So, last night was my third in a row of contemporary dance - part of Resolution, an annual showcase of new contemporary dance at The Place. I left a bit earlier than before, not having time to eat because a potential new flatmate was viewing. So I arrived in plenty of time - and there didn't seem to be such a queue last night, although the theatre did eventually fill up. At least this time they had two people working in the box office.
I caught sight of a programme, unattended on a coffee table, and brought it in with me. This is how I got talking to the guy in the seat beside me for the show, who hadn't managed to find one. It was nice to have someone with me to discuss the show with, for a change.
The first piece was strangely named Potatoes & Sauce. And the programme, as I remarked to my companion, was unhelpful in explaining either the name or the performance to come. It mentioned dream sequences, and circus. Well, it did make some sense in retrospect, although it took me the interval to ponder it, and when my companion asked me after the interval what I'd thought of it, I remarked, "Well, that was weird, wasn't it?!" And he agreed.
It didn't help that the start was delayed. I think they had a problem dimming the lights, and certainly I think they should have had the announcement beforehand, rather than just before the first interval - as with the previous nights. The lone dancer stood side-on to us, in the shadows, for what must have been 15 minutes before anything happened. Then, in near-darkness, she walked slowly along what turned out to be a sticky strip on the floor, so you could hear her feet as they came in contact with it and peeled off again. And she moved around on her hands and knees on the strip. Then some more lights came on, and we could see what looked like fibreoptic cables hanging from the ceiling. And she started to do acrobatics with them, wrapping them around herself, twisting, dropping. Hence the "circus" mentioned in the programme.
So far, so weird. But as I remarked after the interval, you could see how it kind of related to dreams - the idea of stickiness, of not being able to progress quickly - and the idea of being wrapped up in a web. And my companion remarked how nice it was to see dance go vertical.
The second piece, Triptych, was visually very striking. Again, my companion asked me for my take on it after the interval - said he had liked it very much but didn't know why. It consisted of three girls, similarly dressed in pale shift dresses, paint-spattered on the front. For some moves, they moved in unison - for others, they all adopted separate poses. What occurred to me was that, when they moved in unison, they reminded me of classical Greek statues: when they moved separately, they adopted poses that reminded me of hieroglyphs. He remarked that the paint spatters on their dresses might have been a reference to art.
And finally, we found ourselves in the third performance. Called "I'm Sorry You're Leaving", it included a chair, near the front of the stage, with a balloon tied to it that said exactly that. It comprised four middle-aged performers, three ladies and a gentleman, and what followed was the most thoroughly surreal experience yet. One of the ladies came on, turned on a ghettoblaster and put on a cd of "Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!" by ABBA. She took off her tracksuit to reveal a spangly vest top and hotpants. Then she did stretching exercises on the floor while the others came in, one by one, and took off their shoes.
It was more performance art than contemporary dance, I felt. And it was fantastic! Consistently surprising - and, as my companion exclaimed, so original! They were generally to be found at different parts of the stage, doing different things. A couple of them took turns at a microphone, turned away from us, rather tunelessly singing. Sometimes they interacted with the audience - talking to us, asking us questions, climbing the side stairs, handing out things. Frequently, they told snippets of what sounded like real-life stories - maybe their own, possibly not.
It was all the most anarchic fun, and the first piece I've seen get a standing ovation. Definitely wins the audience popularity award. The company name is .2Dot; keep an eye out. The performance was a bit longer than the norm, so late home and no blogging.
Sadly, I won't be going to anything I've booked for the next few days - I've had a bereavement in the family and I'm flying home this evening until Wednesday. I'll consider what I might do on Thursday when I get a chance. At least my ticket for Old Rope on Monday won't be wasted - Laura, from work, is using it: just has to pretend to be me!
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