| In Times of Change |
National Dance Company Wales |
| National Dance Company Wales- Gorwelion/ Frontiers , Theatr Brycheiniog , October 28, 2024 |
This was the night of a huge storm, when the sky threw torrents of water onto the roads and we almost didn’t make it to Brecon from twenty miles further north, driving through deep water and pouring rain to finally arrive at Theatr Brycheiniog to see Wales’ National Dance Company.The theme of the evening and the programme was how to navigate times of change and transformation. This is prescient, since the company is about to go through its own time of change: Matthew William Robinson, who has choreographed one of the dances, is also the outgoing artistic director, having led the company since 2021. The last time I saw NDCW was some time ago and it was a very different company with a different artistic leader. Inevitably and quite rightly, the look and feel of a dance company reflects both its leadership and the times. The confident company I saw pre Covid hadn’t yet had that certainty and confidence blown away by endless Lockdowns and subsequent shaky funding streams, and the works in their repertoire, including by the brilliant Valencian, Marcus Morau, reflected back a different world and a different time. Matthew William Robinson will have had to build back on the post Covid situation in uncertain times and with the pressure of much external change - the advent of AI and rapid developments in technology, awareness of the growing, global climate crisis making our future feel increasingly uncertain - themes which are clearly expressed in the evening’s two works. The “Gorwelion/Frontiers” programme opens with “Skinners” for nine dancers with inventive costumes which play an important role in revealing the work’s themes. Australian choreographer, Melanie Lane (of Javanese and European heritage), works with her dancers and with composer Yamila Rios, costume designer Don Aretino and lighting designer Ceri James to create a dance that explores breaking away from the increasing immersion in digital identities into the broader reality of human relationships and movement. Aretino’s costumes play their part in this breaking free, they are “inspired by street wear and computer game designs”, “rendered digitally onto kaftan like outfits”. The dancers also have their faces hidden by flesh coloured mesh masks that cover the whole head, to resemble pixelated face filters. They are like some strange, digital tribe, colourful but restricted, the two dimensionality expressed more by their unison of jerky, quirky movements than by the fascinating costume. They move together as video games’ “skins” or avatars without any true depth of character, rather they are both gaming “skins” and manipulated gamers imprisoned in the game until gradually but crucially they peel off their masks and costumes, leaving them like a cast off pile of snake skins in a corner of the stage, like snakes slewing off their dead outer layers to reveal sleek new life (the costume fabrics, incidentally, are made of very thin, environmentally low impact, re-cycled polyester which, once shed, is very skin like). The play on ideas between video games “skinners” and their “skins” and the visual effect of casting off skin-like costumes works well. Underneath they are in a variety of dark coloured Lycra shorts and tops. Gone the brittle, nervous and restricted movement, now they move with muscular and dynamic fluidity, freely interacting and exploring the three dimensionality of the space around them. We can identify with this freeing of life force when liberated after days constricted by peering into some kind of small flat screen. A reminder of what are are in danger of losing as we intertwine our existence with AI generated avatars. The second piece, “August”, is Matthew William Robinson’s work. He says, “August is inspired by sunsets – a space between restraint and recklessness...about endings and saying goodbye…”. It is also described as his collaboration with composer Torben Sylvest, designer George Hampton Wale, lighting designer Emma Jones, and the dancers. The notion of sun disappearing below the horizen is created by the dominant element in the work, a clever lighting and design feature which begins as a deep red neon strip light which imperceptibly morphs throughout the piece, sometimes mid height, sometimes higher, sometimes very low, mood altering with changes of colour from red to green to orange to red. Sunset into darkness and neon city light. The overall feeling is very dark. Restraint and recklessness are conveyed both by the staccato breaking of the strip light into segments that work their way across the stage and through the dancers’ movement, often in Flying Low and Contact influenced styles, working low or floor level - dancers rolling, lifting or bouncing off each other – they are strong and good at this kind of movement. It’s a slightly anguished piece, uncertain and sombre in look, sound and mood. But good luck to Matthew William Robinson as he says his goodbyes to NDCW and embraces whatever his new beginning will be. And good luck to National Dance Company Wales with their new Artistic Director (still to be appointed) and with their next incarnation. The tour continues: Hafren, Newtown, 26th October; Pontio, Bangor, 6th November; Lawrence Batley Theatre, Huddersfield, 12th November, Aberystwyth Arts Centre, 20th November. Jenny March reviewed National Dance Company Wales on tour in 2019. http://www.theatre-wales.co.uk/reviews/reviews_details.asp?reviewID=4314 |
Reviewed by: Jenny March |
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