El Sakiyeh (The Waterwheel)
Iskandar Dance Company
Show 1 opens with this piece of Egyptian Hilal dance, performed by two female and one male dancers. In costumes and with movements reminiscent at times of the "Whirling Dervishes", the style has some vague similarities to Belly Dance but is gentler and smoother. The movement language is based on curves - curved pathways, curved gesture, occasionally curved bodies. It is performed to music from Upper Egypt, played on arghul and tablah.
Intended to portray the rhythmic work of the Fellahin, to the unintiated it can seem a little repetitive, with minor variations in foot and hand movements or in the positioning of the dancers - who seem to glide across the floor, sometimes speeding up, sometimes slowing down - distinguishing one section from another. The effect can be mesmerising.
It's About Time
Karl Jay-Lewin and Company
Jay-Lewin's work, the programme informs us, "defies explantion or interpretation" and this piece certainly fits in with that comment. It begins with two dancers running at varying speeds around the stage, sometimes in canon, sometimes together, with variations in speed and, occasionally, direction, and then slows down considerably.
An exploration of time and space, it works viscerally: any attempt to intellectualise is doomed to failure. In many ways this piece is reminiscent of the kind of physical theatre which emanates from Eastern Europe and even bears a passing resemblance to the work of practitioners such as Wim Vanderkybus.
Unbounded
Michael Popper
A solo piece performed to Judith Weir's cello piece Unlocked, played by an on-stage cellist (William Conway at the performance I saw), in it Popper expresses the ability we have to break free of whatever confines us. It is intensely physical, celebratory and yet also showing just how fragile people are.
Beyond Prejudice
The Curve Fundation
This is the most immediately accessible of the four pieces in programme one. It explores the way in which contact with others can upset our equilibrium and how we reach accomodation to restore that sense of security and balance.
This is a very varied programme, combining what we immediately recognise as contemporary dance with a little known ethnic dance style and a style which marries dance and physical theatre.
(Originally awarded 3½ stars.)