This is a banquet of dance, balancing Cuban roots and a sense of adventure, with an eclectic yet cohesive range of pieces, performed with consummate artistry and skill. The exhilaration and energy of the company, audacious, bold, radiates their essential joy in what they do. The accolade 'must see' has been used many times. This performance truly deserves it.
'Satori', chereographed by Paul Reid is a spiritual journey which questions, searches, stagnates, feels defeated and finally comes to that Zen Buddhist moment of knowledge, beauty, truth and light. With evocative use of large pieces of material interacting with the dancers but minimal use of costume exposing the beauty and anatomy of the dnacers' bodies .Accompanied by hauntingly beautiful wind and string music and background choral music using Pepe Galvilondo's original score combining electronic,acoustic and folk sounds. The leading role fulfilled stunningly by Zeleidy Crespo. The rhythmically moving dancers legs, seen without bodies was a stand-out moment. throughout the performance, the achievements of lighting from shadow to strobe, take Evolution to fully evolved technically.
'Paysage, Soudain, La Nui't, choreographed by Pontus Lidberg and set with a background of Van Gogh-like waving wheat, is a beautifully lit piece, playing host to the rumba, all enabling a remarkable exploration of the passions, and sometimes loneliness of the youthful dancers whose energy, and interpretive skills rightly evoked from the audience an equivalently wholehearted response. It's all here, male friendships, confrontations, flirtation, loneliness, and yet without overreach or contrivance. The ease with which the dancers performed translated its depictions into something which was both grounded and yet burned with an afterglow borne out of its interpetational clarity and the way in which the dancers, in every detail, do it with an ease which belies the virtuosity of their peformance.
Following 'Paysage Soudain, La Nuit' with 'Faun' before the final piece 'Rooster' enables clarity of perception and understanding of all three. It is a tribute to this short piece that it does so. Performed against a marvellously conceived dark forest on the backcloth, it is a formidable achievement, with a sinuous evocation that at times seems almost impossible. A tour-de-force by the dancers, it does that most remarkable thing, taking a well known and profoundly evocative piece of music and does utter and full justice to it, leaving the audience with a sense of fulfilment not easily achieved. This piece de- and reconstructs the earthy and earthbound into an ultimate sense of the mystic at the heart of it. Debussy ought to be cheering.
'Rooster' is a joyous glorious romp; All Roosters be envious. Never did roosters strut their stuff as Acosta and his dancers did – both sexes. Acosta himself still performing astonishingly, fulfilling all that Christopher Bruce the choreographer would have wished for. Set to music by The Rolling Stones, and including such pieces as Lady Jane, As Tears Go By, Paint It Black, Sympathy For The Devil, and Ruby Tuesday, it explored the twists and turns of the battle of the sexes. Did we say twists and turns. These dancers are made of elastic!
Reviewers - Raymond and Judith Armstrong
on - 19/11/19
I agree
ReplyDeleteGood review