As part of Protein Dance's online offerings during the pandemic, their latest is a double bill of short works devised and choreographed by Luca Silvestrini, and originally premiered at an alternative performance venue in east London, converting the old Wapping Hydraulic Power Station into a trendy The Woolwich Works: a bar, restaurant, Arts and performance space, and these two short works were filmed during their repective performances there.
The first was, 'Ride' , from 2008. The performance space being a small circle in one of the ante-rooms of the building, whilst audience members crowded round the edges making the piece intimate but also quite claustrophobic too. There is grass on the floor and we see a lady dressed in red with opera glasses watching a horse race. The jockey comes past, they flirt, they take selfies, and a sexual romance develops extremely quickly. The lines between female and horse becoming ever more blurred as this sequence progresses; the jockey using his crop and treating her as if a filly, and she responds. It's highly sexualised, and yet strangely 'normal' at the same time. The climax (and I use that word deliberately) is over, and the jockey struts off unashamedly and unconcernedly, leaving the lady to rearrange herself and gain composure before going back to her husband.
Danced by Charlotte Broom and Omar Gordon.
In the second piece, 'Stairworks' (aka 'Boys In Towels'), from 2001, the performance area is a concrete set of stairs behind a glass wall in the dining area as well as a trap door high in the wall close by. The nature of the space and where the audience are seated meaning that much of the dance happens behind brick walls and the audience are granted only a percentage of the total moves, making it an interesting if not wholly satisying experiment.
Starting with a news bulletin that a new strain of Foot And Mouth disease means that all kitchen staff who work with raw meet must be culled immediately, a young chef is dragged away by naked dancers wearing only towels around their waists, and is trounced up and down the staircase eventually ending up by the trap door, through which they mean to drop him to his death. He does finally jump, but survives and is sent straight back to the kitchen to continue working immediately. It's odd, bizarre, and perhaps also somewhat allegoric; however due to our current situation, it was almost too easy to substitute 'Foot And Mouth' for 'COVID-19'; and in the so doing it made it more relevant certainly, and also more urgent, shocking and meaningful.
Directed by Bettina Strickler.
Both dances were intelligently conceived, interesting to watch and excellently realised.
Reviewer - Matthew Dougall
on - 23/11/20
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