Renowned boundary-breaking choreographer Hofesh Shechter made a more than welcome visit to Manchester's HOME theatre this evening with his latest contemporary dance-drama, Show.
On the face of it each choreographed step or movement is quite simple - it is how these moves are combined, repeated, metamorphosed and returned to which makes the choreography fascinating. Hungarian dance innovator Rudolf Laban would have been in his element watching this piece as Shechter uses the '8 efforts' to stunning effect [punching, slashing, dabbing, flicking, pressing, wringing, gliding and floating]. Shechter plays with tempo, with stillness, with frenetic madness; he plays with unison pitted against individual; he plays with the lightness / hardness dimensions and the pizzicato / legato dimensions. He has fun with his choreography and that essence of play and ironic humour is carried through each dancer on stage. It is frightening, nightmarish, evil, and yet humorous and light-hearted at one and the same time. Shechter's choreography is often described as 'tribal'. Many of the steps he gives his dancers to do have their roots in different cultures' folk dances, and there were elements of Yiddish Klezmer style dancing, African jungle beats, and even very brief elements of the Ukrainian Hopak in there too. However, in Show, the most obvious country and dance association given to the choreography is Scotland. The traditional pas-de-Basque and both hands high in the air as well as other movements suggested The Sword Dance or The Highland Fling as well as a movement taken from The Gay Gordon.
The company of 8 dancers tell a story - or is it many small stories - about "circus". I clearly identified a Ringmaster and a family of elephants in amidst the long middle section of this piece titled 'Clowns'. Either side of this was 'Entrance' - where we saw the performers in their underwear preparing for their time on stage; and 'Exit' which was actually nothing more than an extended curtain call. The story (or stories) the dancers tell is very much left to the spectators' imaginations, but it is a bloodthirsty and sexually charged one of rivalry, one upmanship and murder... lots of murder!
What makes Show truly remarkable is the choreographer's relationship with light and sound. Majority of the music used in this piece was composed by Shechter himself and was little more than a repetitive rhythm undulating with a simple melodic phrase which crescendos and descrescondos with the fluid movements of the dancers. The dramatic effect of this is married superbly with one of the most amazing and beautifully created lighting designs I have seen for a very long time. (Lee Coran and Richard Godin) The images and tableaux created were simply stunning.
The 8 dancers also deserve crediting here too since they were superb. Their timing and reactions superb, not to mention their ubiquitous talent. Riley Wolf, Juliette Valerio, Zunnur Sazali, Adam Khazhmuradov, Emma Farnell-Watson, Robinson Casarino and Neal Maxwell.
Show is not about clowns, but about our inner demons and confronting them, acknowledging them and then spitting them out and cutting their throats! Delightful!
Reviewer - Matthew Dougall
on - 31/10/18
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