Reviews & features: Dance

Deca Dance 2008

Whenever you read about Batsheva Dance Company, a few key words come up time and again; adjectives like ‘exuberant’, ‘joyful’ and ‘energetic’. This is thanks, in large part, to their choreographer Ohad Naharin. Drawing together short sections from ten…

The Vanishing Point

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…

Steve Reich Evening

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

Bale de Rua, The Vanishing Point, Mortal Engine, Steve Reich Evening, Scottish Dance Theatre, Children of the Khmer, State of Matter

Hemingway's Havana

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…

The Factory

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

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…

Polaris

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…

Soledad Barrio and Noche Flamenca

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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…

Children of the Khmer

Cambodian song and dance

This is as inspiring as it gets. An ensemble of young talented performers from Cambodia delivering perfectly orchestrated dance routines that are soulful, funny, enthusiastic and set against a powerful musical backdrop. It starts off on a mellow…

5 Questions - Rosie Kay

5 biggest influences as a choreographer: Charlie Chaplin and Fred Astaire films. Artist Otto Dix and the Weimar Republic period of German history. Merce Cunningham. Pina Bausch. My old history teacher, Philip MacKenzie, at the Royal High School. 4…

A Night at the Movies

Classic scenes from the silver screen

Golden moments from classic Hollywood films are the inspiration for this patchy production from US choreographers Gallimaufrey & Greene. While the intention is to provide an accessible entry point for theatregoers who are less familiar with contemporary…

Holdin' Fast

The mathematics of sexuality

As we file into the UK debut by the Czech Republic’s only professional contemporary dance company, we’re confronted by the body of a young man, draped over a blackboard covered in mathematical equations. Upstage, under a half-raised curtain, running…

Nycht-Hemeron

Poetry and motion

Despite Outside In’s good intentions – they help young performers gain experience – neither the bland choreography nor the mediocre dancers’ technique rescues Nycht-Hemeron from its difficult early morning slot. Putatively exploring the passage of a…

Sa-Choom

Sensory Korean overload

They call it a dance musical but Sa-Choom is more like a happy assault vehicle. Big beats mix with big smiles in a rolling collision of breakdancing, martial arts, techno, hip hop and glossy pop. It’s all about feeling good, and with the verve and…

State of Matter

Breakdance/contemporary fusion hits the spot

Following last year’s pattern of hip hop informed acrobatics, ragged yet stunning male ensemble dancing and spectacular solos, 2FaCeD DaNcE Company has tightened up its structure and enhanced the showmanship. It remains a forceful display of masculine…

Bale de Rua

Brazilian back flips and beats

The gorgeous Bale de Rua troupe rules the stage with enthralling drum beats, breathless body movements and innovative set pieces. Telling a loose story of the slaves who came to Brazil, this semblance of structure bows down before a musical journey that…