Hinterland/Veil of Stars/Lunatic |
| National Dance Company of Wales , The Dance House, Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff , September 21, 2009 |
One on the greatest joys of being a critic, though I know there are some out there who would question this, is to take one’s seat in an auditorium, get out a note book and pencil and quickly have to put it away because it is quite clear that the piece on the stage is going to be wonderful and exciting, knowing how difficult that magic is to capture. Now it was happening at this ‘sneak’ preview of the Autumn Season of the new, deservedly re-named National Dance Company of Wales. After visiting three theatres in China this work will take the company with a major programme on the stage of The Donald Gordon Theatre for the first time under the new name, preluding many more aesthetic and dynamic seasons in the future. The tour will also take in Cheltenham, Llandudno, Hereford, Edinburgh and a performance at Queen Elizabeth Hall in London. This is a programme of three exciting pieces from the best of Modern Dance internationally established choreographers: Nigel Charnock, one of the founders of DV8 the acclaimed, award winning English leading Physical Theatre Company; from Crete, Andonis Foniadakis, Director of his Lyon based company Apotosoma; and company co-founder and director Roy Campbell-Moore. Hinterland A beautiful human figure materialises onto the dream space set before us, the red-headed body turns and glides, her pastel, purple-hued dress falling delicately around her, the huge romantic sweep of one of the late Alun Hoddinott’s Welsh Dance suites fills the air and more purple hued dancers are effected on to the stage. They move into a delectable and despite the fixed expressions on the male dancer’s faces, an exciting and seductive dance. Hoddinott’s work transfers smoothly between the traditional classical romantic form to the beginnings of more modern music. This enables Campbell-Moore to take his dancers from his ravishing balletic opening to movement with a more edgy and somewhat disturbing feel. We are taken through almost the whole gamut and uniqueness of human emotions always driven by the music and, at times the breath is taken away by the extraordinary and stunning movement of the dancers. The lighting and the colour setting it all in the purpled heathered hills of Wales. Veil of Stars Foniadakis takes us into a much more ethereal world. A huge low cloud clings to and slowly covers the stage floor; a glistening bird-like figure emerges through the cloud, other even more glistening figures emerge from him. With their diamante masks and angular movements to the enchanting and uneasy sound of French composer Julien Tarride’s exciting music the dancers swoop and threaten to descend on us like wild birds of prey. There’s a surprise ending, the magician’s magic wand had again been at work! Lunatic Charnock brings us a touch of fun, and yes a touch madness and pantomime as the pyjama- dressed dancers come among us, sit on laps and massage audience members’ shoulders but there’s much more fascinating movement when the dancers return to the stage. There are only so many movements the human body can make, the extreme fitness and artistry of all the dancers and their directors combine these movements to create extraordinary stage pictures of beauty, excitement and compelling emotion. The nostalgia here is palpable, set in the fashion and styles, beneath the pyjamas, of the fifties as Charnock tell us “we are in an intoxicating world of moonlight and dreams, romance and sleeplessness,” All expressed here as in the previous pieces with the warmth and artistry of the superb dancers: Joanne Fong, Lee Johnston, Eleesha Drennan, Karol Cysewski, Yuval Lev, Eran Gisin, Stefanos Bizas, Maria Hayday, Viivi Keskinen, Annabeth Berkeley and Daniel Hay-Gordon. |
Reviewed by: Michael Kelligan |
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