Dance Base Week 2 reviews
M.I.S. – All Night Long
Don Gnu [★★★★☆]
This show is a sort of turbocharged Chuckle Brothers, mixed with Eric Sykes’ The Plank, circus, film deconstruction, mad martial arts, live music and Bossa Nova. As a member of the audience approvingly said, it is sooo random.
And who knew woollen socks could be so sexy? And who knew just watching a show could be so exhausting?
These guys are masters of insanely energetic lunacy. The kind that is incredibly inventive, intricately designed and flawlessly executed. This Danish Company delivers that most difficult thing: physical comedy, sight gags and slapstick that is indisputably really, really funny. (MH)
Lost In Complete
Complete Dance Crew [★★★★☆]
These are street dancers in a dance battle, not against other dancers, but against a dominating female electronic voice. The guys play along: sometimes to impress her, sometimes because they have no choice. But sometimes they rebel.
This setting never reduces the show’s focus on the strength, speed and agility of the six dancers. There’s plenty of humour, solos to show off individual personalities, and powerful group sequences, all combining to create a cumulative effect that is fresh, vivid and exciting. (MH)
A:Version & Pitch
Indepen-dance 4/Skye Reynolds. [★★★☆☆]
Both of these dance-theatre shows pose the question of how you go about making a show – and what is the difference between practice, performance, and real life?
Indepen-dance 4 Company, bring together performers with and without disabilities. They begin A:Version as if by accident. But everything is carefully calculated. With humour, warmth and poise, the performers run through practice runs – each being a finely tuned variation. Finally, the audience views the ‘real’ dance, which gains extra depth and colour from our awareness of the previous incarnations.
Skye Reynolds gives a thrilling, mesmeric performance in Pitch, with its radical questioning of what the content of a show should be, or even whether ‘performance’ should be discarded in favour of ‘real life.’ This is an engaging, challenging and thought-provoking piece, unfortunately marred by occasional lapses in focus. (MH)
Dancer
[★★★★☆]
Part talk/part dance, this is a charming feel-good show performed by learning-disabled dancer, Ian Johnston and a trained ballet dancer, Gary Gardiner. It’s an affectionate relationship where Ian puts Gary’s tendency to pomposity or boasting firmly in its place. Ian is a joy to watch as he shows how dance can make you come fully alive. (SG)