Reviews & features: Dance, Issue 610
Hemingway's Havana
14 Aug 2008
Buena Vista vibe heavy on Hemingway
Featuring Cuban music legends, such as Papa Oviedo (master of the guitar-like tres), diva singer Siomara Valdes and nimble salsa legend Eric Turro, Hemingway's Havana puts up all the signs of being a sure-fire winner, and then takes the edge off with a…
Polaris
14 Aug 2008
Poignant Czech mime
This drama of two men lost in the Antarctic is in danger of giving mime a good name. Using very few props, a howling soundtrack and jumping between human and animal, Vojta Svejda and Jan Benes-McGadie relate their impressionistic story with winning…
The Vanishing Point
14 Aug 2008
Awe inspiring spectacle on stilts
The Vanishing Point is sheer delight. The stilt walkers, communicating to each other through some sort of primeval whale song, trace a pattern of evolution from dinosaur-like creatures and sexually charged tribal people to, briefly, dead-eyed office…
Mudfire
14 Aug 2008
Awe inspiring spectacle on stilts
I picked the wrong day to go and see US acrobatic company Carpetbag Brigade's two Fringe offerings. After 48 hours of rain their outdoor performance space at Sweet ECA had turned swamp and the company was making do with a hastily-converted studio space.
Steve Reich Evening
14 Aug 2008
Music and dance pioneers in perfect harmony
She's one of the most prominent names in European contemporary dance, he's a giant of American minimalist music. Together, Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker and Steve Reich make quite a pair - although their partnership is a result of admiration, rather than…
Festival dance hitlist
14 Aug 2008
Bale de Rua, The Vanishing Point, Mortal Engine, Steve Reich Evening, Scottish Dance Theatre, Children of the Khmer, State of Matter
The Factory
14 Aug 2008
Multi-media battle against consumerism
After last year's engaging Druthers, Precarious' blunt economic parable is disappointing. While their approach - fusing rough-hewn choreography, jittery multi-media and over-blown speech - is fascinating, the Fringe atmosphere exposes The Factory as…
Lost in the Wind
14 Aug 2008
Lost Spectacles brings the outside inside
Remember Let's Pretend, the kids TV show where the cast made up a play using whatever props and costumes found in the dressing-up box? This offbeat show from Lost Spectacles has a similarly patchwork feel to it. The cast use simple objects such as a…
Soledad Barrio and Noche Flamenca
14 Aug 2008
Pain and passion on the dancefloor
Noche Flamenca is less a company and more of a community. Founded in Madrid in 1993, by artistic director Martin Santangelo and his Flamenco dancing wife, Soledad Barrio, the group is far more concerned with expressing its artistry than grabbing the…
Rise
14 Aug 2008
The oppressive side of urban life
Gotham City meets the streets of Bladerunner in this atmospheric exploration of urban angst. Donned in hoodies and combats, five performers invoke an overpowering claustrophobia as they fight tension and pressure through slow-motion breaks and…
Spirit of the Samurai
14 Aug 2008
Swordplay blunted by repetition
This display of Samurai skill comes with a weighty pedigree: company director Tetsuro Shimaguchi not only appeared in Kill Bill 1, but choreographed the sword fighting scenes. He's working with hugely skilled performers here, and they know their target…
Transgression
14 Aug 2008
Taking it to extremes
Transgression is a breathtaking showcase of urban sports skills, taking in BMXing, skateboarding, inline skating, freerunning, even extreme unicycling. Performed on one of the Fringe's most unique venues - a full skate park and ramps surrounded by a…
Chess
14 Aug 2008
Moving Taiwanese tragedy
Fortunately avoiding elaboration of the central metaphor - war as chess - this Taiwanese company, Dansmusicians presents a sumptuous and skilled performance. With superb dancers, a tragedy played for pathos not sentimentality and a ravishing soundtrack…
Phantomysteria
14 Aug 2008
Apocalyptic open-air performance
A chimp-pig like creature and a sinewy torn-suited survivor find solace in each other before enforcers aggressively intervene. The planet is destroyed and those who remain are living at the beginning of an era where new laws reign. But because humans…
5 Questions - Ruth Janssen
14 Aug 2008
As Scottish Dance Theatre lights up the Fringe with its superb double-bill of dynamic contemporary works, dancer Ruth Janssen faces the music.
Mortal Engine
14 Aug 2008
Using cutting-edge technology, Australia’s Chunky Move dance company explores human interaction and mortality. Performed on a steeply raked stage, the show features patterns of music and sound triggered by the dancers’ movement and re-routed back to the…
