Choreographers: Dane Hurst, Miguel Altunaga, Marcus J. Willis
Music: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, David Preston, JVKE, Matt Carter, Nicholas Britell, Rachel Chinouriri, Labrinth, Nils Frahm, Astronne, Wasia Project, Dodie, Moses Sumney, Drake & Yebba
Divided into three separate pieces, spanning multiple genres and themes, Phoenix Dance Theatre’s latest show is a thoroughly rewarding journey. Belonging: Loss. Legacy. Love. opens with Mozart and closes with Drake, arriving there by way of noise, poetry, an original composition, and even voicemail recordings. Moments of great emotional intensity are scattered among much more subtle pieces, and the dancers handle all with confidence.
Dane Hurst’s Requiem is infused with the collective grief of the coronavirus pandemic, which inspired the original choreography. All the dancers share the same movement to begin the piece, before then sitting down to watch as individual dancers perform stories sequentially; various meditations on how pain and loss are felt first by individuals, and then by community, or vice versa, play out across the stage. All the movement is fluid, calling to mind the rocking of an ocean. What is particularly affecting here is the sense of powerlessness brought about by the spectating dancers on benches. A wonderful piece of choreography that is at once universal and timely, this is a real tribute to the proficiency of the whole company.
The subtle, poetic ballet of Requiem then promptly dies away, as Miguel Altunaga’s cinematic Cloudburst begins. The chiaroscuro contrasts of light and dark, the montage effect of the opening sequence of short flashes, and the central presence of a particular prop, all increase the production’s contemporary, movie-like feeling after the straightforward, classical Requiem. There is an almost post-apocalyptic feel to this piece, which depicts an ambiguous tribal society while set to television static and industrial noise. David Preston’s musical composition is, for the most part, purely atmospheric and arrhythmic. Altunaga draws inspiration here from Yoruba and Afro-Cuban ceremonies, and some of the dance’s most impactful moments are instances of frenetic, ecstatic ritual dancing that creates its own rhythm and energy in the absence of any musical direction. It pairs superbly with Hurst’s opening piece, picking up on the same themes of individual and collective, earthly and transcendent, and takes a lot of those themes in surprising new directions. Once again, the dancers are confident and match the intensity of the piece. There are intimidating grunts and shouts, moments of ecstasy that border on seizure, and other moments where dancers depict weakness and vulnerability. All are excellent and deeply felt.
Closing the evening, Marcus J. Willis’ Terms of Agreement holds the same life, energy and emotion as the other two pieces, but does not reach their heights. As Willis states in the programme: “the movement vocabulary [is] secondary to the narratives” in this piece, and this is perhaps to the dance’s detriment. The narratives themselves are strong, and well-delivered; the difficulty of maintaining love, the reasons people might stay together even if love is escaping them, the tendency for some people to reject love altogether when it hurts them, and for others to fall in love too quickly, are all evoked across the piece. The bittersweet entanglement of loss and love strengthens the recurrent ideas of the preceding two dances. But the music, which feels almost like someone has left their Spotify on shuffle, jumps around disjointedly, at times seeming to speak to entirely different ideas than the scenes depicted on stage. There are also moments of actual dialogue between dancers, and these merely deflate the possibilities of interpretation – nothing is conveyed that could not have been conveyed through choreography, and the show would be stronger without these moments. The dancers are astonishing here, and some startling bursts of emotion showcase their range even better than in the previous dances, but they are also let down by the music, and the underwhelming conclusion of the choreography.
All in all, this is a deep, rich tapestry of an evening. Each dance builds on the ideas of the last, and the whole show works as a progression from poetic understatement to narrative overstatement. The entire company of dancers is on top form, with multiple standout moments for each individual dancer. Though ‘Terms of Agreement’ does not quite deliver a satisfying finale, the entire show offers a cornucopia of images to remember afterwards, and acts as a deft, dense, dramatic exploration of life’s fundamental elements: loss, legacy and love.
Reviewed on 3rd May 2024
The Reviews Hub Score
One to remember
