list.co.uk/festival Reviews | FESTIVAL DANCE
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DANZA DEL CARIBE: ITARA Vivid Afro-Caribbean modern dance ritual ●●●●● OCKHAM’S RAZOR: ARC AND EVERY ACTION Stylish storytelling and stunning circus ●●●●●
The umbrella title for this collage of three dances from Cuba’s Danza del Caribe translates from the West African Yoruba language as ‘burning desire’. The company specialises in a fusion of styles, principally Afro-Caribbean and modern dance. It helps that the music is played live, though less beneficial is the limited performance area – the dancers deserve more breathing room. Without space to expand, the work can come across a mite sloppy and kitsch, when what’s probably meant to be conveyed is a meaty vibrance. The opening section is a fertility dance by Caribe’s
founder, Eduardo Rivera. The cast’s torsos are notably undulant and they sport fierce expressions. Luz (light), by principal dancer Eduardo Salas Borrero, features movement that is by turns adagio, gymnastic and marked by more than a hint of primitivism. Los Elementos, by Australian-born company member Mina Waks, taps into cultural traditions reflecting the Santeria religion. Here the dancing is carnal and carnivalesque and, at the climax, briefly accompanied by flames. Danza del Caribe may not light a blazing fire in your soul, but they’ll keep your attention. (Donald Hutera) ■ Assembly Roxy, 623 3030, until 31 Aug (not 24), 5pm, £12–£14 (£11–£13).
London-based Ockham’s Razor may be one of a growing crop of UK circus companies, but you won’t find a cloud swing or a trapeze in one of their shows – at least not as you’d recognise it. Instead the group creates custom-built equipment to bring out daring and play. In Arc, a giant metal grill is used as a life raft for
three performers cast adrift. At first their games are cautious, mirroring and pleasing one another. But inevitably three’s a crowd, and when relationships bloom someone has to be odd man out. The clever thing here is the way the company uses narrative to trigger the gasp factor we expect from circus – but the less said about that the better the surprises.
Every Action is pure delight; four people, one enormous rope and a pulley. The best moments are the problem-solving ones, and it’s nice to see another of circus’s classic elements – clown – hinted at through hapless scrapes.
In each piece, clean visuals and a clear sense of purpose leaves room for the medium’s tricksy side to be just the icing on the cake. (Lucy Ribchester) ■ Underbelly’s Circus Hub, 0844 545 8252, until 26 Aug (not 20), 1.25pm, £14.50–£15.50 (£13.50– £14.50).
FEAST Clout plays with our relationship to food ●●●●●
Well, clearly someone’s mother never told them not to play with their food. By the end of Clout Theatre’s hour-long riot of macabre buffoonery, involving breakfast, lunch and dinner, you are genuinely pitying the person who has to clean it all up afterwards. But that is to jump ahead, and this three-course piece from the Lecoq-trained absurdist troupe really, despite its filth, is worth savouring. The banquet gets off to a slow start. Three figures
dressed in nappies, hands bandaged like penitent dunces, grub about in mud. They don’t seem to know who they or each other are: all they know is that the three pieces of cutlery – one each – are to be worshipped. Through characters who are part-toddler, part-
renaissance fools, FEAST examines what happens when idiots such as humans are confronted with food in abundance. When it ceases to be a means to survive, hunger gives way to abuse, comprising shame, humiliation, indulgence, complacency, pretentions and fetishisation. It might all look bizarre but it’s probably no more silly than the latest diet fad website or an episode of Man v Food. (Lucy Ribchester) ■ ZOO, 662 6892, until 31 Aug (not 21), 3.55pm, £10 (£8).
BALLETRONIC ●●●●● Ballet-fusion show from Cuba is not quite the sum of its parts
What do you get when you take fantastic dancers, vibrant costumes, a great band and one outstanding violinist? In the case of Balletronic, it’s not quite certain.
This show from Ballet Revolución (based in Cuba but with an international production team) has all the ingredients for a flashy, glitzy celebration of electro-ballet-meets-contemporary dance, with an 11-piece live band and a Cuban-flavoured score. But something hasn’t come together here.
The show opens with a dreamlike encounter between a man in black, a woman in purple and a white violin. It’s an arresting visual idea, but what’s its purpose? Are we supposed to feel drawn into a narrative between the pair of lovers? Has he dreamed her, or vice-versa? This feeling of half a story that isn’t quite communicating itself keeps coming back throughout Balletronic. The violin duo sometimes returns, along with a few visual motifs of covering the eyes or being restrained. But so do random pairings, ensemble pieces that don’t have any link to the scene before, and a bizarre seduction sequence. Of course, dance doesn’t need to have narrative, or a theme,
or even a set of ideas to process. It can be there for the sake of showing off and entertaining us. But if that’s the case, the choreography needs to be gaspingly flashy or intriguing, and above all watertight, and that’s just not the case here.
The saving grace is the quality of the ensemble – both dancers and musicians. Violinist Jelien Baso Miranda, vocalist Luna Manzanares Nardo and percussionist Yaimi Karell Lay stand out, but the whole musical team is excellent. And Jenny Sosa Martinez and Wuilleys Estacholi Silveira’s airy chiffon-veiled duet is beautiful. (Lucy Ribchester) ■ Pleasance Courtyard, 556 6550, until 31 Aug (not 24), 9.30pm, £14.50–£16.50 (£12–£14).
20–31 Aug 2015 THE LIST FESTIVAL 57