Dance takes many forms and, in a mixed programme of five works from choreographers from across Europe, diversity and degrees of delight were certain to be delivered.
This included some works being more instantly accessible and entertaining to mainstream dance audience members and those new to this sometimes esoteric art if not downright cerebral art form.
Because of a very hefty set change (not quite sure why it took around 45 minutes) the evening was rather long but the performances themselves kept the audience engaged and while interpretation and analysis of some of the dance vocabulary was best kept to a minimum such is the joy and sometimes brain-freeze of contemporary dance works.
This evening of fresh, new choreography under the pan-European Dance Roads project began with the physically intense and remarkably taught, visceral performance by dancer Jefta Tanate of Jasper Van Luijk Yonder. The Netherlands-based choreographer’s work is also a light installation which is integral to the vivid movement created for the stripped bare dancer as he takes a physical and metaphorical journey across the floor. As with the two of the other works, the work considers through stark choreography the themes of passing time, lifecycles and, perhaps, rebirth.
After a far too long interval we enjoyed Albert Garcia dancing Gwyn Emberton’s revisited work Of the Earth, From Where I Came, inspired by Dylan Thomas’s Fern Hill. This is also a male solo that succinctly examines the relationship between body, growth and time through lithe and supple movement. While time and development also speaks to us through Emberton’s work it all has delves into our physical roots (and branches).
Compagnie Adéquate’s humorous work Nœuds (Knots), danced and choreographed by Lucie Augeai and David Gernez, proved the most instantly entertaining and witty offering of the evening as it played on a charming, lively musical score. Incorporating elements of mime that also evoked flamenco the movement melded in intricate interlocking duets, hand and face gestures and the interplay of gender relationships bursting into fiery explosions.
Claudia Catarzi’s “here and now”, “qui, ora” is a very intricate work and which begins with the Italian dancer/choreographer donning what resembles a large plastic anorak which is then discarded as she moves to music by Spartaco Cortesi and then, seemingly totally incongruously, Johnny Cash’s The Streets of Lorado. Eyebrow-raising, if not head-scratching, this is one work that needs to be just experienced rather than relying on a narrative interpretation.
The evening closed with the extremely brave and exposed work Layers by Romanian performer Cristina Lilienfeld as she interwove performance with dance, expression with interaction. She literally invited us to examine her skin, write on it, be touched by it and watch as she washed off a covering of what resembled clay dust and then peeled off sections of her skin.
In all these dancers and choreographers followed diverse paths that culminated in a junction of dance roads signposted by intensity, rich physicality, a welcome dose of humour and much to tease the brain.
Tonight 8pm Chapter, Cardiff
http://www.chapter.org/