Creators: Marine Brutti, Jonathan Debrouwer and Arthur Harel
The internet is the subject of (LA) HORDE’s new show playing at Sadler’s Wells East as part of the Dance Reflections by Van Cleef and Arpels Festival. Covering four main topics – influencers vying for content, computer games, pornography and TikTok-style reels – The Age of Content is funny, inventive and thrilling.
Oddly, however, the 75-minute piece starts with the skeleton of a driverless car, unveiled in an empty warehouse. One dancer, dressed in a lime-green and white tracksuit, pigtails sticking out of the hoodie, poses sexily on the car’s bonnet. But soon, there’s a whole swarm of similarly clothed women eager to get the best shot for Instagram. While the dancers struggle for ascendency, the car surprises with moves of its own.
The next section, about video games, is like uncanny valley in reverse as the 18 dancers move and look more like characters from old games such as Resident Evil than real people. They come complete with glitches. They walk into walls and each other; they get stuck in a loop of punching at nothing. One dancer, perhaps (LA) HORDE’s version of Jill Valentine, robotically explores the space, her toes unnaturally high in the air as she takes step after unmistakable step. Our male hero, a possible Chris Redfield, albeit with his buttocks fully exposed, often lingers, legs bending, in preparation for the player to begin again. Anyone who was hooked on such clunky games will be caught in a nostalgic thrall.
The third and shortest part is about online porn, as the dancers mindlessly simulate sexual intercourse. They look bored but are unable to stop. Couples become threesomes as the performers pump and grind, their faces blank, jaded almost. Sexual control is presented in the same monotonous way.
The last part tackles the love of making TikTok content and the curation of online identities. To the sound of Philip Glass’s Koyaanisqatsi, the dancers create a celebration of dance moves favoured by the web, swirling and running across the stage, motifs often repeated. Glass’s track The Grid never seems to end, and nor do the dancers pause for breath. But it’s not their legs that must hurt the most. Surely it’s their mouths, which are forced open into the brightest grins, the infamous rictus of the internet to show that we are all having the best fun all of the time. And yet, if it’s meant to be a criticism of online life, (LA) HORDE simultaneously reveals its addictive joy too.
But internet jouissance pales in comparison to the pleasure to be had from watching live performance. There’s nothing like real life.
Runs until 16 March 2025
The Reviews Hub Score
Post-internet dance
