© Chris Nash 'Grand Junction' reviews 'Disintegration Loops' reviews Rauch in reviews Cooke in reviews recent Charles Linehan reviews more Lynette Halewood reviews

Grand Junction is a somewhat teasing title. There is for a long time very little junction between the two performers who go about their business quite separately on the stage, only occasionally falling into the same pattern of steps. Each has a quite distinct vocabulary of movement : Greig Cooke’s wilder, more sweeping, as if throwing an imaginary discus. Andreja Rauch is more contained, more domestic. Occasionally they try out each others moves. Eventually they edge together for contact, but this isn’t partnering in the conventional sense of the word. One limb may contact another in odd combinations: their eyes hardly ever meet. Notwithstanding its abstract form, there seemed to be something domestic and familiar about this: perhaps it was the soundtrack that reinforced this with noises like cutlery being dropped featuring at one point. There was no overt emotion, no traces of affection, but yet the dance did suggest two people trying to get along, or communicate, with only partial success.

The newer piece, Disintegration Loops, for four dancers was perhaps not so successful as the older work. It continued to use much of the same movement vocabulary, and as before to concentrate intently on one or two dancers at once, but without reaching the same pitch of intensity. The lighting (by Mikki Kunttu) does its best to vary the mood, but the piece seems to repeat itself rather than develop and to stop rather than conclude. Fine performances by the dancers though, much appreciated by the audience.