© Red-I 'Resolution!' reviews Pere Faura reviews Red-i reviews Cathy Seago reviews more Graham Watts reviews Discuss this review (Open for at least 6 months)

Faura’s timing was impeccable, especially in the lengthy interaction with whole sequences of Bob Fosse’s ‘A Chorus Line’, initially through his ability to pick up and perform the audition dance sequences and then in an uncanny monologue, facing the audience, which suddenly and surprisingly morphed into perfect lip-synch with the young Michael Douglas on the unseen screen behind him.

Faura makes an interesting contribution to deconstructed dance and musical theatre, by metaphorically stepping out of the screen and performing an anonymous role live on stage in tandem with the film. This process was continued with less success in the ‘Singin’ in the Rain’ sequence (mainly because Kelly’s dancing was indistinct on the dark screen until the last puddle-splashing moments of the iconic song). However, the academic interest of the deconstructive concept was further fuelled as the film was paused, rewound and fast forwarded and Faura’s tap dancing followed suit in exact synchronisation on the stage. The final aspect of this triumvirate was a duet with his celluloid self, filmed only moments before the audience came into the theatre, once again exhibiting great timing since there could only be one take and no time to rehearse the live interaction with his 2-dimensional alter-ego. There were perhaps a few too many eccentricities in these final passages but there is no doubting the exceptional talents and creative mind of this young performer. His immensely enjoyable work mixed nostalgia and modernism in an extraordinarily novel cocktail.

The final work of the evening was a fascinating and often unfathomable work from Cathy Seago and her dancers (Genevieve Grady and Rosalind Noctor). Seago’s movement range occupies territory not generally harvested by other choreographers, which is what makes her work particularly stimulating. Much of her movement is generated from a quadruped base, mostly with exaggerated crab-like feet and hand flexing, achieving an unusual physicality, particularly in the tension of rock-hard, calf muscles. The dance exists within a mixed-media entourage: including an eclectic range of video and sound art; a set dominated by a huge reel of fabric tossed across the stage and periodically gathered in again; and the three women wear costumes reminiscent of 18th Century highlander dresses with their flowing skirts and diagonal body sash. The diverse movement imagery included the three dancers reeling in concentric circles as if eddies being spun in the breeze and there was a strange duet between Grady and Noctor that suggested some absurdly grotesque minuet. The most captivating part of the long work was Seago’s almost imperceptible solo, performed again from the floor, against a multi-coloured abstract video screen making her extended legs look as if they were somehow being captured in an ultrasound scan. This is not a work that would necessarily be comfortable for a casual consumer of dance but it is a compelling exploration into the deeper recesses of movement potential and its relationship with other media.

 

Being sandwiched between these complex works was a difficult place to be but the pure movement in Nadine MacLean’s ‘Automata’ was probably just what was needed. Each of the three female dancers occupied her own space and time in a relatively short but beautiful work of abstract, often slow and frequently repetitive dance, hauntingly enhanced by the low lighting.