BEST OUT THIS WEEK: The Last Dance All We Imagine As Light ALL REVIEWS > |
Thursday, 14 November 2024
Critical Week: A new friend
Wednesday, 13 November 2024
Dance: Walk away the blues
Exit Above
After the Tempest / D’après la Tempête / Naar de Storm
choreography Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker
music Meskerem Mees, Jean-Marie Aerts, Carlos Garbin
dancers Abigail Aleksander, Jean Pierre Buré, Lav Crnčević, José Paulo dos Santos, Rafa Galdino, Nina Godderis, Solal Mariotte, Mariana Miranda, Ariadna Navarrete Valverde, Cintia Sebők (danced by Margarida Marques Ramalhete), Jacob Storer
musicians Meskerem Mees, Carlos Garbin
scenography Michel François
lighting Max Adams • costumes Aouatif Boulaich
Sadler's Wells, London • 12-13.Nov.24 ★★★★Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker's Belgian dance company Rosas brings this show to the UK for the first time. The approach is refreshingly offbeat, creating a loose atmosphere that often feels improvised but actually involves complex layers of movement tracing elaborate geometric patterns on the stage. This tone shifts and evolves throughout the performance, intertwining music and movement to create a powerfully visceral catharsis.
The first to take to the fully deconstructed stage are guitarist Carlos Garbin and vocalist Meskerem Mees, both of whom participate in the dance numbers as well. To an engulfing soundscape, Mees recites the words of philosopher Walter Benjamin, exploring the nature of history and the storm that is progress. Then a single dancer throws himself into the air and back to the floor in spiralling gymnastic moves, while a shimmering curtain wafts overhead.
From here, the show surges through an expansive series of dance styles, with performers on their own, in pairs or as one. The demanding choreography is expressive and broad, drawing on huge physicality as the seriously gifted dancers spin, jump, lift, balance or stand silent and still. But mostly they are walking ever forward, tightly connected to each other and the music. Accompanying this is Garbin's guitar, which cycles through a series of blues numbers that are sung by the angelic Mees, shifting the mood from pulsing rhythms to searingly pure tones. With lights positioned far above, the shadow of the rigging is projected onto the walls, creating an elemental space that's augmented by some lighting trickery. A spotlight traces slow circles around the stage, which is covered in geometric lines. The dancers echo the light's movement, creating a kind of counter-clockwise whirlpool. All of this is exploring the idea of everyday movement, walking ahead regardless of what's happening in our lives. It may feel a bit meandering, but there's also a strong sense of both individuality and community. And in the later scenes, as dancers fling off clothing in abandon, their connection grows powerfully strong, leading to a series of stunning final sequences.Friday, 8 November 2024
Critical Week: Are you not entertained?
BEST OUT THIS WEEK: No Other Land Piece by Piece ALL REVIEWS > |
Friday, 1 November 2024
Critical Week: Generations
BEST OUT THIS WEEK: A Real Pain • Emilia Perez Anora • Super/Man Home Sweet Home: Where Evil Lives ALL REVIEWS > |
Saturday, 26 October 2024
Critical Week: Making movies
BEST OUT THIS WEEK: Conclave • Emilia Perez Memoir of a Snail ALL REVIEWS > |
As for festival fare, there was the Robbie Williams biopic Better Man, in which he's depicted as a chimp. Along with lots of panache, the film is surprisingly earthy and serious, and powerfully moving. Walter Salles' superbly well-made I'm Still Here is a riveting true-life family drama, while the beautifully observed Indian drama All We Imagine as Light gently follows three women at a crossroads. There were two docs: Mati Diop's inventive and haunting Dahomey, about returning plundered antiquities to Benin, and the delicately balanced The Divided Island, which skilfully outlines the complex situation in Cyprus. I also saw two live performances: Filibuster at Jackson's Lane and Stories at the Peacock. And I attended the glamorous premiere of the TV series The Day of the Jackal, starring Eddie Redmayne and Lashana Lynch. Now I want to see more episodes.
This coming week shouldn't be quite so jam-packed. But I'll be watching Nicholas Hoult in Juror #2, Cate Blanchett in Rumours, Liam Neeson in Absolution, Pharrell's Lego movie Piece by Piece, the Aussie comedy Secrets of a Wallaby Boy, the Christopher Reeve documentary Super/Man and the disinformation doc How to Build a Truth Engine.Friday, 25 October 2024
Dance: Run, stop, fall, rise
Stories
by Romain Rachline Borgeaud
with Paul Redier, Angel Cubero, Lisa Delolme, Sandra Pericou, Geoffrey Goutorbe, Deborah Lotti, Antoine Nya, Aaron Colston Avella Hiles, Camille Lambese, Malory Hyvelin
sets Federica Mugnai • lighting Alex Hardellet
costumes Margaux Ponsard & Janie Loriault
Peacock Theatre, London • 23.Oct-2.Nov.24 ★★★★
Sunday, 20 October 2024
Stage: Elasticity and emotion
Filibuster
by Kook Ensemble
with Tom Gaskin
dir Sean Kempton
set & costume Adrian Linford • sound design Pete Buffery
Jackson's Lane, London • on tour 14.Sep-8.Nov.24 ★★★★