Reviews & features: Gareth Vile
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Kataklo Athletic Dance Theatre's Love Machines
23 Aug 2009
Athletic dance without depth
Love Machines provides evidence that a good concept and strong technique is not enough. Based on the works of Leonardo da Vinci, and apparently set in an underground cave inhabited by strange creatures, Kataklo throw together kitsch costumes, a poor…
Lola: The Life of Lola Montez
16 Aug 2009
Biographical drama flamenco-style
The life of Lola Montez is ideal for the stage: an Irish woman who re-invented herself as a Spanish dancer, her fame in the 19th century makes her the natural ancestor of the modern celebrity. Yet this complex story is confused by the rapid pace, and…
Crime of the Century
9 Aug 2009
Young lives on the edge
Chickenshed’s strength is simultaneously its weakness. The company boasts of its willingness to take on social issues, yet Crime of the Century is undermined by blunt stereotyping. Drawing the link between knife crime and social depravation in simple…
Anomie
9 Aug 2009
Energy and technology come together
Precarious has been upholding awkward multi-media performance art for three years at Zoo, staging an annual ambitious extravaganza that combines dance, words, a storming soundtrack and video installations. Anomie continues their run of hard-edged…
Dancing on your Grave
21 Aug 2008
Songs in the key of death
Dancing on your Grave indulges in gothic vaudeville: an hour of songs about death, sung by ghostly clowns pursuing a most pessimistic vision. After an hour, however, the monomania starts to wear thin. Apart from the odd reflection on lives ill-lived or…
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…
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…
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…
Nycht-Hemeron
7 Aug 2008
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…
State of Matter
7 Aug 2008
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…
Todos Los Gatos Son Pardos
7 Aug 2008
Arrieritos are aiming for a different audience with Todos Los Gatos Son Pardos. Through six ensemble dances by six choreographers, it meditates on friendship, passion and bravura by adapting flamenco’s signature movements and atmosphere. Elements of…
Flamenco, Flamenco!
7 Aug 2008
Spanish flavour at the Fringe
While they have a shared heritage, these two shows take radically different approaches to Spain’s national dance. Ricardo Garcia’s Flamenco, Flamenco! features four virtuosos, with the emphasis as much on music as on dancing. Ricardo’s acoustic…
