Choreographer and Director: Alesandra Seutin
The National Youth Dance Company (NYDC) brings together young people from across the UK to tour a brand new dance performance each year, with members of the current 32-strong company hailing from Norfolk, Bedfordshire, Derbyshire, Yorkshire, Cornwall, Manchester and London. For 2022, guest choreographer and director, Alesandra Seutin has created Quartier Paradis, given a one-night only staging at Sadler’s Wells as the conclusion to a national tour of the production.
Set in multiple parallel worlds, Seutin’s highly theatrical show is about cycles of power which across an hour of performance consumes and recharges different societal groups as they attempt to make sense of their identity and evolution. It is a narrative built on dystopia and science fiction, while also drawing its thematic influence from concepts of memory, performative ritual and evolutionary theories in which the dancers strive for commonality until someone lunges for power.
Quartier Paradis has several overlapping phases in which the audience is taken to very different locations, each with their own visual and musical style, denoted by changes of costume and movement. But there is consistency between them with costume designer Ryan Dawson Laight (who notably has worked across dance and theatre) creating loose athletic shapes with full-skirted trousers and cropped tops that offer simple lines but dramatic shapes.
Adam Carrée lights the piece in intense shadow, a pressing darkness that tries to envelope everyone on stage, kept at bay by blasts of orange light to create fantasy moments and connection to a mutual tribal heritage or blue for more mournful segments which seem to box in the dancers. In what is an enormous ensemble piece both in performance and concept, Randolph Matthew’s pounding composition brings these elements together, charting the audience’s journey with intense passages of violin music, thumping hip hop and haunting vocals with Middle Eastern and Asian influences.
Into that atmospheric creation, Seutin presents a series of tribes which draw on similar choreographic styles, mostly notably a contemporary Indian form with bent arms held aloft and plenty of movements into the hip or in crouched walks, a feature of all the ‘worlds’ Seutin generates. The tone is often highly combative with vigorous stomping, torsos pushed forward in aggressive defiance, a gesture that reflects the unity of the group and the constant tension within these societies resulting from the power struggles between individuals.
Those manifest sometimes as direct one-on-one battles, figures pushing into each other, often no longer clear whether they are fighting, supporting or melting into one another, until eventually a leader emerges. When a pacy circle forms around the powerful one, the energy in Quartier Paradis is tangible as the ruled run or dance at incredible speed around their ruler until a convulsion signifies the end of their reign. That this happens cyclically across the show is more notable in the second half as the patterns of movement and meaning become clearer.
Quartier Paradis is sometimes obscure and without the synopsis it may not be easy to fully understand the layers of the show, but an introductory film directed by Ben Williams captures the value of this company to the young dancers given a much-needed outlet for their creativity. And in its discussion of what makes them feel powerful and powerless lies the roots of Seutin’s show and why societies find it so hard to break free from oppressive leaders.
Reviewed on 3 September 2022
