migrations

Last weekend, I went to the ODC theater with Kim and friends to see some dance. Although there were only three pieces on offer, I saw one of the best, and one of the worst dance performances of my life.

First the good, Paco Gomes Dancers produced one absolutely breathtaking piece. Five dancers and four frames, of differing heights, this was a beautifully flowing piece where dancers would move frames, and frames would move dancers, in order to produce a walkway on stage for the dancer in the black flowing dress. This was a kinetic piece where points of movement would flow back and forh between dancers and across the stage. The choreography struck that perfect balance between the chaos of the dancers manipulating the frame, and the focus of the walker along the imaginary walkway.

The bad was a horribly stilted mixed media piece called the Red Shoes, which used projected video, pillows, and pebbles, lots of pebbles. There was surprisingly little dancing for a dance piece and lots of poetry. Bad poetry. It was this continuous babble of colourless words delivered in a monotonic drawl. Sometimes the movement on the stage seemed to almost connect with the dialogue. Almost. Not that the words made any sense. The beginning was promising, a pile of pillows, from which a dancer emerged. But throwing piles and piles of pebbles on stage, and then sweeping them around in vaguely geometric waves does not a conceptual art piece make. And random images of huts and rocks and beach become wearing after the 10 minute mark.

Forutunately for us, the evening ende dwith Paco Gomes, and we left the theater in high spirits.