A dance piece, an exploration of the relationship between movement, light and music. An ensemble of obviously talented dancers limited by a choreography that just teetered on the edge of delivering something exciting.
A one night only performance at The Lowry, Salford on their esteemed Lyric stage, Russell Maliphant's 'Silent Lines' resonated throughout the auditorium and had the audiences' rapt attention. Five dancers performed Maliphant's devised piece; Althia Antonia, Edd Arnold, Grace Jabbari, Moronfoluwa Odimayo and Will Thompson. Each of the dancers had an incredible presence on stage, their strength of movement was admirable and the poise in which they held themselves it was evident they were extremely capable dancers on the verge of exploding into movement.
The opening sequence was fatidic of the piece as a whole, a stage mostly in darkness and the light, design by Panagiotis Tomaras, gracefully highlighted the dancers' movements. Tomaras' animated light patterns played across the dancers' bodies like water, the movements of this sequence were slow extensions and counter balances with partners, the effect the lighting had on this made the bodies seemingly blend with one another and even the dancers' stillness vibrated with the energy of the light cast on them. The effectiveness of the lighting on the dancers' bodies was aided by Stevie Stewarts Costume design, plain trousers and tops that appeared to be inspired by b-bop casual wear and capoeira martial arts uniform. The dancers bodies were able to move freely and each had some element to their design that felt represented them individually.
The choreography was evidently inspired by capoeira, b-bop and contemporary dance, shown during sequences when the dancers performed short duets filled with physically skilled movements of mentioned genres. The dancers ability at filling the negative spaces around each other were a demonstration of their abilities to perform and respond to the needs of the space simultaneously, this was a level of awareness not often seen and captivating to watch. I hoped for more of these magical moments and indeed the performance was sequence after sequence of solos and group sequences filled with these impressive feats of connectivity. But as the performance went on the choreography became repetitive, so much turning by the dancers it brought to mind Whirling Dervishes, I longed for a break in the turning and capoeira-like circling.
In the programme Maliphant states that he likes to play with 'pushing against expectations', indeed I concede moments that I felt a climax in the choreography was mounting it did not arrive and the dancers would continue turning or transpose into another sequence. This piece was an example of movement being dissected and dancers having the power to be in the space with others with choreography simple enough for them to emanate their physical prowess. I admire this piece but for entertainment value I would like to see another of Maliphant's productions, one with a story or more traditional narrative structure.
For an introduction to this company I am left inspired to seek out seeing future work by them, though I can't say this is one of my favourite performances.
Reviewer - Kerry Ely
on - 29/5/19
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