© ccdc 'Out of the Box' reviews recent City Contemporary reviews more Natasha Rogai reviews A version of this review previously appeared in the South China Morning Post.

This concept is far from new and has been propounded many times by contemporary dance theorists. However, while such pure abstraction may be valid in inanimate media like painting or sculpture, in dance the canvas is the human body – and what makes the human body unique is not its ability to move or strike poses, but its capacity to express the human soul. Dance does not need to be narrative, but over-insistence on movement for the sake of movement can lead to an exercise in sterility if dancers are reduced to blank-faced automatons and choreography to geometry.

Xing’s stated intention in Out of the Box is to focus on pure movement and the position of the body in space, eschewing the clichés of modern dance and creating new ways of moving. There were some effective passages juxtaposing groups of dancers standing still while others moved, but the choreography relied heavily on variations on two or three core movements. The dance vocabulary was disappointingly limited and soon became repetitive. This repetitiousness was accentuated by the monotonous pace and lack of structure – an avoidance of form may have been deliberate, but the piece did not develop in any significant way. A long, slow solo by Qiao Yang halfway through provided a welcome contrast in both pace and movement, but overall there were not enough ideas to sustain a one hour work.

The ingenious set by Ewing Chan and lighting design by Goh Boon Ann were excellent. The oppressive electronic music was at times so loud as to constitute an assault on the ears.

A version of this review previously appeared in the South China Morning Post.