Siobhan Davies Dance Company ; Eighty Eight..

The piece opens with circles of light on the floor and a duet running in and out of them, only visible when passing through the beams of light. The theme of circles is apparent throughout, portrayed in movement, formation and paths they follow. There is also a theme of industry, seen in the stark setting and the familiar, repetitive motifs. 

When watching this performance, the most interesting and predominant feature was the use of space and formations. The company constantly consume the stage and demand attention to every part of it. The dancers exit and entrance the stage almost without notice to join the dance, creating a visually captivating and enthralling piece. The use of unison in the tight, structured formations show the dancers as one, moving as a unit; this then moves on to separate dancers breaking away from and returning to the formation, sometimes passing through the formation whilst moving through the space. The formations dance between straight lines, boxes and collections of threes. 

This piece inverts the traditional conventions firstly by the dancers being barefoot and wearing draping, loose clothing, as opposed to the established tutu and pointe shoes of ballet. It also involves release based, unrestricted movement and pedestrian gestures and actions. Eighty Eight doesn’t have a central focal point, unlike traditional dance, and there is neither hierarchy of dancers nor a principle dancer whom the rest simply frame. The space is filled and used effectively. 

 

I thoroughly enjoyed watching this piece and was continuously kept entertained and intrigued throughout.

I watched this performance on the

Siobhan Davies Archive:

www.siobhandaviesreplay.com 

Eden Dance Company.. Second Year Performance Review..

So I went to see Eden Dance Company's performance of 'Inhabitation', a dance which I think was based on the reaction of the dancers to their environment.

The first section was performed in the dance studio where dancers wondered around exploring their surroundings and reacting to them. For example, some dancers explored the texture of the walls and experimented with giving their weight into it. The whole space was used which created a visually intriguing and slightly disorienting, at times, atmosphere. There were three large transparent sheets of plastic scattered on the floor in the space which the dancers in turn came into contact with and explored the sensory aspects of. The dance was performed in silence and therefore the sounds of them walking, rustling the plastic and everyday noises (shuffles and many nervous coughs from the audience) created an interesting and curious sound-scape to the performance. The dancers mainly used everyday movements such as walking, running and rolling; they all moved uniquely and has individual motifs to perform. Though I appreciated this, I was constantly waiting for the dancers to perform in unison.

The costumes in this section aided the idea of environment as they wore soft pinks, earthy browns and grassy greens; the costumes flowed and undulated as the dancers moved, suggesting the constant movement of nature. The dancers then donned large fur coats and brightly coloured wellies to take us on a silent walk through the centre of Coventry. It was absolutely fascinating to me to witness how the general public reacted to this bizarre display of silent marchers. As an audience we were allowed our own time to really take in the surroundings around us that we would ordinarily probably ignore.

The dancers walked us to Lady Herbert’s Garden where we were ushered up onto the bridge over-looking the garden, enabling us to observe this section of the dance from above. The dancers continued to explore their environments and really come into contact with the nature around them. We were able to walk up and down the bridge to get a good view of all the dancers in the garden, I thoroughly enjoyed this section of the dance as I was free to watch whatever part of the dance I wished (as the dancers where all over the garden, on either sides of the bridge).

Overall I think it was a very engaging and intriguing piece that kept myself and the other audience members  interested and entertained throughout.