Unlike the similarly titled Watch US Dance last year, which saw an international collaboration with a dance school in America, this was a show very firmly set on home territory. Six different pieces were showcased this evening, four of which were danced by current Salford University students.
The evening started however, not in the theatre, but in the building's spacious atrium, with a dance from two ex-alumni who have formed their own company, 'Transcend', and performed their latest work, 'Bilateral' in that space. The music used was too loud and interferred with your watching, and the two performers, Lizzie Davidson and Callum Newman failed to inspire. The piece 'spoke' of relationships and the coming together of two individuals to form a bond, that much was clear; but for me too much time was spent exploring the 'light' and 'soft' dimensions before the more determined dynamic change from the music, which infused the dance with quasi-streetdance / breakdance moves, before finally settling on a nice meditative and calm ending. I am also unsure why they needed to use the atrium space for this work, as it lengthened the evening considerably by having the audience then file into the theatre and get ready for the rest of the show. It would have worked equally well on the stage.
The first piece in the theatre was performed by university first years, and titled, 'Life Line'. There are no programme notes for this piece but it seemed to be based on the idea of alternative methods of communication, especially BSL. The piece was in three distinct sections, and for the first section I was having great difficulty in concentrating on the dancing I am sorry to say, since the choice of music was making me internally scream and shout! I have no idea why this piece of music was chosen or indeed who chose it, but it was simply the worst and most awful rendition of 'Nessun Dorma' I have ever heard.... a female 'singer' (and I use the word advisedly) screeching poorly pronounced Italian with awful breathing techinique and no idea of phrasing or even a sense of the real tune!! Sorry, but being seated right next to the speaker it was impossible to shake off! The Jewish and Country music sections were much more successful, and I could settle back and enjoy the dancing. The choeography was using smaller groups or solos in interesting ways, always coming back to the whole company for a very effective extended denouement where two halves of the company worked separately but in apposition with each other.
The next two pieces were choreographed by Lisa Simpson. She is a Liverpool-based choreographer who suffers from quadrriplegia cerebral palsy, and has no verbal communication. She choreographs therefore using The Simpson Board. Something I had never heard of and so needed to "google" it.
Both pieces 'Ripple' and 'Rhythm' were once again contemporary dance (as was the whole evening), and the first started quite dark and almost threateningly with two pairs of dancers dressed in black, as slowly more dancers enter, and as they do so the dance becomes more fragmented but also more frenetic until they all come together at the end pulling and pointing towards the floor in unison. It was an interesting idea, but was unable to find a narrative to it. The longer 'Rhythm' which was in several defined sections was a more successful piece overall I think. The second section where there were some very fast lighting changes including the use of strobe seemed the most out-of-place, but the gradual build through the scary waltz tempo dance which followed to the Latin rhythms was nicely placed. I enjoyed the spider's web-esque lighting for the final section - very effextive, and again I liked the ideas of solo, pair, group and ensemble work coming together at the end in a kind of confrontation. Very well danced and realised.
After a short interval we assembled again for the final two pieces of this evening's presentation. First was, 'Entertaining A Small Place', a solo piece by dance / theatre practitioner Bridget Friske, choreographed by Joseph Lau. This solo piece of interpretive dance was something I sadly could not connect to at all in any meaningful way. Perhaps because, once again, the choice of music was interferring with my visual experience. I have no idea what the 'noise' was, but it was a monotonous vocal drone with little variation throughout, which was overpoweringly loud and didn't seem to fit with what Friske was doing on the stage at any time. Very strange.
The final piece this evening was 'Snow', composed by Stelios Manousakis and choreographed again by Joseph Lau. A stirring piece of dance theatre which started with one girl speaking about being lonely and alone as the rest of the troupe crept up on her. This pushing and pulling both verbally and physically was a theme throughout the piece as dancers would shout 'Come here!' or 'Go away!' at varying points and seemed to simultaneously both love and hate the people they were dancing with. Dressed in jeans and coloured T-shirts and looking very youthful and uniform, the vocalisations became almost frightening and surreal at times (think Communist Youth), and yet, the energy and power of such movement created beauty. Interesting choreogrpahy and mise-en-scene, with some nice ideas brought to life, as the dance between 'love' and 'conflict' finally resolved with a lovely ending.
Reviewer - Matthew Dougall
on - 8/11/19
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