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Reviews
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Phoenix Dance Theatre Spring Tour 2004Featuring pieces choreographed by Henri Oguike, Rui Norta, Darshan
Singh Buller and Maresa von Stockert One of the pleasures of watching contemporary dance companies like Phoenix Dance Theatre is the variety of work in their programmes. So it was with Phoenix: Signal by Henri Oguike, featuring five dancers; Can You See Me by Rui Horta (four); Source 2 by Darshan Singh Bhuller (two); and polystyrene dreams by Maresa von Stockert (seven). Each is different, both in its style and mood. Signal, which takes its inspiration from the Taiko drums of Japan and also features music for Koto and Sakuhachi, shows a strong African influence in its movement language, whilst Rui Horta's Can You See Me (which uses music by Jimi Hendrix among others) fuses street dance with, at some points, tentatively and unsuccessfully (deliberately so) performed ballet. Bhuller's romantic Source 2 uses photography and film alongside a soundscape which includes music by György Kurtág, whilst polysytrene dreams makes delightfully humorous use of Also Sprach Zarathustra, Nino Rota and Purcell. It's a well balanced programme, and an accessible one, too, for those new to comtemporary dance. It is only with Signal that the newcomer may have have difficulty finding a way in, but once (s)he realises (and the choreographer's note in programme does make it clear) that the piece is a response to the sound of the Taiko drums, influenced by their battlefield function of both intimidating the enemy and giving commands to the soldiers, then the piece becomes more than a just a series of beautifully executed movements. Can You See Me looks at the efforts we make to impress, to project an image, and the (to others, at any rate) amusing effects of failure to do so.
Phoenix' artistic director, Darshan Singh Bhuller's Source 2 is a development of a section of a previous piece, Source. A screen is flown in downstage left and onto it is projected a film by Bhuller, featuring photographs of the piece by Anthony Crickmay. The two dancers begin in front of the screen, then move away centre and right, before returning again to the screen and moving off once more. I confess I found this use of film distracting: had it been projected onto the back of the stage, it would have been integrated into the piece, but being offset for much of the time, the eye is continually being drawn from one to the other. The natural reaction is to resist the pull and focus on the dancers, which meant that the film was, for much of the piece, superfluous. Showing the realtionship between the dancers (Yan Seabra and Lisa Welham), the final few minutes are danced nude (always a good selling point for the marketing people!). The final piece, polystyrene dreams, is set in a toy factory where the workers are bombarded with alternatively encouraging and threateneing messages from the management and we watch as they turn from work to chaos. For most of the piece the seven dancers sit, lie or stand on typist's chairs, which they send spinning about the stage like manic scooters. It ends in an hilarious snowstorm of shredded polystyrene packaging. Although it was a reasonable house, the Gala was not full for this performance, which is very sad, for this provides an accessible and enjoyable introduction to contemporary dance, as the enthusiastic response from the audience proved.
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