t get any anxiety or impact was from the dancing – which is a real shame because I really do rate the company. Apart from the obvious stylistic nods to merging and meshing dance styles; Indian, hip hop, martial arts and contemporary dance all tagged and referenced, I came away feeling annoyed and my comrade bemused with me reassuring him that I didn’t “get it” either.
“Exit No Exit” was definitely better but it wasn’t so good it made up for the first half. It’s a pretty depthless piece, pleasant and pacy but not stunning or moving. Mavin Khoo was excellent as the central figure of the piece, trapped on stage yet coolly revelling in the experience and dipping in and out of the ensemble around him. Always good to see a musician perched on a wooden tower in one corner too and the Michael Nyman score was a pleasure after the strains of tense electro-opera.
So, I don’t get why but Shobana Jeyasingh disappoints me. It’ll take something pretty special, performance wise, and probably a press ticket to get me to go again.
Shobana Jeyasingh preview here.
