'Home and Home' reviews 'Fluke' reviews recent Cullberg reviews more Diana Loosmore reviews Diana Loosmore is a dancer with Scottish Ballet and originally produced this review for the SB 'Dancers on Dance' series. See more on the Scottish Ballet Website SBTalk forum

Inger's piece Home and Home opens the programme and instantly the barriers between the audience and performers are broken, allowing you to feel amongst them and not an outsider. The subject matter and movement vocabulary are of an accessible nature, there’s a certain humanity that is identifiable, never leaving you feeling untouched. Home and Home reflects aspects of domestic life, a familiar scene of modern living fixed around a central couple and what lies behind closed doors. Delving into domestic violence, the safety amongst friends to the vulnerability within the home, the façade; the differing balance of power that goes on between a man and a woman.

Tainted with melancholy and a sense of the inevitable, there are moments of violence flavoured then with playful silliness. From light-hearted comical walks to a darker more confrontational mood, every movement speaking. The set, walls constantly moving, opening and closing of doors, the dancers encompassing it like it's part of their own bodies at times, perhaps reflecting secrets that are hidden then revealed. Men and women in free flowing dresses allowing surges of red and black to paint the stage. The music setting a sinister but twisted undertone and the simplicity of a flowerpot being placed in the sunlight throughout giving us a sense of hopefulness, purpose and growth; of a woman's resolve. It is these tensions that result in a dramatic ending, with a slight twist, as a reality check, allowing the audience to take it home. Exquisitely danced, Cullbergs's dancers surely inhabit all aspects of the work.

Mats Ek's Fluke had a more sinister thread to it. The moods that prevailed had a more disturbed undercurrent. Like Inger's piece, Ek's is set around the modern world, urban yet somewhat clinical, sterile. Dressed in white reminding me of hospital staff or perhaps a mental asylum. Set against two huge moveable cubes that ate into the space with harsh edges and sharp lines. The surrealism was depicted and delivered in a disjointed singsong and conversations the made no sense, perhaps implying modern day living...(what's the point?). There was a miniature house and a manipulator, meddling.

The lighting sometimes reflected a dullness - a grey wash. The music, The Flesh Quartet was a mixture of romantic and melodic tunes that also had a harshness to them. Fluke had its playful moments, a duet of sisterly love, hate amongst chewing gum, these for me were done to perfection, playful yet with a sense of boredom. Outbursts of celebratory, traditional dancers with Japanese lanterns, an absurdity that resonates, an escaped reality, fantasy and falseness, what is not said. Not to forget a series of beautiful duets a trio of friendship carried out with sensitivity and sense of sharing, togetherness. Fluke embodies something like being under a spell. I did myself, getting lost in parts.

It is evident in both choreographers work that they are reaching out to communicate with their audience, and the beauty displayed by the dancers and their emotional commitment is awe inspiring.