more Khan reviews? more Krisztina reviews?

AKRAM KHAN’s work ‘FIX’ is danced to music by Nitin Sawhney, which slowly builds in tempo and volume with echoes of church and temple sounds.

Much of Khans dance to this was performed side-on to the audience - beginning with gentle rocking to and fro and turning into a succession of precise gestures and controlled movements about the bare stage, seeming to suggest a journey. Some nice arm and hand movements, presumably Kathak based, were incorporated into a dance which for 15 minutes slowly built in pace and energy., until it...well....stopped ! Not with a climax but rather a fading out into suspended animation. 15 minutes - that’s your lot - just as I was getting really interested in what was coming next.

I doubt that the main point of this piece was to leave-em-wanting-more. But, OK Akram, if I get the chance, I’ll make a point of seeing you again.

The first of DANSGROEP KRISZTINA DE CHATEL’s pieces was choreographed by Krisztina for Wen Cheng Lee. ‘SOLO VI’

The action happens on and around a person sized black box, which the man ( face down on top of it ) slowly begins to explore/separate from. Suggested was a person damaged or perhaps imprisoned, physically or perhaps mentally and making tentative explorations of space - often starting with the tips of the toes, and struggling to straighten a twisted body. Whatever ( if anything ) was intended, it was beautifully and compellingly danced by Wen Cheng Lee.

Most weird and wonderful was the last piece. ‘DELIRIUM’ by Mirjam Bos for Massimo Molinari, is one of those rare pieces of dance ( or was it ‘performance Art’ - where are the boundaries ? ) which provides fresh insight into an aspect of the human condition.

The start is shocking - Molinari first engages the audience by simply facing and making eye contact with them, and then sits and vomits, and then bleeds ( done with mouthfulls of green water ) on the floor. But that’s it - you’re hooked right till the end.

He’s accompanied partly by taped sound and music, partly by sounds he makes with mouth and nose and a face microphone.

It quickly becomes clear that this "Delirium" is the "Tremens" sort. Following the involuntary gastric reflex, other involuntary body movements are explored, with the briefest of relaxed periods in between. This is a body under the control of alcohol ( or drugs, as the projected back image of water running down a pane, or was it blood coursing through veins, suggests ) whether in an intoxicated or withdrawal state, rather than under any voluntary control.

All leads to a self destructive climax, which is immediately defused by Molinari circling the stage in the first relaxed posture of the performance.

Its not all shocking - it’s also funny, touching and provocative, and at the end of this 15 minutes you felt it’d all been told - Brilliantly.