The Lowry is certainly offering a varied dance programme. Last week, there was a classical with a capital ‘c’ production of Tchaikovsky’s The Sleeping Beauty and now the venue hosts the decidedly modern São Paulo Dance Company.
The company is supported by the Government of the State of São Paulo to the extent politicians are credited by name in the programme. Somehow find it hard to imagine whichever jobsworth is UK Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport this week will ever fulfil their role effectively enough to deserve to be acknowledged in such a way.
Artistic Director Inês Bogéa selects three works by well-known choreographers and the triple-bill opens with Goyo Montero’s Anthem. The opening gives the impression of intruding upon events which preceded the dance and will continue afterwards. As the curtain rises, all 14 members of the company are already in motion, hunched and pulsing in unison like a pair of lungs to match the eerie, breathy soundtrack.
Goyo Montero’s Anthem highlights the events which build a community: recreation, work, conflict and patriotism. It is a breathtaking display of discipline with emphasis upon the ensemble working together. Indeed, towards the conclusion, there is the sense of the group turning upon an individual who does not conform to the collective norm.
Although there is a sequence where Owen Belton’s score becomes clanking and mechanical to reflect a working day, in the main, the dance is organic and flowing. The anthemic quality of the score becomes most apparent in a satirical sequence in which the music moves from discrete to full-on rah-rah bombast, and the company depict extreme variations in jingoism from flag-waving to hysterical tears. It feels like the audience has interrupted a Donald Trump rally.
The contrast with the second dance is apparent from the opening. If Anthem showcased the ensemble, Nacho Duato’s Gnawa (paying tribute to a type of music considered to be both a prayer and a celebration of life) concentrates upon the cast working in mixed and same-sex pairs. The initial impression is one of sheer speed, a rapid blur of movements.
The centrepiece is, however, an astonishing pas de deux, between Ammanda Rosa and Nielson Souza which manages to be both charmingly flirtatious and oddly asexual. Although Rosa does not hesitate to nudge Souza’s hands away from where they are not wanted, she wears a concealing bodystocking so as to resemble a real-life Barbie doll.
The evening concludes with Cassi Abranches’s Agora (meaning “Now”). There is a celebratory end-of-school sense of tension lifting. The dance opens with the cast, tightly controlled, swaying in time to the merciless rhythm of a metronome until gradually, from the rear of the stage, a degree of rebellion develops with the dancers breaking away from the stifling norm into individual movements. It is an exhilarating finale including acrobatic displays of dancers launching themselves across the stage, confident a partner will be there to break their fall.
The triple-bill is the first UK visit by São Paulo Dance Company and is of such a high standard as to make their return keenly awaited.