Choreographers: Julia Robert and Rudi Cole
It’s not even been open a week and yet Sadler’s Wells East has already proved that dance doesn’t have to be an Islington pursuit. Following on from Vicki Igbokwe-Ozoagu’s inaugural show is HUMANHOOD, the Birmingham/Barcelona company, who were last seen in the Angel venue back in 2018. Based on the delicate and hypnotic performance they give tonight, it’s good to have them back.
Eight dancers, including one of the choreographers Rudi Cole, embark on, we’re told by a voiceover, a journey into the limitless universe. Sporting baggy grey/blue utility-wear and under Tom Visser’s mainly monochrome lights, the dancers’ voyage always looks beautiful whether the performers sit on the floor, their initial moves graceful and incremental or whether they are creating arcs with their swooping arms. When standing in a line or in concentric circles, the dancers create breathtaking forms: living architecture.
However, it’s a stark lonely journey, and despite the synchronised moves, the dancers barely touch each other. Occasionally, a female dancer is lifted in the air, but these few and elusive embraces are over before they have begun. They are like the softest collisions in what otherwise is a solitary odyssey to find one’s self or survive until dawn.
Iain Armstrong’s wonderful trancey music is sometimes like being in a club deep into the night. At other times, especially the middle where the sounds are similar to Steve Reich’s Music For 18 Musicians, the beats are more tricky, more ethereal. The music is never sad, but neither is it ever joyful. Instead, it’s contemplative and perfectly complements the repetitive choreography of the dancers, although they never quite make the same steps, or create the same flourishes of the arms.
Perhaps the voiceover is unnecessary, its ‘being one with the universe’ message a little too meaningless, the sort of message that one could hear on a trance track before the beat drops. But the voice’s echoing of “light” matches the visually exciting end of the piece, suggesting that the journey has been completed albeit a journey that is taken alone.
HUMANHOOD’s intention may be to show a sense of community, but Visser’s cold lights and the separateness of the dancers cast a cold spell over this meditative dance. However, the chill is intriguing and brings the audience in closer. The dancers never stop and this journey will soon begin again.
Runs until 15 February 2025
The Reviews Hub Score
Hypnotic
